Do Asus laptop sound cards/drivers/speakers still suck?..

Got a cheap little HP dm3 3012 from the ms store for $399 a couple of months ago and it absolutely smokes my 1 yr old Asus wrt sound quality...the HP sounds 10 times better than the asus both with on the onboard speakers and thru my Sennheiser HD555s cans....has Asus sound gotten any better over the last year?

 

lol asus and HP use the same sound chipset generally. Whatever difference you're hearing is due to the different parts - and your different experience is due to parts, not HP vs. Asus.

Unfortunately, I can't mock you for being a hipster wanna-be audiophile, since you've got a decent set. I've had nothing bad bad experiences with HP, and only my cheap asus laptops sound bad.

 

The speakers on the Asus NX90JQ are said to be pretty phenomenal and probably the best you'll hear on any notebook. Though be prepared to shell out $2000 for that type of luxury.

 

I'm not an audiophile by any means but I do know that the cute little Hp dm3 smokes my much more powerful Asus when it comes to sound quality...not saying "all" Asus sound bad but mine sure does...thinking of getting another asus one day but not with subpar sound like my current one...

I've seen the vids of this puppy and if it wasn't the size of a truck...it might pique my interest....pretty cool though....

 

Integrated audio will always be inferior, due to the limitations of board design. There's no good way to isolate the audio card when it's part of a motherboard. You can reduce the noise, or put the audio on a daughterboard, but with a cramped system like a laptop and its power considerations, you'll never get it to be noise-free.

As for the speakers, it's hit or miss. As an example, the G73 speakers are great because they have a subwoofer to round it out. It's not really bass but it's better midrange. Space is still the issue, there's not a lot of room for decent speakers in most designs.

 

i doubt onboard headphone outs on laptop can sufficiently drive your sennheisers

 

yes, that's true, but the newer Hp drives them way better than the 1yr old ASUS..

 

Answer to OP - sound on my G73 is adequate, but out of the box I could not use bass boost in creative with Steam (on a gaming machine). I can't fathom why something like this was not tested B4 the machine was made available to the public.