notebook soundcards.

i never cared what soundcard i get in my laptops.
do they honestly make a difference if u use good speakers/headphones and stuff?

 

People who deal with audio/audio processing for a living require better cards. Gamers and audiophiles also often like better-than-normal equipment. It's not a "necessity", but a kind of a nice thing to have if you enjoy music.

 

i dont understand what kind of difference it'll make.
dont u hear a difference from better speakers and headphones?
(i dont know anything at all obviously ><

 

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!11!!!one!!!!

Oh, that's good.

"i never cared what cpu or video card or lcd screen i get in my laptops do they honestly make a difference and stuff? Why dont i just use a 486 laptop they're all the same right?"

 

Headphones and speakers obviously alter your perception of the sound waves, but they can only provide what is being fed into them. The source is just as important imo. Your set up is only as good as the weakest link, though each link has a different importance. You also need to consider your audio formats and quality

Do you have "better headphones or speakers"? Because I will say it is important to listen to your existing set-up first and decide which upgrade path you would want to take, if any.

Do you have a budget or is this more of a discussion thread? You could easily spend a lot in this topic, though I am willing to discuss budget options

 

That's a good point. Quality sound costs money. FWIW, my sound card and speakers cost $2600. That's more than my laptop cost. And they are worth every single penny.

If you've been listening to sound card + speaker setups that cost < $100, that's your problem right there.

A genuine hifi system will blow your mind with the quality of the sound - it's like you are THERE with the band performing in your living room. Yeah, it's that good. Nothing you can buy at Best-Buy or Circuit-City or NewEgg qualifies as "hifi" though - nothing but junk at those places if you're looking for hifi audio.

A "good" computer speaker system that won't break the bank is the NHT M-00. Probably the best value for the money in desktop computer speakers.

 

Small headphones probably wont make use of a better Sound Card, but when you've got 7.1 Speakers or Headphones that cost a lot, then you really will appreciate the difference between an OnBoard chipset, and Something like a Creative X-Fi card. They also ease the load on the CPU, giving you up to 5fps higher in gaming with max settings, which can make a big difference if your a serious gamer.

 

a good dedicated soundcard will produced more vibrant, more natural colourful sound, that is well defined, thats the best i can currently explain it. a good dedicated sound card often has better sound processing capability. and its Digital to Analogue converter. e.g. a creative X-fi Extreme Music has 106db snr a X-fi elite pro has 119db snr (the higher the better).
this coupled with good source (CD, MP3, etc.) and soundcard and speaker, will produced optimal sound quality.

and yes, a good soundcard makes a difference, even if you own $99 speaker.
for one of the best soundcard/speaker combo, try B&O beolab 4 PC speaker, and hook it up to an X-fi Elite Pro. yummm .

and yes, your local electronic store (eg. newegg, best buy, etc.) doesn't provide u for the best speaker IMO, is the B&O beolab 5, it adjust itself to its surrounding, a really important and convinient feature IMO. the speaker sweet spot is everywhere. don't fall into the hype of saying B&O is overpice! they're not. for example, only B&O got the licensed for a Saitek Accoustic Lens, that is used in Beolab 5.

 

It's like having a better stereo system.

 

Yes, but there is usually more difference in price than there is in sound. It is like getting a "better" stereo, but sometimes the difference is more in your head and wallet than anything else. If you don't care about it, don't worry about it.

 

Hmm it also depends on the person. Some people are more 'attuned' to the quality of sound then others. I'm not dissing you in any way when I say that, it's simply 'different strokes for different folks'

From my experience, My brother can't tell the difference between virtual surround sound (emulated surround sound on your headphones) vs. normal stereo sound, but I can. He can hear just as well as I can, he just can't hear it for some reason.

You should get a sound card only if you are using better than run of the mill sound equipment. I.E. if you use Ipod headphones, or dollar headphones from a dollar store with a Creative audigy 2 ZS, you will notice almost no difference. If you use the Sennheiser PX100 headphones ($40) with it, you'll notice a bit of an improvement. And of course, if you use gigantic 1000 watt speakers, you'll really, really appreciate your gigantic investment (and make most of us green with envy for having that much money to blow).

With sound equipment it is really easy to blow a huge amount of money. My take is, if you can hear it, and you like it, it's good enough. Do yourself a favor, and never try out really expensive headphones or speakers; that way you'll never know what your missing.

 

No doubt! With hifi audio, ignorance truly is bliss. Once you hear the sound from $400 headphones, or from a $1000 DAC + $1000 speakers, you'll forever be spoiled. Nothing will sound the same again. Stick with the lofi stuff from Best Buy and New Egg and your wallet will thank you!

 

Hijack (damn, I've hijacked quite a few threads... I wanna be well-informed before I buy):

The new Sager NP5somethingsomething, the one with the orange trim, has SRS (WOW) sound. Or something like that. Is the sound card in that notebook better than most other sound cards? Another thing that's impressed me is that it has a subwoofer built into it. Does this mean the possibility of not needing external speakers?

 

Only you can decide that. Listen to it first and then decide. Asking on here will get you a bunch of responses from folks who don't have any sort of benchmark or reference to compare it to, making their evaluation pretty useless.

 

Toshiba has been doing that for a while, still does not compare to a regular good quality pair of speakers.