Creative Soundblaster Notebook X-Fi

I've been seeing mixed opinions on this card around the site, but I'm considering getting it. It seems to be the only expresscard soundcard option, and my laptop doesn' have a PCMCIA port, and I don't want to use a USB external soundcard really, so this seems to be my only real option. I just want to make sure it's worth it.

My new laptop has an irritating high pitched sound that comes from the headphone jack, and I haven't been able to fix it ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=163602).

I'm hoping that if I were to purchase this, this would fix the problem and give me better sound quality than the onboard sound to boot.

Keep in mind that I don't care about the dock (sold seperately) and I don't care about hooking up to speakers. All I care about is better sound quality with headphones (I have some decent Sennheisers) and, most importantly, getting rid of that annoying high pitched tone so I can actually listen to music without getting a headache.

Will this card work for my purposes?

 

Anyone know about this?

 

Vagabondllama, I am waiting to get my Inspiron 1720 and I have the PCIe SoundBlaster card coming with it.
The main reason is that I have always had good experiences with their products and I was not going to be satisfied with just the onboard sound card that comes with the lappy.
When I get it, hopefully later this week, I'll be sure to let you know.
I also purchased the "Speaker Docking Module" from Creative to hook up my Logitech Z-680 speaker system.

 

i was wondering wot type of soundcard id need to hook up external studio monitor speakers.i know they have that XLR type of connections.but i think i seen some montors with the red and white rca connections.

ive lookt at some external and seen that xfi one but didnt have the xlr connections.

sorry vaga if this is abit off ur topic,but i thought no need to start a new thread lol

 

I do not currently know of any "soundcard" out there to hook up speakers/monitors that have either an XLR or 1/4 plugs. I go from the cp, to a mixer board, and then run that through my amplifier to the speakers.

 

i c,not that i make music.but i do mess about with the software,but would just like to have some good speakers for music playback without having home audio equipment (racks of stuff).i wonder if it is possible to have studio monitors.
wot would be the best way to go if i have to hook them upto something in order to get the sound.

 

By the way, does anyone know where I could buy this...? I can't seem to find it anywhere...it's not even listed on creative's site when you go purchase things.

 

google it, and its express card slot...

i have a desktop soundblaster Fatal1ty and its amazing, can only hope that this would compare closely

ive considered getting one of these though

 

Alright, I finally found some things through pricegrabber and buy.com. It was just weird, because there were NONE on both newegg and amazon, which just struck me as odd...and I couldn't find any locally either. Meh.

 

Vagabondllama,

Dell has the X-FI express card. You can get the docking module directly from Creative if you need it. There is no high-pitched sound when I use my card, but then again, I never had this sound in the first place (dell m90). I am happy with it so far. I have also tried the Turtle Beach SRM which is a similar gadget (although USB based). The Turtle Beach seem to have some problem in the driver and it dies on itself during game play and I am unable to fix it. Just fine for music listening though. For whatever it is worth.

-SFR