Best External Sound Card for laptop?

Which is the best available sound card for the laptop?
dont bother about the price......just tell me which is the best

may it by PCI or USB.........which will offer me the best experience in listening music and playing games....

also consider the fact that i will be using them with heaphones....not speakers

is it worth it?

 

If you have PCMCIA, this is one of the best:

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=205&product=10769

I don't think it makes a huge difference, but people testing the card have seen frame rates increase by about 3 or 4 FPS, but I think the card is not worth it. If you have a decent audio card built in, then there's no need for it.

If you have an awful sound card, that only supports Stereo output, then the card is definitely worth it.

 

Creative is a good choice and you can look at Turtle Beach's selection as well.

 

would it improve my experience?

 

I think that Creative makes better products than Turtle Beach. M-Audio makes good sound cards as well. As does Echo Indigo.

 

I like the M-audio transit, but I'm not sure it qualifies as an ext. sound card. I'll add another vote to Creative will I'm at it.

 

my question is would it improve my gaming and music experience
presently, i own an A8Js which is equiped with Realtek High Definitiion card

 

Look at my CeBIT review here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1874645

That is your best choise. I dont know when it will be out though.

 

I have the Creative Labs Audigy 2 NX, and it does everything I could ever ask of it. Obviously, being an external USB sound card, it's not as portable as an ExpressCard or PCMCIA solution (not that it would matter to most, as speakers will always be bulky), but they seem to be availiable for much cheaper.

 

Another vote for the M-audio Transit if you're going USB.

 

If you're gaming, then using a sound card like that would get you 3 or 4 frames more per second when gaming intensively, ie: playing a game such as FEAR, or Oblivion.

 

I would vote one of these as best USB/Firewire audio solution.

Yamaha: http://www.yamahamultimedia.com/yec/idx_cavit.asp
Terratec: http://sounden.terratec.net/

 

What about PCI?

 

I have the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Card and I love it. It definitely improves my experience in both gaming and music. EAX effects are awesome as well.

Well my desktop has Realtek ALC882M 8 channel high def audio, which was pretty good. However, now I am running a Creative X-Fi card and it makes a huge difference IMO.

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Another thing that helps sound a lot is simply your speakers. I would invest in some nice speakers, if you haven't already, before I bought a sound card.

 

I have Sennheiser CX-300 earphones.
How will they sound with they Audigy 2?

 

Try hooking up your optical/SPDIF out to your home theater receiver.

 

excuse me???