[harpua]

I would agree with the last comment above mine.  I have an HP DV8t which came with a non beats but very decent onboard sound, again with the 3 Altec Lansing built in speakers (i.e., tiny sub below).  Of course the onboard speakers are pretty bad, but better than anything else I've heard built into a laptop.  But initially, I was pretty impressed with the sound quality coming off the on board sound via the laptop's headphone jack.  Especially for movies. 
 
However, eventually I upgraded to an external USB DAC/Amp (see sig for details) and after using that for a while now I really can't even bear to listen to the on board sound anymore.  The difference is that substantial (which it should be for an approximately $400 upgrade for the external DAC/HP Amp & pre-amp).  It was money very well spent, imo.  No regrets.
 
So I would say maybe skip the Envy/Beats but get a bargain priced HP Pavilion (one of the models with excellent hardware and specs aside from the built in audio) and then spend the money saved on a decent external DAC/Amp of your choice.  The only solid reason I can think of for getting an Envy (aside from the slick cosmetics, if that sort of thing is appealing) is so you can add an optional built in 1920 x 1080 resolution infinity display. 
 
My DV8 Pavilion came standard with an 18.4 inch 1920 x 1080p built in infinity display (awesome laptop display btw for an "entertainment" oriented machine) and was an incredible bargain for the ~$1200 (on sale price plus discount coupons) or so I paid almost a year ago considering all the power (e.g., i7 CPU, decent GPU w. 1 GB vram, etc.) and other great specs/features it has, but HP recently discontinued the DV8, imo, probably to force people to pay up for an Envy if they want to get a laptop with a truly high quality display.

 

[funkmeister]

Dead thread?

So I got the inside scoop with the Beats Audio (not to be confused with the lame-o headphones). The analog circuitry has the best noise prevention and signal preservation of any laptop. The sound chip is supplied by IDT and they put some effort into eliminating electronic interference. They call it the "sound island." I don't know much about it or the chip. The drivers have some technology supplied by SRS in them for that last bit of punch and soundstage widening. I dug into the driver files to uncover that last bit of info.

I just got a TouchPad with Beats Audio and it doesn't seem to have the same on/off experience like the laptops. It has very clean, noise-free sound. I can hear things I normally don't in the music from my two non Beats Audio computers so I think they're onto something with their design because the sound through my AKG's is clean and clear. So for out of the box computer audio, they're doing something better than anyone else.

Oh, the TouchPad doesn't have the customization options that the laptops have, but I think it sounds more precise than they do, though my time with a Beats laptop has been limited to about a half hour of listening. Either way, I hope HP puts it into everything because I like it a lot.

 

[Andyphones]

I just bought an HP touchsmart 420 which has beats audio, well, short story, good computer horrible audio, I just understood why people buy DACs, compared to my toshiba laptop the sound is very poor, very low frequencies are barely heard, i tried listening "limit to your love" by james blake which is the bassiest song i know and i almost couldnt hear the bass, with my laptop its just a lot of bass and make my ears tickle with my Beyers DT 770 pro 80s.
 
So i guess Ill have to buy an external DAC
 
unless someone tells me that i can fix it installing another sound driver or something like that.