sound card for my lappy

i'm looking for soundcard on my lappy. what is the best soundcard around for lappy? is it worth it? i don't mind the price.

THanks

 

What laptop is it?

Creative makes good PCMCIA and USB sound cards, for a reasonable amount.

But if you want high end sound cards, Turtle Beach and others(I can't remember the names!) makes very good sound cards for mobile use.

 

Also beware that most newer laptops won't have a PCMCIA slot and only have the newer ExpressCard.

 

Wrong forum. Mod please move 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' forum.

 

If you have a PCMCIA slot, I also recommend Creative's Sound Blaster. I tried turtle audio, but didn't have much luck with it. The Sound Blaster card is great. You can choose whether you different speaker systems (7 speaker, 5 speaker, 2 speaker set, etc) or headphones, and it will adjust the sound quality to match your needs. Compared to my internal card, the Sound Blaster has a better base, better sound quality overall, and more the sound is very crisp and clear. What I'm trying to say is that you will notice a difference between your internal sound card and the Sound Blaster, but that difference will depend on how good your internal sound card is.

 

Oh yeah you might wanna check out the Asus section under the second or third page there and look for the Problem with Z70V.

Discussion about compatibility issues with the PCMCIA Audigy2 ZS. Information can be found on the soundblaster website as well, not the creative website, but www.soundblaster.com.

There is an issue with it not working with certain PCMCIA controllers, but two members here have had it working on their black listed Z70Va RICOH controllers.

If you do buy one make sure it's the new version of it, which comes in a plastic packaging known as the Blister Pack, not the older version that comes in a box.

This one seems to work with the Z70Va's RICOH controller which was black listed by creative as not working, but two guys have it going no problems so I'm going to go out and get one.

Cheers,
Mike

 

I've had Audigy2ZS PCMCIA compatibility issues on my Sager 5720 but I can still get it to work by simply reinstalling the drivers every time and rebooting. Most likely a driver conflict as best I can tell but Creative is notorious for driver problems with their soundcards.

When it works the sound is awesome but make sure you match it with a quality set of headphones for really good sound. Creative includes a small earphone set with the card and even with those the sound is vastly superior to anything else on a laptop.

They also include an optical audio out (cable not included) and an analogue surround audio out cable (included) that you can plug into any surround audio system with analogue inputs and get dolby or DTS surround decoded onboard the card. With the optical out you can use an external decoder. I plug my laptop into my HDTV using S video and 480p and can watch Divx and XVid video with full Dolby 5.1 surround on my home theatre system.

It also plays games with full EAX enabled. All for around $80 I think these days. Don't buy it from Circuit City since they still charge last winters price of $120+.

 

Woody87 which version of the Audigy do you have? The one that came in a box or the plastic packaging?

 

Anyone with recommendations for the exact model of an expresscard soundcard?

 

Loongy......creative has no plans to produce an express card sound card. I heard this from creative representative today. I have not been able to find any manufacturer that makes sound card for this format yet. Better to go with USB drive sound card. Creative makes one AUdigy 2NX.

 

Now, there is the Xmod from Creative which is your external sound card replacement. Looks good...