Laptop Sound outputSo my laptop sound output is pretty bad. I was looking into getting something that would boost it and make is sound better.

I was looking at getting one of these USB adapters because they are cheap:

Ebay item number 1

This is originally what I was searching for, (a PCMCIA one) but they are way more expensive than I can afford:

Ebay item number 2

Anyone ever use one of these or know if the expensive one would be that much better? Is the USB one cheaper tecnology, or is the PCMCIA better?

If the poor sound quality is due to a crummy built-in laptop sound chip, I doubt the usb adapter is going to change much in sound quality.

I'd go with the SOUND BLASTER AUDIGY card.

any chance it could be a crappy headphone jack and the USB one will provide me with a good one?

The built in speakers are pretty crappy, but that's to be expected, I guess.

I use a Sonica from M-Audio (and I think I paid a lot less than US$66 for it), and it is definitely superior to the built-in headphone jack.

Interesting

Do you have a link for that thing?

I could. Or you could google it yourself.

Hm, my laptop sounds great through headphones. But I hate listening to the normal speakers. I bought a fm transmitter cuz my stereo is right next to it, but getting a clear signal sucks ass. and i've even used a car cassette adapter, and that sounds good...but its really lame. eh.

What do DJs and musicians use that use their laptop and produce awesome sound? (Some sort of mixer i presume...but I have no knowledge of music)

Variety of methods. A lot of them record and mix internally, and then burn it to CD -- so they never have to really hear it. (Not "reference" quality hear it.)

Or something like an Apogee Mini-DAC (and yes, you are reading that correctly -- it goes to "11"), or one of their higher end models. Or something from Lexicon, or some of the other high-end manufacturers. Actually, a lot of them use M-Audio, as they make a variety of very good products. There's also a brand name with Cow in it...Flying Cow...no, that's M-Audio, also...I think Benchmark makes something, but the M-Audio is a really nice compromise between just getting the sound out of the laptop (I.E. moving the soundcard away from the computer alone is a big plus) and portability (it's nicely small) and price (cheap).

So I bought one of these:

http://www.eagepc.com/store.cfm?do=deta ... 54&p=10722

and it is awesome. I just plug it into my usb and it becomes the sound device for output, and the sound is way better than the port on my laptop.

I got it cheaper on ebay from this same dude, but he sent me a coupon code with my auction for free shipping from his site if anyone is interested.

Well I guess it's too late now, but for anyone else interested in something like Timmy wanted, there is this: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 81-0331000

GDI