Soundcard to go with Dell Latitude E6400?

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Posted by Spire on Jan-07-2010 15:34:

Soundcard to go with Dell Latitude E6400?

I have a Dell Latitude E6400, and I am sick of the shitty onboard sound (I hear a tone when I lift my mouse from the surface!), high latency and general interference.

I do not do any recording, but might in the future. Natively supported FX are important if they're high-quality and usable, otherwise they're obviously not a selling point.

Not that I have a bottomless money well, but don't consider the budget when suggesting (on second thought, make it <$400). I would like to see ALL options. Excellent Windows 7 support is critical.

Which way should I go? PCMCIA, USB or FW? Also, anyone else have an E6400? Please sound off about your general satisfaction with it, whether you use it as a primary or a secondary system, etc.

As for my own research, I have heard of E-MU's iffy W7 support. I've also read that an Echo Indigo wouldn't offer anything to me other than a lower ASIO/WDM latency.

Thank you all.

Posted by david.michael on Jan-07-2010 19:22:

Re: Soundcard to go with Dell Latitude E6400?

quote:
Originally posted by Spire
Also, anyone else have an E6400? Please sound off about your general satisfaction with it, whether you use it as a primary or a secondary system, etc.

I use an E6400 as my work machine (posting from it now), so I can't much comment on its performance from a production standpoint. But, I will say the machine is pretty solid and I haven't had any significant problems with it that weren't software-related. It runs well and hasn't given me any headaches. Agreed that the onboard sound is not the best.

Posted by DJ RANN on Jan-07-2010 20:55:

Choosing a soundcard is about finding the right combination of I/O and getting somehting that fits that requirement in a stable and high quality (in terms of conversion) solution.

I can heartily recommend Echo's Audiofire range, and frankly, that range has something for everyone.

I would suggest going for the audiofire4, as the 2 is only slightly less money but limits you far more in terms of connectivity.

My AF4 has been flawless and sounds amazing. IMO, the best pro-sumer interface under $500. I'll also take the sound quality over a MOTU at double the price (although in fairness you pay more for the extra I/O that MOTU provide).

Posted by Magnus on Jan-08-2010 01:31:

Spire I thought I would add that at work I use a the same E6400 running Windows 7 and the sound was incredibly shitty. I discovered by going into the soundcard's advanced option, there is a checkmark to disable audio enhancements. Once I checked this box, sound was totally normal. Worth a shot in the meantime until you get better audio hardware.