Dear Head-fi-ers,
As the time to travel to Uni approaches, the idea of getting a laptop has been looming for some time. However, recently I've been offered an internship placement that will involve living in uni accomodation for a long period of time, so I thought it was time to get my head down and get some ideas together for some portable tech.
Thing is, I'm a bit of a music/movie junky. As such, I'm after something that has inbuilt ability to produce output to the quality of at least my home system. This is made easy by the fact I will be hopefully carting my stereo speakers and custom built tripath amplifier to the hall, but I will obviously only neeed to replicate my current M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card.
I've been informed that with laptops I aught to be looking at external devices rather than anything internal, but there seems to be so many paths (and so many mixed reviews). I asked this question first on another forum and was informed the knowledge of such devices was unrivaled on here. I had a few high-quality and well reviewed suggestions such as the E-MU 0404 and the Edirol UA-25EX, but I realised a large number of features on these devices I'd never use and would rather pay exclusively for sound quality. Such a device I imagine would be a USB DAC (my knowledge about these is patchy at best) and hence my coming here.
One last note: I could attempt to survive my internship without a new piece of gear IF the gurus on here reckoned there were serious value points to be earnt by holding off a few months to September. If there's no compelling evidence I'll be saving much though I'm inclined to jump in.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated!
Thanks.
As the time to travel to Uni approaches, the idea of getting a laptop has been looming for some time. However, recently I've been offered an internship placement that will involve living in uni accomodation for a long period of time, so I thought it was time to get my head down and get some ideas together for some portable tech.
Thing is, I'm a bit of a music/movie junky. As such, I'm after something that has inbuilt ability to produce output to the quality of at least my home system. This is made easy by the fact I will be hopefully carting my stereo speakers and custom built tripath amplifier to the hall, but I will obviously only neeed to replicate my current M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card.
I've been informed that with laptops I aught to be looking at external devices rather than anything internal, but there seems to be so many paths (and so many mixed reviews). I asked this question first on another forum and was informed the knowledge of such devices was unrivaled on here. I had a few high-quality and well reviewed suggestions such as the E-MU 0404 and the Edirol UA-25EX, but I realised a large number of features on these devices I'd never use and would rather pay exclusively for sound quality. Such a device I imagine would be a USB DAC (my knowledge about these is patchy at best) and hence my coming here.
One last note: I could attempt to survive my internship without a new piece of gear IF the gurus on here reckoned there were serious value points to be earnt by holding off a few months to September. If there's no compelling evidence I'll be saving much though I'm inclined to jump in.
Any thoughts greatly appreciated!
Thanks.
