Good sound card on laptop ?

I'm about to get the Sager NP5792 in a month's time from XoticPC. And I was wondering if it's worth spending a few extra bucks on getting a good sound card too, like sound blaster live! or x-fi and all that ? I know laptop speakers aren't good but I'll be using a pair of headphones. And I've never really used a sound card before, but am always happy with whatever onboard sound device comes with the motherboard in my previous PCs. So I wanted to know if it's just the speakers in laptops that are bad or is it the inbuilt sound card itself ? i.e. Will I experience crappy sound with the headphones ?

 

Using a pair of headphones will considerably improve the sound quality. Try this and see if this will do for you. If not, you can get a dedicated sound card like the Creative X-Fi.

 

creative x-fi is brilliant, headphones helped a bit with sound but even though it's only software driven, theres a very noticable difference and gets higher fps'es in games, well worth it in my opinion

 

Will Live! be fine or should I go for X-fi ?

 

Just out of curiosity, how old were your previous PCs? I'm asking because old PCs have ac97 integrated audio, which is much worse than the hd audio solution used in modern laptops. So i guess you'll be satisfied with your laptop's audio.

 

Oh yeah. AC' 97 is what I had, and was still happy with it
I've NEVER had an external audio card before, like an external graphics card. Just HOW different/better is it ?

 

If you could find out the audio chip involved I think you'd get a better answer.

I think it's this Realtek 883 one;

http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/...id=1&PNid=24&PFid=28&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=44

based on this Tom's Hardware review of the Clevo the Sager is based on;

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/two-middle-weight-gaming-notebooks,review-990.html

The main thing for headphone sound will be the SNR and freq range of the DAC (not the ADC). If it's a solid chip (as many of the Azallia compliant chips are) then it should be at least 94db (the one above is 95 which is similar to the Live!) which should give you solid crisp sound, and you want something with go OPAmps, but without knowing what it is, you can't tell, although you can tell very quickly once you plug in and see how 'loud' the get, although test wisely. If it's 'too loud' closer to middle rather than closer to the end of the range, then it should be powerful enough OPAmps which in conjunction with a quality chip should give you good performance. Also especially when playing back DVDs the audio is often clipped and lower than other material especially if downsampling 5.1 feeds, so having the power to push the headphones makes a big difference, and keeps you from having to artificially distort/boost the audio from the player.

The biggest problem is most desktop MoBos usually have stronger OPAmps, for some st00pid reason most noteboook MFRs seem to think saving a few miliwatts will make a difference to battery life, whereas really IMO notebooks need it more, because they are more often found in noisey environment either outdoors or places like Airplanes, Trains, Buses, etc.

In all likelyhood it's that the speakers are weak. But also what is the audio you are listening too, like I mention above it may be clipped or not outputting full volume, listen to various different things. And if it's DVDs, the listen to it normally, and then go into Media player's advanced options, and then boost the audio and see what that's like.

A test of system sounds, or a standard CD should give you a good volume comparison, MP3s are usually playing close to full volume, but they may have been encoded at a lower level so its tougher to check as a baseline. Although if you know what sounds good and 'loud' compared to other content/media you have on your desktop it may be a good reference.

I have the Audigy2ZS and love(d) it on my Gateway, but the Fujitsu has a fantastic Realtek262 - 2 channel audio codec (which I looked for high SNR of 100db close to the 104db of the Audigy) and I find that the benefits like DTS-connect mean I don't use the Audigy on the new laptop, especially since all the EAX stuff is now software only due to OpenAL.

Anywhoo, I would say that if it is the 883 then you're doing OK, and I would suggest testing it first as it should compare well with at least the Live! solution.

Anywhoo, I say try it first, it look like an OK solution, not the best, but probably good enough.

PS, External is often better, but not always, it all depends on the quality of each part. An SB Live! would be a downgrade for me from the Fuitsu.

 

Both of the upgrade options on that notebook are external, you can always add them later, and probably get them cheaper elsewhere.

Changing the soundcard is not going to make the internal speakers sound better.

As for headphones - well, I'll just tell you what I do: When I'm traveling light I just use my PX100's raight out of the notebook and the sound is fine. When weight is not an issue I take along my HD600's and a Headroom Total Bithead (portable amp/dac) and the sound is really fine.

BTW I make my living in the audiophile world so keep in mind that my point of reference might be different than yours. That said, I find it hard to imagine anyone describing the sound straight out of this notebook as 'crappy'; maybe someone who has this model will weigh-in here. Usually, the choice of headphones accounts for most of the difference.

I'm considering getting this notebook myself. I am not planning on getting either of the upgrade sound options. If you do, I would be curious to here your impressions. Please post back if you can.

 

I too could not stand the onboard sound on my laptop so I got the Audigy 2 ZS as well. I've hooked it up to speakers and headphones (what I normally use) and I am very glad that I bought it. I guess it depends how important sound is to you...if you listen to a really good speaker system would you still be satisfied with something less.

 

Thank you guys! Now I might just go ahead with an external sound card. Considering I was previously satisfied with AC' 97 audio, will the Sager onboard audio be fine ? Or maybe I'll get Live! Is that fine ?
Also, how does a good external sound card increase gaming performance ? i.e. more fps..

 

bump......

 

bump

^^ Question still stands.

 

See it, but can't tell you more than that in what I already wrote.

I think it answers your question already, but obviously not.

 

My god, Creative Labs has the crappiest drivers. Then again, hardware continually outpaces software in development. X-Fi could potentially be a great technology, but Creative has a monopoly with discrete sound cards (though nVidia and ATI don't have a monopoly and this hasn't really made driver development any better) and are slow as heck in updating their drivers. Plus they use cheap parts (op amps) on their cards. Don't forget that the notebook X-Fi card needs another attachment to support 5.1 sound which is more BS. - end rant -

Sorry about that. Anyways, if you're fine with listening to integrated audio then its fine, stick with that. Unfortunately, some people can hear the difference so they have to spend more to hear "good, clear" sound. I doubt it will make more than a 5 fps difference, so don't worry about that. Personally, I prefer gaming on a desktop since the nVidia 8800 GT 512MB and Auzentech X-Fi Prelude pretty much destroy all laptop solutions for a fraction of the price.