Convenient USB/PCMCIA sound cards?

Hi.

I have an ASUS W2V and since the stereo output on that model is seriously flawed and ASUS refuses to fix it I have decided to get an external soundcard.

I am sure most cards will give acceptable audio so I'm focusing on the conveience of the drivers. basically I want a solution where it will automatically switch to the laptops speakers when I plug out the external card. Does any cards have this feature?

I will only use stereo output so it does not need to support more than that.

 

Creative Audigy Z2S PCMCIA sound card. Available on ebay for $60...sometimes!

 

Yeah, people have been recomending the audigy, but does it switch to the laptop speakers when I plug out the sound cable?

Also it looks like it sticks out a fair bit from the laptop, I'm not certain I can accept that. The W2V is too pretty to have ugly bits sticking out ;-)

The usage scenario I plan is that when the laptop is on my desk I will use the external soundcard connected to my main stereo and at all other times I will use the laptop speakers.
And I want it to switch over to the internal speakers automatically without rebooting or changing settings if possible.

 

maybe a USB model would be better if you're concerned about the big blob the PCMCIA card will leave hanging out the side. pretty much any PCMCIA solution is going to have that big bulge out the end.

I know the USB one will automatically switch back to the internal speakers when you unplug it from the computer.

 

USB models will stick out completely too anyways...

 

PCMCIA is far more elegant than USB and isn't ugly at all. Not sure about routing the signal to laptop speakers, though. I'd think it's impossible.

 

it isn't impossible, creative made an update for it that allows you to use it with the laptop speakers.

 

Interesting. I guess the audio path is design differently in laptop. The reason I thought it was impossible, is because in desktops, if you have two sound cards, let's say one is onboard and one uses a PCI slot, you will not get the PCI sound card to redirect its audio output to the output ports of the onboard card, right? I thought that with laptops the built-in speakers / audio jacks are also tightly coupled with the integrated audio solution.

 

Well, I still haven't seen a review on it, but this E-MU 1616M certainly *sounds* interesting. Anyone seen/heard/read anything about it:
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=237&subcategory=239&product=13552

from their website: