Program to make laptop sound better?

[Vanquished]

Hey,
I have the hp dv9000z laptop.

It has two headphone jacks in the front (apparently one is also spdif)

And I have a really basic 5.1 surround system (Duraband from walmart) its 80w with 40w being the subwoofer.

I also have a logitech 2.1 sound system (x240) where the subwoofer kicks ass and its only a 15-20 watt sub. Is there any program that I can use that lets me more control the headphone jack to be channels to a 5.1 sound more?

This might be a shot in the dark but it was worth asking.

 

[Johnny]

you would have to get a usb sound card, or sound card express card. The computer itself will not make it sound better

Or what you could do, if your surround sound will allow it; hook the spdif up to your surround sound. That would make it sound sick, as you would get up to 8 channels with it.

 

[falconguard]

The easiest thing would be to use the SPDIF connection and then run this to the 5.1 system. However, running the cheap 5.1 system you have, I am not sure if they have a coaxial input.

If this is a Vista machine, you can try and get an additional soundcard that has a 5.1 connection port.

If this is XP there are a number of DSP's that will give you more control. DFX, SRS, and some other ones that allow you, to adjust certain settings that would give you more control. Spatiality, brightness, bass, and so on.

Johnny is pretty much right. There is little control unless you add something.


oh, most of those dsp's don't work on vista, becuase of teh way the kernel processes audio, as opposed to the way Xp did it.

 

[Vanquished]

The easiest thing would be to use the SPDIF connection and then run this to the 5.1 system. However, running the cheap 5.1 system you have, I am not sure if they have a coaxial input.

If this is a Vista machine, you can try and get an additional soundcard that has a 5.1 connection port.

If this is XP there are a number of DSP's that will give you more control. DFX, SRS, and some other ones that allow you, to adjust certain settings that would give you more control. Spatiality, brightness, bass, and so on.

Johnny is pretty much right. There is little control unless you add something.


oh, most of those dsp's don't work on vista, becuase of teh way the kernel processes audio, as opposed to the way Xp did it.

It is vista, and The surround does have coaxial input.

on my other xp laptop i had some srs program or something, that was what I was looking for, for vista, but I guess it doesnt work on vista.

Thanks,
Everyone.

 

[LeeJend]

The sound package that came with your chipset should have the ability to select your output type - heaphone, 2 channel, 5.1 (maybe). Make sure all the chipset and add on software that came with the laptop is installed.

Also visit the chipset and HP websites to see if they have released better VISTA drivers and support sotware.

Then look at the different player software Realplayer, WINAMP, etc. they usually have enhancement plugins for effects and equalizers, etc. Not sure which support VISTA.

 

[falconguard]

LeeJend,

Most of the DSPs' for any of the players out there don't support Vista. The only one where I have heard an audible difference is the ASIO plugin for Foobar, winamp and media monkey. The kernel just does process audio the way XP did, so when you apply signal processing you end up with a lot of skips or some other audio garbage.

The ASIO plugin makes a really big difference in high bit rate music.

 

[Johnny]

Thay make USB speaker systems for laptops. They have good sound - It is cheaper that was because you will not have to buy a another sound card for it.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/notebook_products/speakers/devices/3503&cl=us,en

 

[LordOfLA]

creative have a pc card x-fi I do believe, failing that they have an x-fi in an external USB box too.

 

[Johnny]

creative have a pc card x-fi I do believe, failing that they have an x-fi in an external USB box too.

These :

Info: http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=17988

Info: http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=16642

I have one thing to say about these cards - THEY ARE AWESOME !!