are there notebooks with good/decent onboard audio?

I'm not talking about their speakers as the majority are sub-par or below average. I'm concerned with audio quality. besides enough graphics power to fully power the Vista Aero engine, I'm worried about my audio. I'm by no means an audiophile, but **** do I like 'good' audio. I have decent headphones and my Logitech Z-5300's are sweet I don't want to looe my good audio...

 

Onboard audio is improving all the time, but IMHO it's still no match for dedicated sound.
But it's the user's opinion that counts, they can tell you how good it is but only you can decide whether it sounds good to you or not.

 

well, I'm hoping another who's dedicated to above average audio would speak up and share their thoughts and recommendations with me. as far as I've seen, the only other option is an Audigy class card that plugs in. I don't know if the older Audigy is any better than onboard now. I know onboard audio has a lot of noise in the signal generated by all the activity going on around it and until they can isolate that, onboard is always going to have a series weakness that compromises it's quality.

 

As you can see from my sig, I use an Audigy 2.
I find that it's much better than my onboard AC97 sound, with onboard it sounds very flat compared to the Audigy 2.
Does that help a bit more then my previous response?

 

I was not aware of an Audigy 2 device for notebooks. could you link me or give me a product number I can use to search the online retailers I deal with? I'm in Canada, so that 'may' affect the availability

 

try this:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=15971&vpn=70SB053000015&manufacture=Creative%20Labs

or tigerdirect

cheers ...

 

oh score that qhn! NCIX is my primary dealer...if you're on the forum at all, I'm Mr. Friendly thanks

 

Some S96J's have Realtek HD Audio onboard.

 

Sure, Notebooks do have great sound. 7.1 sound cards work fanstastically well. Onboard sound cards are extremely under rated. My ESI Maestro card performs flawlessly with my Mission M72i loudspeakers. And even if you dont particularly like your onbaord card, you can always add an external one that plugs into your PCMCIA Slot.

The Creative Sound Blaster Audigy ZS is one of the best:

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=205&product=10769&nav=3

 

If you pick up most any laptops with Intel HD Audio or Azalia, you'll get pretty decent sound out of them. Most of them use Realtek HD audio CODECs. Properly designed, you won't hear a significant amount of noise out of the headphone jacks. Some go a step further, such as the Asus W3V / W3J which actually have an optical digital out connector through the headphone jack - this allows you to use your own external DAC or amplifier if you want.

 

Those that pointed out the Audigy 2 ZS Notebook for PCMCIA, that's the one.
Many people say that M-Audio's cards are better, although I haven't tried one of those so I can't say.

 

I have an Inspiron E1505 hooked up to my Z5300 and it sounds really good. Out of the onboard audio cards I've dealt with, this is the best. It's not as good as the X-Fi I had on my desktop. I'd probably upgrade to an external card that supports 5.1 but since I don't have a PC Card slot and USB cards are limited I'm stuck with the onboard for now.

 

I have the E1505 with the Sigmatel audio chip...in addition...I have the Soundblaster Audigy software upgrade...sound is pretty awesome! With that said...I have to say that the best audio I ever experienced in a notebook was with Toshiba. I had the 5205-S705. It had a Yamaha Sound card with Harmon Kardon speakers...the sound was as good as any desktop I ever had. There were two speakers just below the screen and a large subwoofer underneath the machine. It would actually rumble when loud enough. I believe that Toshiba still uses that combination in their Qosmio portables...

Bob

 

I think new onboard audio chips are good enough. As long as you use good speakers / headphones there is not much of a difference between them and external cards like Audigy. I'm not an audiophile, but I do appreciate high quality audio .

 

No worries about this one. As I said, they use an optical 1/8" jack, not an electrical one. Therefore, you would be using a 1/8" optical to TOSLINK cable... no need to match impedances.