Recommend laptop with good soundcard

[redryder]

Hi guys, as it is very inconvenient to move my PC, I intend to get a laptop to connect to my keyboard to work on. I've never bought a laptop before, but my impression is that the soundcard is probably an afterthought and quality won't be good.

Anyone has recommendation for laptop with good sound? I'll be using headphones. Macs are out, as my software is windows only.

 

[bryan1234]

which brand do u prefer?

 

[Cheez]

You'll need an audio interface. Don't use the build-in soundcard. You have many choices - USB, firewire, or PCMCIA. I would suggest the latter 2. Many firewire options. PCMCIA - Echo Indigo. If you are using keyboard and need midi, then you may want firewire with midi in/out. PCMCIA doesn't have midi.

 

[gutturalpiss]

The conventional built-in cards on laptops and desktops have average DAC/ADC chips, let alone good preamps (yes, the sound card is also a preamp in the technical sense). The input, whether line or mic, is pretty weak.

Macbooks have only a line-in, whereas most laptops have only a mic-in. Plugging in a line-level signal (eg. from a mixer operating at SOR) to the line-in of such a card will result in too high a level, while plugging in a low z to a line or mic-in of the same card will be just ok - not optimal. Both cases, there is some inherent noise (not audible, but present).

With all that said, they can still function well for some use-cases like live performance, given the right setup. I have a compaq v3000 laptop which I use as an effects processor, and it has no dedicated audio hardware except for 1/4"-1/8" adapters. The chain is [[ Guitar -> V3000 -> Amp ]] all within just 8ms (in) and 2ms (out) worth of latencies (excluding distance from amp). Note: Not possible with Windows =p