Whats best USB sound card for laptop?

Hi Eric

X-Fi is NOT rubbish, some reviews I have seen did not like X-Fi Crystalizer feature but that's one of many features, and you can set it from 0 to 100%. I have it at 50% most of the time, but turn it off and on to suit type of music. Bought my X-Fi mainly for the surround sound for headphones - X-Fi has the best headphone virtualization - works great in games. Can't help with 5.1 though - not using any more. But I guess you have it e.g. for the movies. In that case the remote control with X-Fi Surround might be handy.

There is another option for laptops, much better than any USB solution.

The Echo Indigo card is a high quality professional PCMCIA sound card. Check it out at www.echoaudio.com .

Most laptops have some kind of PCMCIA card slot. I would be surprised if yours doesn't. Most new laptops have the express card slot. Older laptops, and a few of the new models, have the older cardbus slot.

Echo recently came out with the express card version of its Indigo card. It is shipping now, from all major music retailers. Look for it online. Less than $200.

If you have the older cardbus slot, Echo put out a cardbus Indigo card for many years. It was recently discontinued, due to the phasing out of cardbus slots on notebooks (replaced by express card). However, I would guess that if one searches on the web, you can still find Indigo cardbus cards available, probably at a good price.

(By the way, I would not recommend ANY Creative Soundblaster solution. They are junk, the drivers are bloatware, yet they try to attract people by making up fancy names like "Xi-Fi" and "Audigy" (they are very "creative" in their product naming, no?), so people will think that is somethign special.)

Try a Benchmark DAC-1 USB digital-audio converter> Bel Canto also makes a 24/96 USB Link. You could also try an Empirical off ramp 3. I personally own the Benchmark and once you've heard one, you won't believe how much better digital music can sound!

I just purchased a first generation Echo Indigo PCMCIA card for my Alienware m7700 (Clevo D900T). I got it used on ebay for less than 30 bucks. The seller included the original return policy which shows that it was originally purchased in 2003. Despite it being slightly worn, I must say its sound is incredible.

My m7700 has a lot of high power parts in it that create much electronic noise whenever headphones are used and the Indigo ELIMINATES ALL STATIC. The background is "black" and clean, allowing the sound to really stand out. I'm no audiophile so I can't say much more about the improved sound quality past the obvious bass and treble clarity.

The card has two output jacks that use a duplicated signal so it's easy to share music with someone next to you. There's also a volume knob on the card itself. Unfortunately I don't know if there is a way to play the sound through the laptop's onboard speakers. There is no control panel for the card, which, in a way is a good thing in that it uses no system resources other than power.

I'm aware that there are far fewer reviews on the Echo cards than Creative cards online, but I took the advice of a few reviewers (some from audiophile forums) and went for this "professonals'" product. I use the card for music, not games, so I can't comment on it's 3D capabilities although I'm sure they're better than any integrated card's. Definitely take a look at this card before going mainstream with the Creative counterpart. I don't have any recording needs and seldom use a mic for online communication so I opted for this earlier model without an input jack. Keep an eye out on ebay, I'm certain you won't regret it.

i have this one http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/...-srm/home.aspx and it works great

Echo Dingo can be wise choice !

What's the echo dingo? Sounds like it has a nice ring to it.

It is actually called Echo Indigo



cheers ...

I am definitely looking to upgrade my sound card on my laptop (why are most laptop's default sound cards so bad sounding??)

because it keeps them cheap

Notebook sound cards are not so bad, it's the speakers quality and set up that makes notebook sound non-existent

If manufacturers can find a way to have the speakers on both side of the LCD with some good material, it would be awesome - oh well, anything to keep notebook price down as jlamar92 mentioned



cheers ...

u can get laptops that have good sound but u will be paying like crazy though

ASUS (K and N series) has come good models with good sound at a very good price though. But using it as media station I would still get external speakers to go with it.

cheers ...

Sorry Q, gotta disagree with you, on multiple fronts.

Built-In Soundcards, be they on notebooks or otherwise are notoriously bad, known for getting interference from the rest of the computer, and just being poor quality in general. That is why external sound cards are used fairly exclusively in the professional world.

On the topic of speakers. in order to get a good bass response out of notebook speakers, you would need a large airspace behind the driver and a large enough driver, something that most people would not consider in a notebook as it would cease to be something easily carried around. As a result you get compromises, electrostatic speakers or just tiny drivers, which mean that you can reproduce a fair amount of the higher frequency stuff, and sometimes usably even, but still not good, but when it comes to lower frequency response you are just out of luck. Physics, Acoustics, and Psychoacoustics can be a pain, sorry

Seablade

I only wanted some loud sound

Loud != Good

Seablade