Sager NP9150- Your Sound Setup? External Sound Card Recommendations?

Hey guys, just interested in what you guys use for sound. Stock speakers? Headset? Earbuds? External sound card?

Also, is it just mine, or is the stock headphone jack complete and utter CRAP? If I try earbuds in it, it's like I'm listening to the radio underwater. I'm really looking forward to a pair of Sennheiser HD 558's but I would like some input as to what soundcards have worked for you guys. I'd play games with it a lot but I love my music and movies too. Preferably under $200.

Also also, what external monitors do you guys use without major frame rate hits? I had a 27 inch Asus but stuttered every game I played.

Just looking to see if I can get a couple birds with one stone out of this one to save from making more threads.

 

I've been trying to figure out this very same thing. Which external sound card to go with. What pisses me off is that I had found a very nicely priced DAC/AMP setup that was really nicely made and had a lot of very nice things said by it but I lost the information! I'll be sure to post back if I find it. You just may hear back from me soon as you bringing this up has renewed my annoyance with losing this information to begin with.

EDIT: IBasso - do some research. The guys over at the Hi-Fi and Audiophile forums have lots of really good things to say about them. If your looking for the 7.1 type sound this wont provide it, but it will provide extremely high quality stereo sound that many say provides an excellent sound stage to allow similar results of knowing exactly where a sound is coming from because of the awesome stereo sound. After all, you only have two speakers to work with, so the 5.1/7.1 stuff really is only providing an "optimized" stereo sound stage.when you really stop and think about it.

Good luck and let us know what you go with!

 

Ok thanks man.

 

Alright, been researching for a while. I believe I'll jump on a pair of Sennheiser HD-558's and get a Fiio E07k. I don't know what country MKEGuy is in but iBasso is extremely rare in the U.S.

Still would love to see what everybody else is using for audio as well!

 

dont need to use external sound card.
im getting 5.1 sound using 7 year old creative speakers and the sound is brill.

some user manuals show it and some dont.
with the speaker jack green (front) black (sub and middle) yellow (rear)
plug the green into headphones. the black into (mic-speaker out) and the yellow into (spdif-speaker out)
mic and spdif should auto popup with a box and just tick speaker.

 

I'm using the Creative X-Fi Go! Pro 5.1 and I'm very happy with the sound after playing with the equalizer in Audio Control Panel. I think it's a great solution for the $25 that I paid for it. Headphones are Audio Technica ATH-M40fs.

 

I think that the onboard sound is just crap quality. I cannot stand it. It sounds worse than some cheap laptops I've owned. I have a nice pair of earbuds and even they sound tinny on these laptops. Friend of mine has the X-Fi and is quite happy with it.

 

agree the onboard onyko sound is crap but doing what i suggested above sounds exactly the same as on my previous clevo using x-fi creative sound card.

 

I am planning on the wireless headset addon for my xf-I recon.

 

If you just need a sound card to bypass the crap onboard card, just get an USB DAC. If you need a DAC + amp, you can look into something nice. The HD558 shouldn't need more than $100 of source component or an amp to drive it. I've been using my Musiland US 01 for 4 years now, great sound with no noise for $65. Onboard soundcard aren't bad by themselves, they just pick up tons of noise and interference from all the circuits on the motherboard.

Some items to consider:
Musiland US 01
Schiit Modi
..... plus many many more

Best place is to ask on Head-fi for USB DAC under $100. Personally I'd stay away from Creative stuff unless you can get it for cheap. For the budget you allocated you can get some top quality sound.

 

Yep, I was thinking on getting a Fiio E07k. It will be my first DAC/Amp so I'll see if I like it. I had a X-Fi Go Pro but it is crap and I don't want to count it haha.

 

Fiio is nice, you can also use it for your smartphone too.

 

Yep yep. Looking forward to Cyber Monday to see if I can catch any deals though in case something better pops up.

 

Fiio e17 is $99 on massdrop right now.

 

So anybody use an external monitor as well? Is there a significant performance hit?