laptop soundcard upgrade

dreamers75

I need to upgrade the soundcard in a laptop (imo more suited to here than laptops as cleverer people here).

I am looking at a turtle beach solution

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/audio-advantage-srm/home.aspx


bascially i setup commentary on live football matches via internet and have 2 superb new mics that refuse to work properly via the onboard sound card. crappy cheap ones work but sound quality isnt great (laptop is fine just crappy sigmatel inbuilt audio)

so i need to either get a preamp or an external soundcard, asi have no clue about amps and stuff the soundcard appeals to me the most as i know about them


Anyone any experience with external USB soundcards? mainly turtle beach

cherryghost

dreamers75 wrote: »

I need to upgrade the soundcard in a laptop (imo more suited to here than laptops as cleverer people here).

I am looking at a turtle beach solution

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/audio-advantage-srm/home.aspx


bascially i setup commentary on live football matches via internet and have 2 superb new mics that refuse to work properly via the onboard sound card. crappy cheap ones work but sound quality isnt great (laptop is fine just crappy sigmatel inbuilt audio)

so i need to either get a preamp or an external soundcard, asi have no clue about amps and stuff the soundcard appeals to me the most as i know about them



Anyone any experience with external USB soundcards? mainly turtle beach

I have, and I had voltage issues. The sound would pop and go. There was a fix for it that involved plugging the external sound card into a USB hub that amplified the voltage input from the default USB port. Crazy I know.

When it does work, the sound is beautiful. Crisp, clear, clean. It's great! But there are issues to take into account, mainly about reliability as I just said.

Anyways, is it headphones you'll be connecting or speakers?

ED E

You want a firewire/usb Audio interface. Gotta have 2 preamp channels too, not line ins.

This would do fine: http://www.thomann.de/ie/maudio_fast_track_pro.htm

dreamers75

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

You want a firewire/usb Audio interface. Gotta have 2 preamp channels too, not line ins.

This would do fine: http://www.thomann.de/ie/maudio_fast_track_pro.htm

Was looking at something similiar on thomman but other one only had 1 in.

Anyways, is it headphones you'll be connecting or speakers?

http://www.proaudio.com/product_info.php?products_id=2270

these babies with 3.5 jacks instead of the XLR connection.

ED E

200/400 ohm, gray housing

That there is why they dont work. The sigmatel just doesnt have the juice to run them.

You'll need the two pre's. Also, XLRs are used for their shielding, I'd stick with them as they're less likely to cause interference and are the industry standard for mic connections.

dreamers75

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

That there is why they dont work. The sigmatel just doesnt have the juice to run them.

You'll need the two pre's. Also, XLRs are used for their shielding, I'd stick with them as they're less likely to cause interference and are the industry standard for mic connections.

Cables didnt come with them, €60 each for the 3.5s :eek: Also the same price for the various XLR connections.

ED E

dreamers75 wrote: »

Cables didnt come with them, €60 each for the 3.5s :eek: Also the same price for the various XLR connections.

Is it a 3rd party connection to the headphones themselves?

dreamers75

http://www.beyerdynamic.de/en/broadcast-studio-video-production/products/accessories/cables.html?tx_sbproductdatabase_pi1[showUid][showUID]=2185&tx_sbproductdatabase_pi1[showUid][backPID]=101&cHash=15c3735321

K 109.48 3m
Order ID: 481.688

Connecting cable for DT 109 series with 2x 3.5mm stereo jack plugs

Technical Specifications
Connecting cable for DT 109 series with 2x 3.5mm stereo jack plugs, to connect to PC soundcards, 3m length

official connector, one works perfectly on my desktop but the sigmatel is my big problem.

I can get them working on the laptop but as above the sound is terrible.

ED E

dreamers75 wrote: »

http://www.beyerdynamic.de/en/broadcast-studio-video-production/products/accessories/cables.html?tx_sbproductdatabase_pi1[showUid][showUID]=2185&tx_sbproductdatabase_pi1[showUid][backPID]=101&cHash=15c3735321



official connector, one works perfectly on my desktop but the sigmatel is my big problem.

I can get them working on the laptop but as above the sound is terrible.

I doubt this will work but have you gone into the CP and set the line amp to max(+20dB)?

dreamers75

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

I doubt this will work but have you gone into the CP and set the line amp to max(+20dB)?

Yup actually makes it worse, going to have to find a cheap pre amp usb compatibile