[666ogre666]

 Not totally sure if this has been discussed yet, just signed up for the forum but I have an HP HDX 18t and I really feel like the sound quality is lacking. I have a sound system built out of a couple different components such as a Yahmaha reciever, Polk towers, some old Marantz speakers I bought at a discount store and a sub I built myself. When I lived with my old roomate he would hook is budget XPS up to it and even that made a huge difference in quality. My question is what is a good way of hooking uo my laptop to my system to get optimum quality. Ive looked at a couple external sound cards and cant find anything talking about whether they would acutally improve sound quality and Ive looked at a couple different DAC options but Im not sure what I should go with. If someone could help with some recomendations that would be awesome. Thanks.
 
 
 
 
 

 

[Roller]

Welcome, and sorry for your wallet

 
Any half decent DAC will improve your SQ significantly. It all depends on your budget.
 
You can get a HRT Music Streamer II, a Musiland Monitor 02, a Centrance DACport, among many others. You will notice a vast improvement in sound with any of these, as onboard chipsets that come on both desktops and laptops are bad, real bad.
 
There's also the different purpose gear out there, audiophile interfaces, pro audio interfaces, DJ interfaces, all of those have differences. If price is a concern, then cost/performance ratio is something to consider.

 

[JRG1990]

The HRT Music Streamer II  , fiio E7/E9 , Audio-GD NFB-12 , are all good options and well sound way better than a standard laptop soundcard, you will need something with RCA out to hook up your receiver.

 

[666ogre666]

I like the look of the E7/E9 combo so I might just bite the bullet and see how much better it will sound. Do you know if it is possible to get just the E9 or is it useless without the E7?

 

 

[JRG1990]

The E9 alone is just a amp/preamp, the E7 alone is a dac/headphone amp it has no rca out for receivers thats why you need both.

 

[666ogre666]

Well it looks like that's probably the best option for me, I guess ill pick one up.

 

[gurpswu]

I'm also in a similar situation.

I connect my laptop to a pioneer hi-fi system via a jack to RCA cable, the hi-fi system is connected to a pair of JVC speakers.

I would like to improve the audio quality,as i'm sure the onboard sound is not that good at all.

I also listen to music on my laptop using my new Shure SRH840's. Therefore i would like something that will work at improving the sound quality from my laptop when its connected to my hi-fi aswell as my Shures.

Improving the source of my music is very important to me , since i recently got the new headphones and i'm sure the laptop is not doing them justice.

I really have no idea if i should get a DAC like the E7 or something like this instead.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=usb+sound+card&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=14477361060386358704&sa=X&ei=Iv2kTdyvLIK4hAexw7nTCQ&ved=0CDkQ8wIwAg#

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD Sound card is about £10-15 more than the E7. Which im fine with.

I listen to all types of music usually in FLAC or high VBR mp3's.

 

[666ogre666]

I was actually wondering the same thing, would an external soundcard such as that or this actually increase the sound quality?
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Soundblaster-Surround-System-SB1095/dp/B0044DEDCA/ref=pd_cp_pc_1
 
 
 

 

[gurpswu]

Quote:

I was actually wondering the same thing, would an external soundcard such as that or this actually increase the sound quality?
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Soundblaster-Surround-System-SB1095/dp/B0044DEDCA/ref=pd_cp_pc_1
 
 
 

What did you end up getting? I went with the X-FI USB, and use it with my SRH840's...love it so far.

 

[jackmccabe]

uca202
You will most likely not hear a difference between this and much higher end dacs.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

uca202
You will most likely not hear a difference between this and much higher end dacs.

Why wouldn't he?

 

[jackmccabe]

Because the uca202 is very good and there aren't big differences between dac's.
I have tested several dac's and done blind tests and the differences are minute and non-existent in most cases.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Because the uca202 is very good and there aren't big differences between dac's.
I have tested several dac's and done blind tests and the differences are minute and non-existent in most cases.

Then clearly state that it's your personal experience, not a rule of thumb.
 
While it's easy to understand that people who spend thousands on high end DACs do feel the need to justify their purchases, with the differences likely to be much smaller than claimed by some, I do believe and have heard clear differences between DACs.
 
Oh, and there are plenty of people who agree that the UCA202 is quite good, but just can't drive more power hungry headphones properly.

 

[jackmccabe]

I believe pretty much all dacs above $50 sound the same, excluding coloured dacs.
The op can also just buy a headphone amplifier to go with the uca202 if he needs more power.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I believe pretty much all dacs above $50 sound the same, excluding coloured dacs.
The op can also just buy a headphone amplifier to go with the uca202 if he needs more power.

Ok, that's your opinion.
 
I've found that even similarly priced DACs sound different.
 
Basically, everyone has different ears.