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Message: [QUOTE="Paul, post: 13703185"] These are just some guesses. If the back of the drive has a four pin audio interface, the levels on there would be "line level" or about 1 volt RMS. That is suitable for a line level input. If the CDROM drive is installed inside a computer, a four wire cable would connect the analog audio output of the drive, to the sound chip. There could be a four pin header on the motherboard, next to the built-in sound chip on the motherboard. If there is a separate PCI sound card (like a SoundBlaster), there might be a four pin header on there. (This probably isn't the right cable, it's just to illustrate the rough idea. When you buy a raw drive mechanism, in retail box, this cable may be included.) [URL]http://www.startech.com/Share/Gallery/Large/CDAUDIO2.Alarge.jpg[/URL] If the drive was housed in an external enclosure, with two RCA connectors for the audio output, you'd go to RadioShack, and convert the two RCA connectors to 1/8" stereo miniplug. Then plug that into the "Line In" on the sound card faceplate on the computer. This is an example of stereo male RCA to 1/8" stereo miniplug, suitable for plugging into the "Line In" on the back of the computer. [URL]http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3449316[/URL] ******* The two pin "digital" output standard is likely SPDIF, but may not share the electrical specification of SPDIF. In the table here, you can see the "real" SPDIF specs. This is for making a connection from the computer to your AV receiver/stereo equipment. [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spdif[/URL] 75 ohm coax, 0.5 to 1 V signal level But inside a computer, when they mention SPDIF, it may not always be the 0.5 to 1V kind. [URL]http://www.epanorama.net/documents/audio/spdif.html[/URL] "Note on HDR-2 (2 pin header) interface used in some PC products: Many modern PC CD-ROM drives and some soundcards (SB32, AWE32, etc.) have a two pin digital output connector in the back of the drive and they sometimes call that interface S/PDIF. Unfortunately the electrical signal which comes from it is not exactly what is described in S/PDIF specifications. The data format is exactly the same, but the signal is TTL level (5Vpp) signal instead of the normal 1Vpp signal. The output level might be selected to make the interfacing to other digital electronics easy when signal is travelling inside the computer (the normal output driver system and input amplifiers can be avoided). The downside of this is that you need to build some electronics to make the signal from the CD-ROM drive to match what normal S/PDIF equipments expect." If you do want to try that, then the interface you choose inside the computer may be context sensitive. To give an example, I have a computer with an SPDIF input mounted inside the computer. That input connects to an adapter plate with TOSLINK TX and RX modules. Since the TOSLINK are TTL level devices, I know the resulting SPDIF interface on the motherboard is the TTL kind. Thus, I'd take a chance on connecting the 2-pin on the back of the CDROM, to the multiple pin header on the motherboard. If, on the other hand, the motherboard header goes to an RCA jack on a PCI adapter plate, I'd suspect that was 0.5 to 1 volt level. The adapter plate or module, gives a hint as to what kind of interface is available inside the computer. In any case, be absolutely sure on the 2-pin, you know which pin is signal, and which pin is ground. Grounding the signal pin by accident won't make the CDROM drive very happy. ******* I can think of three ways to get music off a CD. 1) Use the four pin analog audio cable, run from CDROM to motherboard header or to the sound card CD header. If the drive is external, run a stereo audio cable to the Line In on the back of the computer. 2) Use the 2-pin SPDIF, assuming you've figured out whether your computer has a working SPDIF input. Find a TTL compatible SPDIF input, rather than the standard low level 0.5V 75 ohm coax connection. 3) Install the CDROM inside the computer, connecting it to the IDE ribbon cable. Enable DAE in Windows, which allows the music CD to be played, by reading the music data right off the CD. This dialog can be found in Device Manager, for the CDROM entry (under "DVD/CD-ROM drives"). [URL]http://www.farstone.com.tw/apac/images/support/vdr-cd-rom.gif[/URL] When you do that, you no longer need the four pin audio cable mentioned in (1). "Ripping" a CD, involves the same kind of thing. In simple music playback, the CD player rotates at 1X speed. "Ripping" a CD, implies reading the CD at a much higher speed, like copying a data CD. When an optical drive doesn't support "ripping" at high speed, the drive is described as suffering from "riplock". This is unimportant if all you want to do is play a music CD, since the drive will spin at 1X just fine. [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riplock[/URL] HTH, Paul [/QUOTE]

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