Soundcard recommendations

[gruss72]

Its been a long time since I've read up on any of this stuff and was hoping for some recommendations for a nice sounding USB or PCMCIA sound card for my laptop which has an atrocious card in it. The last card I bough was an Audigy a few years ago for my aging desktop and it sounded ok for the price but something a little bettter would be nice as I'll be using this to hook up to an Onkyo TX-SV646 and some Epicure 2.0's. Looking for bang for the buck here for music so fancy "surround modes" and stuff are unimportant, any help is appreciated.

[bacchanal]

Well it kind of depends on how you're hooking it up and what you want to pass to the receiver.

Creative has a USB Sounblaster Live that is 24/48 and would give you some flexibility in allowing for 5.1 analog or SPDIF out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102174

M-Audio has some interesting options that are really more meant for recording, but could work. The Transit would be nice if you are looking to use an optical out.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Transit/
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FastTrackUSB

I'm not really sure how any of these compare in sound quality, but I think it's fair to say that they would all be an upgrade from the onboard audio on the laptop.

[Feanor]

Its been a long time since I've read up on any of this stuff and was hoping for some recommendations for a nice sounding USB or PCMCIA sound card for my laptop which has an atrocious card in it.....


I use an M-Audio Audiophile USB external card in my system ...
http://www.maudio.co.uk/products/en_gb/AudiophileUSB-main.html

See a photo below. Also see my configuration, including this device, here: http://gallery.audioreview.com/showphoto.php?photo=1632&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=500


Another, slightly simpler option is from Xitel:
http://www.xitel.com/product_phfl.htm

[gruss72]

Thanks for the options guys, the soudblaster looks like a steal for less than 50 bucks, but I remember the extigy and thought it always had kind of a brittle/digital sound even playing un compressed music...I would imagine this would be an improvement over that, and even an original extigy would blow my notebook outta the water, the usb powered is perfect since I travel occasionally with a notebook from work with a fried soundcard..either would probably fit the bill.
I didn't realize there were decent options so cheap, any quick impressions on how either one sounds? Dont need a full blow review, is the maudio transit worth the 20 bucks? for the occasional decent stereo listening or kinda cheesy headphone listening? I guess the 5.1 could come in handy in the family room but that would not happen very often so as always I would prefer better stereo quality from the line out then gimmicks/gadgets. I can use the digital outs at home

[Feanor]

I haven't heard the M-Audio Transit USB, but if it's only $20, how far wrong can you go?

The M-Audio Audiophile USB the I use definitely sounds good -- nothing shrill or brittle about it to my ear. I don't own a $1000+ CD player, just my Sony SCD-CE775; I would say that the Audiophile USB is better than the Sony, at least as detailed and a bit smoother.