connecting a hi-fi to my PC

I have attempted to connect the two with a lead between the two phono sockets and the socket on my sound card (using the socket previously used successfully with my PC speakers), but the sound from my speakers is terribly distorted. Please could somebody help?

 

If the sound card is putting out too much power, such as to run unpowered speakers, it is most likely overloading the input of the amplifier. If that is the case, you will need to find out how to switch the output to the low power setting used for amplified speakers. On sound cards like Creative Sound Blaster 16 and other, there is a jumper on the card itself that can be changed to do the power change.