External Sound Card For Notebook PC

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kage

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Jul 13, 2005
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I have the Asus N61JQ-X1 Notebook PC and the Creative Gigaworks T20 Series II speakers. I don't listen or rip my cds to lossy compressed music (MP3s, WMA, AAC, etc), but I usually rip my cds to WMA Lossless to my external hard drive and listen to them with WMP 12. I don't like the Realtek Audio DAC with SRS software in my notebook. I would like some recommendations on which external sound card is good.
 
Count me in on this one too, I just bought a Toshiba notebook that has a Realtek Audio driver and I do not like it all. Recommendations would be very welcome.
 
kage said:
I have the Asus N61JQ-X1 Notebook PC and the Creative Gigaworks T20 Series II speakers. I don't listen or rip my cds to lossy compressed music (MP3s, WMA, AAC, etc), but I usually rip my cds to WMA Lossless to my external hard drive and listen to them with WMP 12. I don't like the Realtek Audio DAC with SRS software in my notebook. I would like some recommendations on which external sound card is good.
Click to expand...

First, the I should the obligatory "What is your budget?" question.

For the sound card, I think the most popular option right now would be a Nuforce Icon uDAC-2, which you can grab for $130 on Amazon:

http://www.nuforce.com/hp/products/iconudac2/
http://www.amazon.com/NuForce-Icon-uDAC-2-Black-Headphone/dp/B003Y5FRNS

I would also seriously suggest investing in better speakers (in fact, I'd do that before going for an external sound card). Of course any recommendation is going to depend on what your budget is.
 
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King of Heroes said:
First, the I should the obligatory "What is your budget?" question.

For the sound card, I think the most popular option right now would be a Nuforce Icon uDAC-2, which you can grab for $130 on Amazon:

http://www.nuforce.com/hp/products/iconudac2/
http://www.amazon.com/NuForce-Icon-uDAC-2-Black-Headphone/dp/B003Y5FRNS

I would also seriously suggest investing in better speakers (in fact, I'd do that before going for an external sound card). Of course any recommendation is going to depend on what your budget is.
Click to expand...

+1

http://estore.nuforce.com/products/NuForce-Icon-uDAC2%252dHP-%28Black%29-Headphone-Amp-and-USB-DAC-%2824bit%7B47%7D96kHz%29-%5BRefurbished%5D.html

refurbed notebook version is half the price though but with only USB input.
 
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aZn_plyR said:
+1

http://estore.nuforce.com/products/NuForce-Icon-uDAC2%252dHP-%28Black%29-Headphone-Amp-and-USB-DAC-%2824bit%7B47%7D96kHz%29-%5BRefurbished%5D.html

refurbed notebook version is half the price though but with only USB input.
Click to expand...

I don't think the version you linked to has RCA output. it's the uDAC2-HP which retails for 100$.

I just bought the uDAC2 from

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-bLK9ANOugR7/p_773UDAC2B/NuForce-uDAC-2-Black.html

Use 3A825 at checkout to bring the price down to 109$. (Free shipping, no tax)
 
If you're looking for a high end USB gamer-centric card, I recommend the new Creative one:

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Soun...EDCA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1298503760&sr=8-2

I might be selling mine b/c I got tired of using my laptop as an HTPC so I decided to run a long HDMI cable from my desktop. There was a definite upgrade in sound with the Creative USB card compared to the output of my laptop through my M-Audio BX-8s. Only used it for a month now it's just sitting in its box.

Let me know if you're interested.
 
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