Looking for a Boost in Sound from a Dedicated Sound Card?

I have just bought ADVENT ADE-210C 2.1 computer speakers for £35, for a reasonably expensive set as these you would expect a decent sound output, it is quite clear, but at full volume (speakers and windows - im not that dumb!) they really aren't that loud, is it the speakers that are the problem, or the sound card? I have Realtek HD Audio ALC268 and someone told me a Sound Card would make it significantly louder, but I would need an ExperessCard54 Sound Card, and the cheapest one of these I found was for £50! And I don't know if this is justified as I can see how a sound card would improve quality, but noise levels? advice would be appreciated muchly!

I have an Acer Travelmate 5520G running Vista Home Premium, I think the other specs are irrelevant but will post if needed!

 

If it's volume during movie playbacks. Going to a different player may fix the problem. I found tht WinDVD generally have louder output than PowerDVD.

 

Erm music too, is Win DVD a full media player or is it just for DVDs ? The main thing I'm curious about is if I'd get a decent boost in sound from a sound card, or even one of those USB 3D sound amplifiers though Im dubious about them because some particularly on ebay are ridiculously cheap!

 

First, £35($70) is not expensive, believe me, you can spend a LOT more on speakers. So the speakers could very well be part of your disappointment. It's hard to tell what your expectations were, but if you expected to rattle the china you didn't spend nearly enough.

A better sound card should give you better sound quality because you should get better DA conversion. But this does not mean you'll get better 'noise levels' (interesting choice of words there, I assume you meant sound levels).

Some things you should keep in mind: The power to drive the speakers comes from the amplifier stages in the woofer, not the sound card. Think of the sound card as a pre-amp. The output from the sound card is 'line level' meaning pretty low voltage. Does the line level out vary among manufacturers? - almost certainly. Will the next sound card you buy have higher line out voltages? - hard to tell, but this is really what you're after. The best thing would be to try out a few before making a final decision.

 

Any plug-in Expresscard simply cannot amplify sound, as it doesn't have any sound amplification hardware on it. All of that would be done in software I'm afraid.

Maybe try this? I've had good luck with it driving speakers, cleans up and improves sound quality from the onboard on the laptops I have used so far. Haven't had problems with volume so I can't comment on that.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829126101

Has great reviews and it's a real cheap solution to try.