Re: Low Lantecy Soundcard for Laptop Gig

["Tilmann Dehnhard" <tilmann@dehnhard.com>]

hi krispen, my thinkpad makes little chirping noises on the headphone 
output.
seems to come from the harddisc. is audible silence.
that's why i never even considered using it for music.

tilmann

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Krispen Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 6:27 AM
Subject: Re: Low Lantecy Soundcard for Laptop Gig


> ----- Original Message ----- 
>
>> It's true about the line level. I have a dual channel mic pre that is
>> pretty quiet that I use. But I'm surprised that you find the internal
>> sound of your ThinkPad to be on par with the Indigo-- my feeling is that
>> the A/D and amps in the Indigo are far cleaner than anything you can 
>find
>> in a stock laptop. .. maybe your ThinkPad is an unusual creature?
>
> All I can think of is that most all the PC notebooks out today with 
>Intel 
> duo core
> processors have the sound integrated into their motherboard with the 
> chipset,
> rather than a separate "sound card". It's their integrated HD (high 
> definition)
> audio, and I can say at least that the output is superior to other 
>prior, 
> stock
> sound cards in PC laptops. I'm not sure about the input, but in my case 
>it
> sounds pretty damn good with the "ASIO for All" driver.  The standard 
> driver
> sounds like crap, but this is no reflection on the hardware. I think 
>this 
> is where
> there is a lot of confusion. A poor driver can make just about any piece 
> of
> hardware (external or internal) sound bad. That being said, 
>theoretically, 
> I
> can't tell any difference between the small cardbus Indigo unit and the 
> integrated
> HD audio of the ThinkPad...it's all just hardware and software, and the 
> advantage
> of the integrated audio is that there is no intermediate device (the 
> cardbus and its
> transfer rate)...I have to believe that the speed of the transference of 
> data on the
> motherboard for the HD audio is much faster than the cardbus.
>
>>> Really? Is this because of the speed of firewire? I thought the newer
>>> firewire was a lot faster than cardbus.
>>
>> Faster in terms of bandwidth, yes. More data can fly down that new
>> firewire pipe. But as I recall, firewire sends things in packets, and
>> there are interrupts and delivery mechanisms within the hardware and
>> software that add a translation layer so that the data has to jump 
>> through
>> more hoops before it reaches the audio application. So, more bandwidth 
>> but
>> lower latency. CardBus is a more direct connection with the processor.
>
> Gotch ya.
>
> Kris
>