Audio at pro level with PRECISION M6600?

Hi

I have a serious doubt about the quality of sound from the Dell Precision M6600. I'm thinking about buying one for AV editing in a project that require to edit on the road. Due to the nature of this project I'm not going to have anything else but my AKG headphones and the laptop's speakers as audio monitors.

I'd love to have some feedback about the whole sound matter on this laptop before decide buying.

Thanks in advance!

 

Get an Expresscard soundcard to work with the headphone, then add a portable Amp for better sound. Or, get an external USB DAC/Amp.

Example of mine. However the DAC i use is for movie purpose and not doing good on audio.


The Mx600 onboard soundcard is a sorry card. Laptop speakers... i rate them as poor.

 

One other option with better sound is an HP Elitebook. There are a couple downsides to the HP (no optimus, higher price, weak multimonitor support with nvidia cards) but they are solid notebooks and have much better sound than the precisions. There are a couple upsides too (optional sheet battery, better touchpad, better keyboard).

 

First off - poor compared to what? Without a reference, it doesn't help me.

Next, sorry card - compared to what? I have used the card with Shure e3c, monster turbines, and Grado 135s. All sounded good. Even tried them with Sennheiser hd-600s and it was good while lacking high volume into a very tough load.

Also, ran the audio out on the M66

 

Also ran the M6600 into an Audio Research LS15 into a VT100mk2 into Hales Revelation 3 speakers - you know, for fun, and guess what - it sounded very good. As good as my Audio Research DAC3? No. But listenable, yes.

Coworker uses the Audio Techinica high end headphones. Will test next week for you.

Will post a reply when I listen to them. With uncompressed or 96/24 audio.

 

Poor compared to multimedia laptop with subwoofer. Mx600 speakers are lacking bass and this alone make it unpleasant for me. Only 2 speakers, the stage is not good as laptop with 4 speakers.
Mx600 speakers may be "acceptable" among business laptop, but is "poor" compared to multimedia laptop.

Mx600 onboard soundcard is poor compared to even the mediocre X-Fi expresscard soundcard. The difference is obvious, onboard sound is bright and less details compared to X-Fi soundcard. If the owner is "Pro Audio" then he might not like that type of onboard sound quality.

An even better solution is using quality USB DAC or adding good portable Amp (Emmeline or better); or having both. The price will be 5-10 times higher than buying the X-Fi card but that gives better sound. I don't have good portable DAC/Amp on my hand for testing.

Mx600 has no SPDIF out, which makes upgrading the sound quality a little bit troublesome.

Assumed the owner has quality headphone for Pro Audio (AKG as he mentioned, but donno which model), else spending money on sound card or Amp is a waste of money. HD600 is a good headphone, an Amp is needed to tap more potential from this headphone of 300Ohm Impedence (think so...) at Mx600.

Whether the sound quality fulfill his need all depend on owner's "demand on sound quality". If he is satisfied with AKG headphone directly connected to Mx600, then be it. Else there are still ways to improve the sound quality to fanatic level.

 

Please understand that I respect your opinions on the built in sound card. That said, I completely disagree with you.

I have had the high end 2 channel audio "bug" for around 15 years now. Have owned and listened to a wide variety of sources, preamps, amps, and speakers. Everything from the syrupy warmth of Conrad Johnson to the grainless detail of Audio Research and Sonic Frontiers. I tend to prefer Hales and B&W for speakers. I have used Sennheiser HD-600s for many years now as my reference headphones with a Sonic Frontiers Line 1 SE as my headphone amp. I have also helped to master studio and live recordings for local bands.

Over the weekend and this morning I have listened to several sets of headphones plugged directly into the M6600 playing CDs, Lossless files, and a few 320kb mp3 files. The headphones are AKG K 240mk II, Sennheiser HD-600, Shure e3c, Etymotic HF3, Sony MDR-EX310LP, and Klipsch s4.

Starting with over the ear headphones. The AKG and Sennheisers will be volume limited with the M6600 if you listen to music at extremely high volume settings. The M6600 drove them to levels slightly higher than I was comfortable listening to. The AKG headphones are an easier load for the M6600 to drive and they did get a little louder. With the HD-600s if they are not being driven well, they usually start tilting their balance toward the bright end neutral and there is less bass. To my ears they stayed neutral, but needed to have the volume up to at least 75% to sound good. Both headphones had good detail and soundstages.

With the other in ear monitors, they sounded like they usually do. The Shures are very mid range focused with rounded off highs and lows. The Etymotics are also mid focused with a brighter and more extended top end. The Sonys are full in the low end and a little rounded off in the highs. The Klipsch are overly rich in the deep bass and high treble regions - sort of like they have their own loudness button.

The Shures and Etymotics were very detailed. The Etymotics just nail the details in drums - especially the snare and cymbals with their more extended treble response. They also do a great job in bringing out detailed guitar work. They were not bright and they were detailed with the M6600.

The Klipsch headphones are boomy in the bass and tilted up in the treble, but they do gloss over a lot of details in the mids. The only time I could say the M6600 was lacking in detail it was the headphones. They sound the same no matter they are plugged into. They are fun for electronic and bass heavy music, but they are not neutral by any means.

The Sony's are great headphones for running, but the slightly rolled off top end makes them not a first choice most of the time. Once again, they sounded the same with the M6600 as they sound with all of my other PMPs and amps.

So, why do we have such different impressions of the headphone jacks on these? I can think of a couple of reasons.

My guess is that you avoid compressed (lossy) audio files. If you are mainly listening to streaming or downloaded files that are lossy, that could be what you are hearing.

Ears adapt over time and rebalance themselves. It could be that you usually plug headphones into a source that is more rolled off in the treble or has more bass. The only problem with this is that usually the idea of more detail comes along with more brightness to the sound. The fact that you were hearing brightness along with a lack of detail is puzzling. With the Klipsch headphones, they sound that way - but they sound that way on everything they are plugged into.

There is also the chance that the hardware in the M6600 is different from the M4600. I don't have an M4600 to listen to.

It may sound crazy, but did you let the headphone amp on the M4600 burn in at all? You might try playing music through it for a few hours if the jack gets rarely used.

The only other thing I could think of are your Windows settings. Make sure that you go into your playback settings and click the "disable all enhancements" box. Also, make sure you have any tone or eq disabled in your player.

Like I said, I respect your opinion and what you are hearing. I am just hearing things very differently. Yes, an outboard amp would help out the over the ear headphones.

 

Thanks for pointing out the potential of Mx600 onboard soundcard, it is impressive that it performs good with many headphones/earphones.

I only have 1 headphone for testing; the only earphone i have is Senn MX 300 which is too lousy for this test and i never think of it.

I am comparing the onboard soundcard with external soundcard, not what the onboard soundcard can perform with various headphones/earphones. What i did is listening to the song repeatedly and compared between the onboard soundcard with external soundcard. To my ears, the X-Fi external soundcard sounds better; and this X-Fi soundcard is not the best among external soundcard. Too bad i do not have USB DAC/Amp to test with, which is another higher level. My point here is, a good external soundcard will outperform the Mx600 onboard sound.

Another point is no SPDIF out on Mx600, which limits the type of file/source played. AC3, DD/DTS based audio is not possible because Mx600 has no built-in hardware decoder, the only way to listen to it is either SPDIF out or HDMI out. HDMI out is not practical because there is no portable decoder yet that i know. This affect movie experience mainly.

Your guess is right that I avoid lossy audio files unless there is no other choice. Movie file without DD/DTS i will avoid completely.

And yes you are right that i did not burn in the M4600 headphone amp, it is less than 50 hours use because connection is done mainly on docking station to desktop speakers. The X-Fi card i used for comparision is also <50 hours use because I SPDIF it out most of the time.

Windows audio setting and player EQ are always disabled.

Since I am not happy with the audio quality from both the Mx600 onboard and X-Fi soundcard, I am not keen on music while on the go. I watch movie more than audio with Mx600 while outstation, so i could have bias against the Mx600 onboard soundcard that does not have SPDIF out. To me, SPDIF Out is one of the deal breakers while selecting laptop.

 

I really wish there was an SPDIF out as well. I use an iMac with Toslink Optical to a ZERO DAC and then on to my headphone amp. I rip CDs to Apple Lossless which I store on an external hard drive and use on either my M6600 or the iMac. The D-Dock used to have SPDIF out, lets hope the next dock has it!

I went out and read reviews of the MX-300 and they are known to be bright headphones. My guess is that the M4600 you have is neutral and the X-Fi card is possibly rolled off and makes those particular phones sound better. If I were you, I would get some good headphones and listen closely. I don't think you have an accurate idea of what the M4600 or M6600 can do if you have only used that one pair of phones.

If you want some decent inexpensive headphones, you might check out the JVC Marshmallows (under $20) or the Skull Candy Titans (around $40).

 

Oops sorry that I did not describe it properly. I use headphone for the test and not earphone. The MX-300 earphone i have is not used in this test because it is not a very good earphone; plus Obi-Wil is asking about headphone.

The headphone i use is T5p, unlike other Beyer headphones, T5p has low bass quantity and i am very upset with that. I am not looking for boomy bass, but at least similar to other models. Refunding or exchanging other headphone is not allowed at my place.

I am looking for 1/8" Jack headphone, so the well known Senn HD800 is not the choice. I need also low impedance so that i can plug into any mobile player. The only 1/8" jack heaphone of equivalent class that i manage to find is T5p at 32Ohms, closed headphone; everything fulfill my requirement until i received it and sad about the bass quantity. Ohh yes, no ready-stock for audition at that time and have to pre-order because very less people looking for that.

Even i sell T5p off, i can't find another replacement; or do you have good recommendation?