A few days ago I received my Sharp MD33 canalphones from Audio Cubes, and have been listening to them through my Dell 700m notebook. The sound quality itself isn't too bad, but I'm sure it could be better. My main issue though is there is quite a bit of hiss present. What solutions are there for eliminating the hiss? I've been looking at some of the external sound options, and a couple of the PC Card solutions, but am not sure what I should get. I would like to spend as little as possible. I'd be willing to spend around $100, though if I can spend less and get good results, that would be great. Right now I just want to eliminate the hiss more than improve sound, so if there is a non-soundcard option for this, let me know.

Brian

The Audiotrak Optoplay is a great little USB soundcard/headamp, and is only about $50 (??) from what I recall. There's also the Echo Indigo, which has a good reputation, for PC card, and a bit more expensive.

I took a look at both of those options. I'm actually leaning towards the Echo Indigo at this point. I played around with the sound settings on my notebook some, and found the only way to eliminate the hiss is to check "mute" on the Master Volume control. Of course, this doesn't help when I actually want to listen to music

Brian

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tell me about it, 600m here.. it is THAT awful..really. i heard nothing but praises for echo indigo.. its great if you don't plan to use an additional headphone amplifier

What are you using? Where is the best place to get the plain jane indigo from? I don't think I need the IO or the DJ.

Brian

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i'm using an M-Audio Sonica w/ Black Gate mod -> headphone amplifier. i've no idea on where to get the echo.. anybody with one care to share?

It seems the original Indigo is slowly dissapearing, though I've found a couple of places that have it for around $130 - $150, though I think I'll have to call them to find out if they're actually in stock.

Brian

Don't know how good it is but Creative has a new entry in the PCMCIA sound card market. It retails for cheaper than the Echo Indigo.