Beginners Sound card / laptop questions

[garykeene]

Hi there,

I've digitised most of my music collection and have it on an external (Western Digital) drive.

I'm now looking to buy a new laptop and a pair of Tapco S8s speakers.

Does the soundcard have a noticable impact on the quality of the sound output by the PC? If it does, is there a particular laptop you'd recommend? Or would it be possible / easier to buy the laptop I like and replace it's sound card?

Also - what cabling would you advise me to buy to link my laptop to the speakers? With hi-fi I've always budgeted 10% of the item cost for cabling...is that the case with cabling here, or would I be wasting money? Also, is there a maximum length the cabling before the signal quality noticeably drops away?

Many thanks!





Gary

[mjc]

First, most laptops have onboard audio only (yeah there are a few with discrete sound cards, but they tend to be hard to find or cost a lot more).

Yes, the quality of the card does have a major impact...for serious listening for a desktop (not a laptop) you would want at least an X-Fi or one of the 'pro' cards.

For PC applications, you don't have much choice when it comes to cables...the standard output jacks on the sound cards just aren't set up to allow much in the way of alternate cabling schemes...besides, the pitiful power levels of the amplifiers on the sound card can't really handle it. To get the best sound, you would use the line-out to a 'real' amp and then stick to whatever your normal cables/speakers are.