X-fi sound card with upgrade kit?

does anyone with an xps notebook have the x-fi expresscard, as well as the surround sound upgrade kit? (sold separately)
Being a bit of an audiophile, i decided to spring for the sound card upgrade, but soon realized it only outputs in stereo by default, rendering my 5.1 headphones rather useless. I bought the surround sound upgrade kit shown here and am just wondering if anyone has had any experience with it.
Right now im waiting for my 1530 to come, should be here early next week. what sucks is that the x-fi ships separately, and wont be here until the 22nd . to top it all off, i bought the upgrade kit via amazon, and already have it in my hands

anyone have any comments on how it sounds?
thanks

 

The xps m1530 actually has built in 5.1 analog audio. The microphone jack can be reconfigured to the channel for the rear speakers. If I had known that before I bought the X-fi Expresscard, I definitely would not have spent that $75 for the soundcard plus $35 for the upgrade kit.

There are some nice little features, such as the crystalizer and other sound enhancers, but it didn't feel like worth spending $110 on it... I do feel a little ripped off....

 

really? i never saw that mentioned in any of the sites i was looking at prior to buying it. i feel ripped off too does anyone know what kind of sound the integrated audio is pushing out? i know the x-fi has 24-Bit/96kHz support both in and out

 

I thought the original sound output sucks.
Im thinking about purchasing an external sound card, too.

 

The X-Fi card definitely sounds better than the laptop's built-in sound -- at least if you have good quality headphones or speakers.

 

do you have one? is it worth the money?
what kind of speaker do you have?