Any way to improve the sound quality on a laptop?

got myself a barebones gt70 dragon, it's sound quality for vidya games is perfectly fine, but for music it's really not good at all, it feels dulled, I can't hear the instruments as well.

My old trashy 7 year old pc and my cellphone now can play music with the same quality, but this one I really don't like, I hear its because of the realtek soundcard which is crappy, any way to like change it by using a new program for my sound to replace the built in sound chip or something? using a headphone btw.

 

1) Buy a pair of nice headphones. I recommend a decent set of Sennheiser or Audio-Technica.

2) Optionally, also buy an amp to sit between the laptop and the headphones.

There's really no such thing as good laptop speakers, so it all pretty much comes down to what you can do with external sound systems.

 

Get an USB DAC. The audioquest dragonfly is a good one.

 

Hook it to a quality amplifier and speakers.

 

Beyond using something like a PCMIA Sound Blaster for HIFI output standard speakers on laptop is all your going to get for sound but a as other mentioned a good pair of head phone goes along way to improve the sounds quality as well. No Laptop speakers can really compete against the desktop speakers or speaker setup. So if your looking for that then you should go with a desktop otherwise don't turned your lap speakers to high and you can still enjoy good quality sounds. But never hurts to get good headphone to use with the laptop that will give you much better sound output then your lap speakers can do.

 

Its unfortunate for all of us interested in quality sound, but that's one of the last places computer manufactures spend money. Some on occasion and with specific models have taken the opportunity to join with speaker manufacturers and install higher quality speaks with more acceptable output for music, but due to size constraints, they're still a poor substitute for true audiophile quality speakers.

 

Invest in a good DAC if you have headphones. Amplifiers on most laptops are downright horrible. Software will not make a huge difference in sound qualit.

 

The audio is meant to be exported to a true high quality audio system (Macs still have the advantage here), due to space power requirements anyway. So its pretty much ignored otherwise.

You'll export to very expensive peripherals to process/edit if you're a content creator. And audio and/or high quality audio system to play it back if you're merely a consumer or audiophile. A pair of high quality headphones is a portable way of achieving this results.

 

I wouldn't really say that about Apple's hardware. The laptops are roughly the same size and the speakers are pretty much the same as any other laptop (and still restricted to the space inside the laptop). Or at least, I'm not impressed with how they sound (and I hear a lot of them around campus).

Again, for laptops, it's external sound or no sound, if high-quality is what you're looking for.

 

You can`t do anything for the sound coming from the speakers on the GT70. Well you could try equalizer I suppose and hope that there are some bad balance there somewhere.
But the speakers are what they are. I`m surprised you feel they are bad since they are the best you can get for notebooks of any brand.

 

Yes, strictly in the realm of notebooks. But as far as general audio quality is concerned, pretty dismal.

 

I thought my Alienware M17x R2 had one of the better speakers on the market, when turned up high it didn't ever distort and was quite loud for notebook speakers. It's pretty sad to have a high end notebook and have subpar speakers, and both of my Clevo have pretty awful speakers.

 

A few manufactures have tried to address this. AW, Asus, Toshiba which have adapted speaker from true speaker manufactures like Bose, Altec Lansing, Acoustic Research and others.

They're still downsized as far as speakers go mind you; and there's only so much you can do with such that small space not to mention a limited power supple -- a necessary element with any audio speaker.

Speaking of cost of laptop to speaker ratio. Dell completely missed the boat and ignored its Precision line. Pretty tinny, out of the bin most basic sound makers with no way to replace or upgrade them. Ouch. Being outclassed in sound by Toshiba.

 

The best speakers I had were on my G73JH.. With the subwoofer and 2/4 speakers it was perfect.. The R4's 2 speakers are worse in comparison...

 

It wasn't really that good as it would easily distort at the higher frequencies. BTW it was 2+1 stereo plus woofer not quadraphonic. And the subwoofer was muddy and also prone to distortion, more of a gimmick than something that actually improved sound quality. In fact, I turned off bass boost most of the time as all it did was muddy up the sound. My Y500 has way better speakers than my G73JH did, including better lows even without a subwoofer.

 

Yes, anytime you even see the word sub woofer in that form factor its a gimmick at best. And in addition an oxymoron, since sub woofers by design need to contain large diaphragms and draw a lot of power. A more compact design would be ported/tube enclosure, but even they would still require a significant space larger than most laptops.

 

The speakers in my Thinkpad W530 (with Dolby software) are pretty good for notebook speakers. Volume level is higher than most and the Dolby software provides decent balance. Not much bass to speak of, obviously (no room for resonance), but quite good for the form factor. Surprisingly, the best sound I've heard from a mobile device was my HP Touchpad tablet.

 

On my Y500, I've noticed that having Dolby Home Theater V4 turned on actually makes the speakers hiss and distort more. It sounds a lot more unnatural than when it's turned off. I don't know if this is just caused by the volume boost or the extra sound processing that's done. The Dolby software does work very nicely though when using headphones, and a software equalizer is always nice.

 

When you increase (boost) the signal, you also increase the noise along with it. In many cases, the signal to noise ratio is enough to allow for this (or designs that boost only specific frequencies), in others it is not. Of course, it also an accumulation of each component in your sound system, and the obvious inherent limitation of that component's design,

 

I love the Dolby drivers in my T420, not that it sounds "great" with or without them, but imo sounds much better with them.