What Sound Card for my C90S?

I'm thinking about getting a sound card for my c90s. Can anyone recommend me a good one? I've been looking at the x-fi for notebooks but i also heard they are barely better than the onboard sound. I don't really care for getting better sound for games but i listen to a lot of music. I guess you can call me an audiophile since i own many headphones (probably over $500 worth of them). I love how my sony and sennheisers sound and i wanted a good card that will make them sound even better.

EDIT: unrelated question but Do I need thermal paste to replace the gpu on a c90s.

 

Well, the on board sound card is actually pretty decent when plugged with external speakers or headphones (I use the Shure SE420 and the B&O A8). I haven't actually experienced the Creative x-fi card, but I'd assume there won't be a huge difference in quality since the on board sound card is an Azalia compliant audio chip.

 

No, the X-Fi is quite a letdown.

There are high-end sound cards for notebooks out there, usually on USB or PCMCIA but they are expensive -- may be worth it if you're an audiophile. I don't know the names, check the Hardware forum look for "sound card" you will probably get some results.

For mid-range I would suggest a Turtle Beach SRM. But I'm not sure there'll be a significant difference from the onboard.

Another mid-range option is M-Audio Transit.

 

The only big reason to get a sound card would be for surround sound.

 

Which the C90s already has with digital out?

 

i purchased Audigy 2 ZS for my notebook and it was a pretty decent improvement over my AC'97.

 

The ZS is better than the X-FI, even though the latter is newer...

 

I don't think the C90s accept PCMCIA. They have a express card slot.

 

Most integrated sound chips now include 7.1 and Surround sound. The only reason to pay for a sound card IMO is if you wanna play a stutter free Oblivion

 

Ah yes, the hell that is Oblivion. Thanks to that game I was able to sell all my old Creative sound cards to my friends.

PS I don't play that game.

 

I played only for like 40 hours this summer.

I just found it annoying that integrated sound kills performances in that game while it doesnt in any other games I played AND that bedestha refuses to do a simple fix that would solve many problems with Vista.

 

the onboard is the best it gets, and laptops have pretty shabby external cards. Infact I cant say that I know of one that is better than the onboard.

 

Does the C90 support surround sound?

 

I guess ill keep my onboard sound then since i really dont care about surround sound. Thanks for the info guys.

 

It does at least via SPDIF out, I think.

And Vicious is correct, with the current generation onboard soundcards it's difficult to get better, unless you really are prepared to pay for it (there are high-end options).

I did have to buy a Turtle Beach Amigo for my V6J, it has an earlier integrated sound card so the TB external made some difference, but I can't say it was impressive.

 

I use a creative 24-bit live! external sound card and it works great. I have seen a marked improvement over onboard and it helps a lot since I use this thing to DJ on the radio and at events. I've also noticed it helps for sound editing applications like wavestudio and reason

 

I don't want to change the subject to much but, companies like Razer have surround sound headphones with multiple drivers in the headphone. The headphones plug in via USB. My questions is, would the sound card in the C90 support surround sound.

 

It's support HD sound so I wouldn't be surprised. But I think the application needs to support it too though.