reasonable audio solution for my laptop.

[T2urtle]

Here is my whole situation.

I HAD a dell insprion 9300 with no sound. I bought it a 1.3 years ago and so i'm out of warranty. Its not a software issue at all. I know for a FACT that it is hardware related. My audio port solder points became loose and was wiggleing around. I took the laptop apart and attempted to resolder. Now i have aleast some sound if i have headphones connected to it. its either mono or just right side. At this point i figured i was on the right track. I did about 2 more trial and error attempts to resolder and same results. Well its better then nothing. But now i want sound!! I called up dell and asked if they sold the port seperate and attempted to solder it on. The answer is no, only the motherboard is aviable for $299. Ebay prices are $299 as well.

Here are my thoughts now. I could pick up one of these PCMCIA cards and get a cheap 2.1 speaker combo.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...844957?ie=UTF8
i can get one for roughly $50 and i assume a decent creative/logitech 2.1 is $50. --- so for a total of 100$ i have audio back. Possibly a lot better then what i had before, just lost of portablilty but i don't mind.

Now my questions would this be the MOST reasonable solution for this? I normally overlook the simple other solutions here and there, this is mainly why i'm asking you guys.


edit/// oh yea if this is the reasonable solution can someone find me some fairly decent $50 speakers? I bought a 2.1 creative speakers, More of a budget setup for $43 and they rather stink. I'm not a big audio buff person but those really stink.

 

[Raduque]

I don't know much about cheap computer speakers, but another choice for a soundcard for you if you don't mind things tethered to your laptop, is the SBLive! USB if you can find it. I bought one a while back for about $20

 

[T2urtle]

is this the one you speak of

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00030.../102-6650434-7844957?v=glance&n=172282

i dont mind at all. with a battery life of 1.5 hours on this laptop. its a desktop to me.

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

USB laptop speakers?

 

[pcmodem]

Howdy,
If your on-board sound system is bad due to a cheap sound chip or a malfunctioning or quasi-functioning sound port, even expensive speakers will not help.

In this case, I'd recommend something akin to a Creative Audigy 2ZS PCMIA sound card. Plug your speakers into this baby and you'll have respectable sound.

If you can find a used set of the Polk Audio 2.0 speakers ($90 when new), I'd recommend those. No subwoofer, but each speaker has a tweeter, midrange, and woofer built-in, so they have a full sound. Believe it or not, they play classical music respectably.


Cheers,
PCM

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: T2urtle
is this the one you speak of

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00030.../102-6650434-7844957?v=glance&n=172282

i dont mind at all. with a battery life of 1.5 hours on this laptop. its a desktop to me.

Close, but the one I have only has a set of RCA line in/out, optical in/out and a minijack in/out. It's not the "24bit" edition.

 

[corkyg]

I changed my laptop's wimpy sound system by adding a Creative Audigy 2NX, external USB 2 module. It has great input/output ports, and is nice and small. To that I added an external stereo box for sound. Sounds better than my desktop system.

2NX