external sound card for under $35

Im wanting to buy a external sound card for my notebook for under $35, any suggestions?

 

For that price range I'd probably go with a creative xmod, I'd say that its worth about 25$. Its worth that much to get your sound card out of your laptop.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=208244017&listingid=24017539&dcaid=17902

 

ERrr if you check out the site, it says that's only the USB cable for it.

If you look hard enough, You'll be able to find used Xmods going for about $25-35; Brand new however will run you at least $40+

Now something that's both portable, small, and definitely under your budget, check out the Creative Sound Blaster Play!
They go for around $20-30 new, they're the size of a usb key, and from the (very few) reviews i've read they do the job well for only $20-30.

I've also heard very good things about this:
http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/micro/home.aspx
Basically the same thing as the creative, but i think this one sounds abit better. $30 listed price, but you can probably find it for $25 easily

 

Im just wondering what does an external sound card do for you?

 

It's exactly as it sounds; although I myself dont like to use commercialized external sound cards (not internal; creative X-Fi's internal stuff is good) cuz they're horrible in terms of audiophile expectations, and can find much better (although way out of the price range and lacking overall features such as 3D virtualization, which sounds terrible alot of the times)

But basically, through a USB at least, it bypasses your internal soundcard and redirects output to the external one; and because it can bypass internal soundcards, there wont (or at least there shouldnt <_< really retarded ones do though...) be background hiss, and generally the sound gets amplified, and the sound quality becomes better as a whole too.
Creative's stuff is pretty decent in terms of consumer goods, and they claim to "extend the highs while tightening up the lows", which from alot of reviews say they do. You should really consider them; I know im getting a Creative X-Fi Go! for $80 CAD (after shipping =/ prices here are outrageous...) for on-the-go usage without the bulk of things like the Creative XMod

*Edit: I just ordered my X-Fi Go; I'll be recieving it in a week hopefully so I'll let you know the intial impressions, although its out of the $35 price range for sure; Keep in mind the review may be abit bashful as my ears have been spoiled and my pickiness for detail is abit high for some

 

I look forward to the review

 

You really don't like external cards? I've found that its one of the most important things, getting the sound card out of the computer, and away from all the electronic noise that interferes with it. But I do get what your saying about the creative and the other consumer market cards, they aren't really that impressive for the sound quality, but still worth having over an internal card just to get it out of your PC. Of course my stand point is with notebooks only, as this is a notebook community.

 

Nono its not that i dont, i dont like commercialized external sound cards like the x-fi, although as u mentioned, still better than internal if you're going the 3.5mm route

 

Well, I'm sure if your going anything balanced, or even much bigger than 3.5mm then you'll avoid creative entirely.

 

Mmm not necessarily; as I have limited desk room (and limited space under my desk), for my laptop speakers I can only have 2.0, and as such creative makes some decent 2.0 speakers that are very balanced and sound nice.

And as for internal sound cards, their x-fi line (only the expensive ones; the cheap ones i.e. under $150 aren't that good) is quite good if you don't turn on their features such as crystalization and whatnot.

But I'm only interested in DAC's for portable solutions (i.e. laptops), not when it's a fullfledged desktop. AMPs i go crazy for when I'm on-the-go.

But back to the OP, Creative's Sound Blaster Play! will suffice both your expectations in pricing and sound quality. You can't find that many external solutions in that price range so the creative is quite good

 

Oh, I meant like XLR and such when I said balanced. But anything thats going to have channel separation like that will surely cost you more than 35$. So I guess we better stop pulling this thread off topic.

 

On the cheap side , have you guys tried DealExtreme , I have bough a few items , have a look at this USB sound adaptor for only $10.79 shipped.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8978

 

Wow $10 for 7.1 output? Not bad, although because it packs so much in there for its price, I have abit of doubts that the sound quality will be of drastic increase from built in audio.