Laptop Soundcards
Posted by: dave brubeck on 01 January 2009
From a tech-simpleton music enthusiast:
I have recently acquired a Lenovo T61p laptop, with itunes hooked up via the headphone jack to DIN inputs on my Naim boxes.
This has replaced my previous Dell. The sound quality from the Lenovo is awful. I have been looking around at various upgrade soundcards - it appears some can be inserted into the laptop 'slots' and there are some that are external USB supported.
Which is the better option in terms of quality? Portability is not an issue. Also, where and should an external DAC fit in the picture?
And a word of warning to any prospective laptop buyers, and I don't know if this applies to Lenovos only, but I am horrified, disgusted and generally not very happy to find Lenovo have deactivated the preinstalled soundcard so recording of streaming audio from the net is impossible, eg. using Audacity. This is also a reason for the requirement of a new soundcard.
Or should I just buy a Mac.....
Any help much appreciated.
I have recently acquired a Lenovo T61p laptop, with itunes hooked up via the headphone jack to DIN inputs on my Naim boxes.
This has replaced my previous Dell. The sound quality from the Lenovo is awful. I have been looking around at various upgrade soundcards - it appears some can be inserted into the laptop 'slots' and there are some that are external USB supported.
Which is the better option in terms of quality? Portability is not an issue. Also, where and should an external DAC fit in the picture?
And a word of warning to any prospective laptop buyers, and I don't know if this applies to Lenovos only, but I am horrified, disgusted and generally not very happy to find Lenovo have deactivated the preinstalled soundcard so recording of streaming audio from the net is impossible, eg. using Audacity. This is also a reason for the requirement of a new soundcard.
Or should I just buy a Mac.....
Any help much appreciated.
Le Fay? 