[lukealexander]

After the great advice here a few months ago I invested in some HD555's which I use with my laptop and iPod mini.

My laptop has realtek AC97 Audio and I'm a bit disturbed by the high end distortion and background noise so I figured a new amp/soundcard would help. I am looking for a USB dongle type (eg TBAAM) around £25-£35.

My mp3's are encoded using LAME alt-preset-standard. I run WinXPhome sp2 with an AMD Turion 1.8Ghz, 512mb RAM. I also use a wireless input setup from logitech using their wireless USB Dongle. I have read about interference so I thought that might be relevant.


I also runt the laptop through Bose Wave system at uni, and through a seperates amp at home. The volume on both of these has to be cranked fairly high to get decent output, which I am not to keen about.

Do you any of you have any recommendations for these?

 

[lukealexander]

Well I ordered the Miglia Harmony Express for £25 as opposed to the Turtle Beach which was also £25. Anyone know if I have made the wrong decision lol?

 

[senny-ftw]

I have no idea about the bits you purchased, but I will make a recommendation

I bought the HeadRoom Total Bithead which acts as a USB sound card and also is a headphone amplifier. It's an absolutely excellent device, takes batteries to use on the go with your iPod or similar gadget, and the USB sound card is incredible. Absolutely no noise or hiss, or weird squelching sounds when minimising windows, even at full volume. None at all. None.

It's a bit pricey, although I was lucky to purchase one in the trade forums for £90.

So if you're disappointed with your new purchase, the Total Bithead is worth considering. I've used it with 555s; excellent results.

 

[lukealexander]

Well, I have listened to the HarmonyExpress through the 555's, Sony EX51's, my Bose and my external amp and I am pretty dissapointed - I think I will return it and try the Turtle Beach.

The sound is almost identical to the onboard sound except for the removal of the background hiss when no music is playing. There was no improvement in sound quality that I noticed, and no increase in volume - the external amps still need to be on fairly high.

 

[Sisyphos]

The Turtle Beach is said to be a great sounding card, especially for the price.
But I haven't heard it myself.

If it doesn't satisfy you, I can really recommend the Echo Indigo DJ, a PCMCIA device featuring a headphone out and a line out.
That's at about 120 pounds though and might be a bit too far beyond your budget. But it's worth every penny IMO.

 

[lukealexander]

I wish I could afford it...I'll put it on my Graduation Shopping List

What I am really interested in is hearing from somebody who has heard both the
Turtle Beach & Miglia to tell me if the TBAAM is worth getting versus the other.
I was so excited this morning, and now I am thinking the £25 would have been better off in the pub

 

[Sisyphos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lukealexander What I am really interested in is hearing from somebody who has heard both the Turtle Beach & Miglia to tell me if the TBAAM is worth getting versus the other. I was so excited this morning, and now I am thinking the £25 would have been better off in the pub

I guess you should wait until you hear the Turtle Beach before you start to despair and do irrational things with alcohol. AFAIK closing time for pubs in the UK has been abolished only recently...

At least I found a website where the Turtle gets quite a nice review:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/show....php?p=1274615

 

[lukealexander]

That is a good review, I am off to order it now.....and if that fails as well I will spend the COMBINED total on alcohol...