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External sound cards / USB DAC's


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I recently bought myself a laptop for making music on the go. It's a Razer Blade 14" and it's great, but the on-board sound card is predictably crap - for example, when played through my headphones (which sound fine when plugged into my desktop), a 50Hz sine wave sounds more like a triangle wave. I'm thinking about getting an external USB sound card and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations. I won't be using any additional hardware so I don't need a proper audio interface with a bunch of different ins and outs, nor do I need anything particularly high-end. I'm considering one of these two.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing? I'm running Windows 8 (likely to be upgraded to 10 in the near future).

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What headphones are you using?

 

I would recommend getting a portable DAC/AMP. The market has exploded for these in the past couple of years, so there are a lot of good options to choose from. Check out this buying guide. The AMP portion and power of the device will depend on the headphones you have.

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Nice, those seem like excellent value headphones. Their impedance are 16 and 36 ohms, so they will work just fine with almost every DAC/AMP out there.

 

You will probably notice significant sound quality improvement by adding a portable DAC (digital to analogue converter). Most laptops (and smartphones) have poor quality DACs since this is not what most users care about. By connecting a portable DAC via USB, you bypass the on board sound card.

 

You can check the link I gave you and see what fits your budget. I've personally used a FiiO e7 on my laptop in the past on a similar setup and I was very happy with the quality, especially when comparing to direct laptop output. The build is also durable and will survive much punishment :D I would check out the latest FiiO, they consistently get great reviews, especially for the price/quality balance.

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Thanks. Do you know whether any of the models mentioned at he link are likely to be incompatible with USB 3.0 ports? One of the reviews I saw for the Arcam rPAC seemed to suggest this could be a problem.

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Hmmm I don't know, haven't had issues with USB 3.0 and DACs or AMPs. I would check any comments about the specific model, or ask the Head Fi community. They're very knowledgeable and helpful audiophiles, just don't get roped into the addictive spiral of continuously upgrading your audio gear... it tends to hurt the wallet :D

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