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    can anyone recommend me a good external sound card? for SXPS16

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by dellstudio15, Apr 20, 2009.

  1. dellstudio15

    dellstudio15 Notebook Enthusiast

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    i dont know much about these external sound cards so can someone else with experience help me out? i am looking for an external sound card for my studio xps 16 and i cant decide which one to get. thanks guys!
     
    dellstudio15, Apr 20, 2009
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  2. joeytav

    joeytav Notebook Geek

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    What do you require it for? Audio recording or just surround sound?
     
    joeytav, Apr 20, 2009
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  3. Persnickety

    Persnickety Notebook Evangelist

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    Exactly, but I'll just add a few more questions:
    Headphones (stereo)?
    Stereo line-out?

    If audio recording,
    How many inputs?
    Do you need XLR?
    Microphone inputs?

    And finally, are any of your ports spoken from? I ask because I see it has Firewire (how many of those ports?) and an Expresscard slot, giving you quite a few options.

    Oh, and budget would be nice. Otherwise the sky is the limit.
     
    Persnickety, Apr 20, 2009
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  4. dellstudio15

    dellstudio15 Notebook Enthusiast

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    ok so this is mainly for music. i am also looking for no more than 5.1 surround sound. which ever gives the best sound quality (firewire or expresscard slot).

    butdget is about $100-$150
     
    dellstudio15, Apr 20, 2009
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  5. ImakE

    ImakE Notebook Evangelist

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    Does your receiver take HDMI? You can also get USB toslink connectors as well.

    Are you hooking this up to an integrated amp (where you would need quality analog output).
     
    ImakE, Apr 20, 2009
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  6. Persnickety

    Persnickety Notebook Evangelist

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    Actually, I think we can save you almost entirely that amount if we're lucky.

    Turns out, from my limited web search, that the XPS 16 comes with 5.1 out-of-the-box.
    This is most likely an optical out, and most likely it's the minijack that does double-duty as an optical out. So do you already have a surround speaker set-up that takes digital (SP/DIF or optical)?

    It could also be another port, though, but I can't seem to find it. All I know is that it comes with 5.1, so you need some sort of cable to connect your speakers to your computer, and not a sound card, even though, we could propably find a nice Exprescard that support 5.1 (my first thought is the X-FI)
    It might actually be the HDMI-port.

    Someone more knowing about the Studio XPS 16 would surely help right about now ...
     
    Persnickety, Apr 20, 2009
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  7. AEDan1977

    AEDan1977 Notebook Consultant

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    The 5.1 digital sound comes out of the HDMI port, there are no other hookups so unless you have a HDMI to Optical or Digital Coax then you will still need an external sound card if you want digital. I would recommend anything from Creative Labs they make good consumer sound cards at reasonable prices.
     
    AEDan1977, Apr 21, 2009
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