I've just finished backing up all the MPCs to CD-R. Now that I have them, I've thought of a new use: I could play them on my laptop, which I can connect to the stereo in the living room.

My laptop however only has a 1/8" mini-phone jack line-out and the sound output is not good enough.

I'd really appreciate any of your advice, opinions or experiences on the matter.

You should use a USB audio adapter... do a search or look up products from Xitel, Stereo-Link and M-Audio.

Would these products equal the performance of a really good sound card?

I personally use the SL1200 from Stereo-Link with my laptop. I've had it for about a year now and have no complaints. The difference between my laptop's internal sound card (Yamaha YMF744) and the SL1200 is night and day. It gets a recommendation from me.

If your audio system can accept a digital signal (SPDIF) you will get perfect (in theory) sound from a USB soundcard with SPDIF output.

If not, there are some USB sound cards you can connect to your laptop that will sound pretty good.

Check out the links given above and also at: Sound Professionals they sell a number of USB audio cards.