Re: Adding external sound card to laptop - UPDATE

bastXXXette@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
So, I promised an update on the laptop sound card situation: I'm
still using the same card that came with the laptop, but I now listen
with headphones. Apparently the output port was not meant for speakers
at all - it is for headphones. The sound is good.

I did buy an ASUS external USB sound device, but I never even opened
the package - I just returned it unused. After I heard the sound with
the headphones I realized that I didn't need another sound device.
(Prostrating self as promised. :))

Adrian, I might still order the recording device you suggested to me,
once I get back to the business of digitizing vinyl albums. But first
I need to have the stereo amp fixed (or replaced, if necessary), and
I don't know when I'll get to that.

Occasionally I still reconnect all my stuff to the old desktop PC, and
when I do, the sound coming from the speakers is much better. But that's
because the PC has separate speaker and headphone ports. The point being,
my speakers are functioning just fine, but they're not compatible with
the laptop.

Here's an interesting discovery I made: I have some software that
records anything that is playing on the PC - from a CD, a local MP3
file, or streaming audio from the web. If I record something while the
speakers are plugged in, the recording is inferior. But if I plug the
headphones in and record something, the recording quality is good. I
made an MP3 of each type of recording, and I brought the files to my
work computer so I could play them both on an entirely separate machine
as a test. I could hear a marked difference between the two.

This is really counterintuitive to me - I wouldn't expect that the
quality of a recording made from an internal sound card would be in
any way affected by which output device is attached. To me this implies
that there is some kind of feedback to the computer's sound system,
which does take the output quality into account during recording. Can
anyone comment on this? I don't understand how that works. I'm just
curious at this point, because I consider the situation to be resolved.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions!

J.
If you get funny sound when using speakers, I would suspect a build
in microphone not being switched off completely, producing
unwanted round coupling, and sound degradation.
.

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