[kdawgg83]

I'm thinking about buying either the Westone UM3X or Earsonics SM3 IEMs and would like to listen to them at work powered solely by my Dell E6400. Also, I'd probably plug them into my HP dv7t at home, as well. Are these laptops good enough sources to properly drive these earphones?
 
THANKS!

 

[cravenz]

it depends on the sound card on board your laptop, but more often than not, most of them hold rubbish sound cards. I find a noticeable difference running a dac out and connecting my earphones. however, that being said, until you have actually done it, you'd be ignorant of the difference, but it exists.
 
i can't give advice on sound cards really, so do check that out with others who may respond here, but generally, laptop sound cards aren't good enough.

 

[Hybrys]

I currently have to use my onboard Realtek as a source, and it's not THAT bad.  As long as it isn't a headphone/IEM that needs a lot of power, you should be fine.  High sensitivity IEMs might show some noise, but I can't be sure just by saying.
 
That all said, you'd always gain something from a DAC/Amp.

 

[Equus]

Drive them?  Probably.  I'm no expert on IEMs, but most of them are made to be easily driven.  Will they sound as good as they could?  Probably not.  If you're concerned with sound quality, you could get a cheap USB DAC or something.

 

[Sumflow]

These earphones take very little current to run.  You can use them fine in your laptops without additional amps. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kdawgg83 /img/forum/go_quote.gif  Either the Westone UM3X or Earsonics SM3 .. listen to them .. powered solely by my Dell

The SM3 is hyped here and no-where else.  The Westone is all over the web and is a great earphone.  Either one will serve you well.

 

[moonboy403]

Quote:

These earphones take very little current to run.  You can use them fine in your laptops without additional amps. 

 

 

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It is true that just about anything these iems plug into sound fine (provided that hiss isn't that much of an issue), however, an amp would bring additional improvements. Whether these improvements are subtle or "day and night" is up to the listener to judge.
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[Justin Uthadude]

I have an HP dv7 also and the difference between plugging my headphones into the phone jack or using my dac and amp was nowhere as noticeable as i had expected after reading many posts here. Yes it's better, but not omg better. Of course, I only use my low impedance portable phones, e.g. ksc75, pk3, sr60. In fact, a great recorded song sounds better out of the soundcard than a crapty recording out of the dac/amp. Truth is the built-in soundcard isn't that shabby.
 
As I write this I am out of town (for me) in Connecticut. I just unplugged my gamma1/mini3 from my laptop and plugged my sr60's into the laptop. Not bad. A little more difference than I remember, but I have been using the dac/amp for quite awhile and am used to the sound. The biggest improvement is the bass is more pronounced and tighter. I don't think the difference would be that noticeable if you were doing anything else besides listening to music, like surfing the net, reading head-fi posts, etc. You know. my 2¢.
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[kdawgg83]

Hey, thanks for the post Justin. Always nice to hear from someone who's testing things out while writing his post

  Appreciate it!