I can't get any new stereo or anything anytime soon, all I have is a pair of good headphones. The portable broke so I can't use that. I don't have a room to put a cheap stereo or speakers in if I could get one in so I'm stuck with a laptop on a dining room table to play music on, that and a 20 year old shorted out clock radio.

Anyway, is there anyway to improve the laptop's headphone output? It's disgusting, put it to full volume with my good headphones and it's all hissing and if I minimize and maximize or switch programs there are little clicks and pops. I've heard many laptops with headphones before and it was relatively good sound with almost inaudible hiss, the crap they put in this Dell sounds like shit. I cannot believe this meets the standards for sound in a laptop, this isn't good enough for playback on a cheap portable tape recorder.

Since this is the only thing I can play music on at the moment until a new iRiver iMP-550 comes to play the few CDs I burned on it, I need to use this for it. Are there any drivers or programs I could run to fix this? It'd be quite impractical to use the portable to listen to music 24/7 so I'd need to use the computer sometimes, and this really sucks, I'll have to give up music for years if I can't fix this prob.

Thanks., any suggestions appreciated.

Sorry might not be too much help since this solution would involve spending a lot more money. I have seen devices such as this one Extigy that can connect to the usb on the laptop. I don't like creative products too much though probably there are other companies that make a similar solution. The audio experience does kind of suck on a laptop though? On my laptop it isn't too bad since I bought some 2.1 labtec speakers but still it isn't nearly as good as I would like it to be. Oh well, thats just the comprimise I have to make to have everything nice and small, Oh, as well there are devices like an md port which connect to the usb and have a optical or just a regular mini for your headphones. Maybe this would be a better solution? I don't know just throwing out ideas .

The $150 for the extigy could pay for a new stereo system...

I need a low to no cost solution, I was thinking like cleaning something out or a special program/driver or something that could fix the output.

Bah, parents suck.

#1: No parents, no you.

#2: If you want good sound you will have to get better speakers. Only Merlin can do magic.

1) Hmmm.. nah, just a me from another set of people.

2) I knew it. Thanks, I'll find some sort of solution to this. At least it's 10 times louder than the portable, with closed type headphones is GREAT for when I feel like deafening myself with good rock

Like I said the md port might be just what you are looking for, this is the one I own, md port I think it would do the job well plus it is fairly cheap although still overpriced imo.

You got a birthday coming up?

This may be a solution

Along with an ebay link, if you feel daring.

Parents can be a real bitch, I know, but sometimes they can come on something cool like this.

Wow. I'm so convinced by the last post that I've decided to order one of those 'Echo Indigo' devices for myself. If there's one thing that bothers me about my new laptop, it's the background noise that's audible when the volume is turned all the way up. I guess that won't be a problem for me anymore...

Looking forward to hearing more about the INDIGO>io, myself. Specifically, how much one must $hell out for it....

- M.

Well, I'll try to be useful here...

Two things I'd try:

1. Go into the mixer for the sound card. If you're playing mp3s from the hard drive turn down to zero (or off or mute or whatever) all the inputs other than WAVE (i.e. Line input, CD, etc..). I've seen sound cards that when cranked are picking up static and hiss from the CD drive thru the CD input even though there should be no input there. By turning them all off, you'll only be getting WAV (all digital formats are played by the sound card as WAV) sound. This may eliminate some/all of the hiss (or unfortunately, it may not help).

2. If you're playing mp3s you can check (using MP3Gain) whether the mp3s are as loud as possible (without clipping or destroying the sound). If it's music from a modern CD you probably can't increase the sound level of the mp3 as they tend to be compressed/amplified to the max already. But if it's older stuff, you might be able to increase the volume of the mp3 and not have to turn the volume level to 10 on your laptop. Do a search here if you need more info on MP3Gain for mp3s. This tip likely won't be helpful, but is worth checking.

Good luck...

The indigo rules. I had it for a while. Well worth the money.

Thanks, that helped get rid of the clicking and all, but there's some hiss still there. Good thing the iRiver portable is coming soon, the iMP-550 had better not have that same annoying background noise problem that the 350 had, I returned that right after I bought it.