Why do Notebook Manufacturers always choose Realtek Onboard Soundcards?

So... why? is it because they are the only supplier? I don't understand why they don't opt for better sound cards.. anyone have any insight?

 

Because the sound card isn't really a major selling point so they go for the cheapest.

 

yeah cause their cheap.
they must be making tons of money though. you would be hardpressed to find a notebook that uses something other than a realtek card.

 

The vast majority of people couldn't tell you how bad the onboard sound is. Blame the popularity of 128kbps mp3s for that. Most people who need higher end sound tend not to need mid-level sound, but external or expresscard based solutions.

 

The major brand before Realtek was Sigmatel, which then changed names after selling its PC audio division to IDT. I remember waaay back that on my Pentium MMX laptop (NEC) and many many others around that time used ESS audio.

 

for what it's worth, my new Macbook Pro has a Cirrus Logic on-board soundcard.

 

Rollin' with IDT here.

 

Yup. Sound chips for laptops are pretty much just a commodity. They are all variations on a theme: cheap. There is limited variety between and within brands, and though some are better than others, none are very good.

 

They play sounds out of the speakers and heasphone jacks reasonably ok, and that's all most people need them for. There's not much point in having fancy ones with level controls and mic in ports etc. when no one will really use them.

 

IMO, the SoundMAX AD1984 on my X61 is much more solid than the Realtek ALC262 on my current laptop. :/

 

I would like to see laptops makers start using higher quality sound chips and speakers to help improve sound performance. It doesn't have to be a major leap, but it would be nice to see SOME improvement.

I'd be willing to pay a little more for that.

 

There is Intel hi def audio as well.

 

There is, and they have. It's just there's only so much you can do with the limited real estate you have in a laptop.

You might, but not everybody would. Being an audiophile, I for one feel the same way you do, and wouldn't mind at all paying a premium for a good set of speakers. Laptop speakers are about as bad as they get, but that is changing. More and more, laptop manufacturers are using high performance speakers (within reason of course) from speaker manufacturers like Altec Lansing and Harmon Kardon.

 

As with all audio it becomes a weakest link thing. Since about no matter that you do you will never get speakers with decent response in a laptop configuration the Realtech chipset is more than ample. Even with better quality laptop speakers thier fequency responce, power handling and the like is not above where a laptop outputs.

The only real limitation is where high quality headphones are used. Some of these start getting you where an audiophile will notice the laptops limits. Even then only a true audiophile will really notice all the limitations.

Now with HDMI and SPDIF outputs you essentially have a digital bypass to use higher end audio equipment. A true audiophile will have already usually invested in this equipment the laptop can then interface too. As mentioned though there are some specialty laptops out there.

A person needing this higher end audio chip etc will then base their purchase of the laptop on that. Since you already noticed these are usually few and far between as the consumer demand just isn't that high for it.....

 

Same here.

yes there is but IDT is best.

 

Please just stop it. You really don't know what you are talking about. Most of IDT's current lineup is Intel HD Audio. It is either that or the old and outdated AC '97 specification. Intel HD Audio is not a competing sound chip made by Intel, but a specification which is followed by all the manufacturers. Any laptop audio codec that isn't Intel HD Audio is automatically at the bottom of the pile.

On top of that, IDT, as well as the other handful of manufacturers of integrated audio chips all have a product lineup which ranges in features and abilities across the entire spectrum. And these chips are commodities. This is far different than AMD vs Intel or AMD vs Nvidia, where there are a slew of differences that must be considered when choosing offerings between the two choices. The situation is more like system dram. There, manufacturers really don't matter and all the "brands" people buy from just source their memory chips from whichever of the handful of manufacturers in cheapest. When it comes to audio codecs, features and price are the only real concerns for system integrators. And trust me, they rarely choose the chips with the best audio quality.

So please, I would love to know how you ascertained that "IDT is the best" other than finding out that your laptop has an 'IDT HD Audio codec.'

 

He tends to add random comments to all threads that has no basis or provides no benefit to the topic...

 

This topic is interesting. I always appreciated great sound quality, but I figured at my budget, there's only soo much I can push for from a notebook.

The HP Envy series uses Beats Audio (by Dr. Dre) for an audio solution. The manual doesn't specify details about the audio components or have any notable description besides "HD Audio" and "Beats Audio". Does that mean "Beats Audio" is just optimization on the software level? Or it just applies to the speaker components and not the sound card?

 

I think Beats provides more watts and perhaps bigger speakers? or a sub array?

 

According to what I can find after a cursory search, HP's "beats audio" is just software. I presume it is very similar to creative's software for laptops. It is neat to play around with, but doesn't improve audio quality, just distorts it. After a while it gets old. I would never pay this stuff.

Laptops it comes on still might include slightly better speakers and/or a higher quality audio chip, who knows. But it isn't anything really out of the ordinary hardware-wise if they aren't making any noise about it.

Edit:

From what I can gather, "Beats Audio" is in cahoots with Monster Cable. And by cahoots, as far as I can tell, Beats is a subsidiary of Monster. Monster Cable is known as a big ripoff artist. I would stay away from their hardware like the plague. Though the HP beats audio software is probably harmless, I couldn't in good conscience support Monster Cable.

 

yep, I have the 1984 on an OLD compaq laptop and the sound from it and the integrated speakers are better than 99% of the stuff I have seen in the last 3 years. hook up do my stereo and you can sure tell it from the Realtek, Intel or the cirrus logic .. I dont have and IDT in any machines anymore

 

Ah, as I thought. I didn't expect it to be better hardware, but I also didn't expect it to be a subsidiary of Monster (seriously con-artists). From my experience with the Envy15, I couldn't tell if the audio was the same or worse than any other generic Realtek soundcard. I'm just disappointed that Dr. Dre's name is associated with Beats, considering his reputation for not caving in to capitalism for chump cash (I guess even he has to pay the bills).

 

Audiophiles generally use a USB DAC, and consumers generally can't tell.

 

ie the same as:

Very unfortunate.

 

It's not hard to find lappies with non-Realtek. Dell uses almost exclusively IDT now (if anything else, I've never seen) and before they used Sigmatel. Their solution does a very good job, I wouldn't want anything else the playback is so good. What I like most is they pump out some decent power for headphones, and software support/drivers are good (mostly, make sure to disable SRS and you're good). Like HP and the Dr Dre beats crap, Dell includes Creative X-fi MOBO which is a software package as well, and i recommend unistalling it first thing. Only reason to keep it is because it included alchemy for EAX support and gaming...

 

Agreed, that Dell XFi, but its all jsut software crap. I tried this out on my Dell XPS M1330. Also last I checked it was only operational with 32 bit Windows. Given the poor driver support of Creative and the fact that all that "fancy" stuff is just software emulation - screw it.

 

As previously mentioned; how serious are you?

Amazon.com: NuForce Icon uDAC (USB DAC and headphone amp): Electronics

 

Damn that's a good price and looks good too..

 

I'm ok with the current solutions, but I certainly wouldn't be against better solutions being implemented.