i dont like the sound of music from my laptop

[tjumper78]

My source always has been CD player and iAudio X5. Now, I want to use my laptop as another source to make my life easier.
My laptop: Dell Inspiron E1505 Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2500 (2MB Cache/2GHz/667MHz FSB), and it came with Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy® ADVANCED HD Audio.

Music sounds like crap. I'm not gonna get into details about how crapty it sounds but it sounds horrible. It gets a little better when I amp it but still sounds like crap. I tried tweaking stuff and changing the settings but it did not help much.
So..... I figured that I might need to spend some money (again..) to improve the sound of my laptop.
What do I need to get? I tried reading some threads here but I was just confused. Do I need a DAC? Do I need an external soundcard? Whatever I need to buy, my current budget is $100-$150. If I need to spend more, I'll have to save up. Please tell/recommend me what I need here.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Piffles]

Classic problem. We've all been through that.

The easiest way, is to get an external soundcard. The sound will be transfered to the external sound card as data through USB or FireWire connection and converted to analog sound in the external sound card. Once you have the analog sound on the output of the external sound card, you do the usual stuff with it:
- output straight to headphone
- headphone amp + headphones
- speaker amp + speakers.

The second solution is a bit more pricey, and that's to use a DAC. Basically you still have an external soundcard, with the same signal path, but you use the digital output of the external soundcard (SPDIF) to go into a seperate, super high quality DAC which will convert your digital signal to analog in the best possible way.

So, option 2 is theoretically better, but it's overdoing it a little in my opinion. Getting a decent external soundcard is sufficient to get very good sound.

You have millions of different external sound cards out there. If you simply want to playback music, the Edirol UA-1EX is the absolute must of small external sound cards. My dad has it and it's just amazing:
- RCA line in input for recording off an external analog source (tape, radio etc.)
- RCA output for connecting to amp and speakers
- Mini headphone jack for listening directly on headphone (doesn't have great power though, not enough to drive big headphone like the K701 or HD650.)
- Microphone input for a dynamic microphone or mini condenser microphone (3.3V power supply included in the soundcard)
- Choice of the sampling frequency by switches on the soundcard (44.1, 48, 96 kHz)
- Direct monitoring (hear RCA and Mic mixed directly into phones output)

Similar products are the M-Audio Transit but not as good in my opinion (no RCA output for example).

If you wish to do some recording with the sound card, you can go for bigger solutions like the M-Audio FastTrack Pro or Edirol UA-25, or FA-66 for FireWire connection.

Other popular brands are Tascam and Alesis (I'm pretty impressed by Alesis's products for recording).

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

I am not so sure about using the SPDIF off a Dell laptop, I have heard ppl mention that it isnt that good.

External soundcard is the way to go in that price range. I recommend the EMU 0202, or if you can pull up your budget a tad more, the EMU 0404.

 

[dkjohnso]

If your laptop has a PCMCIA slot, the Echo Indigo DJ should be on the top of your list. You can get it off eBay for less that $100. It is extremely portable, has a nice amped output, and a stellar line out (for use with an amp later on).

 

[decur]

trends audio ud-10 (WITH BATTERY OPTION) will make your laptop into a HIGH END AUDIOPHILE TRANSPORT!! and it is very very inexpensive for what you get! however, the built in dac is only so so. you would best be served by getting a quality external dac! the ud-10 as (transport only) is amazing! it completely eliminates jitter and lowers floor noise very well!
it takes a couple of weeks to fully burn in!!

 

[Nebby]

I've been debating the same thing myself, and I think I will be picking up the Onkyo usb sound card SE-U55SX which is the external version of the SE-200PCI sound card. Granted, it's a bit out of your price range at $180 or so

 

[facelvega]

A cheap option.

A mid-priced one.

Didn't like the Indigo DJ at all when I had one.

 

[tjumper78]

ooooo i like that little purple monster.
will do some research on it. thank you.

any more suggestions?

Quote:

Originally Posted by facelvega /img/forum/go_quote.gif A cheap option. A mid-priced one. Didn't like the Indigo DJ at all when I had one.

 

[Kees]

I don't like the sound of music either.
I think it 's overrated.
Julie Andrews was kind of cute though...

 

[Mik]

Musiland MD-10 DAC might be a good option for you. I use it through USB on my laptop and it sounds great. You can get one for around $200 used in the for sale forum. I don't play many games on my PC anymore so I don't miss EAX, and I haven't experienced any problems using it for 2 channel audio in the games I do play.

As an added bonus, it has an optical input as well that I use with my Playstation3 which makes it sound awesome as well. I don't know how well the MD10 compares to other DACs in its price range, but I love it and it's considerably better than the old M-Audio Revolution 7.1 I was using in my desktop pc before.

 

[Dept_of_Alchemy]

Echo Indigo DJ (it HAS to be DJ, by the way, there are a few models) for best sound out of PCMCIA in your price range, or Audigy ZS2 PCMCIA with a nice optical out for a wider upgrade path.

 

[tjumper78]

emu 0202 or 0404...
if the only source to DAC will be my laptop, am i going to be ok with 0202?
from what i've been reading, the only difference between 0202 and 0404 are the amount of in/outputs. am i missing anything?
are there any other reasons to get 0404? better sound?