Best Sounding non Apple Laptop

[NigelF]

I want to replace my ageing laptop and looking for best integrated sounding laptop, here are some key requirements. No Apples for me Please

Must have:

Windows 7 64 bit

CPU i7

RAM min 4GB

HD 500GB

Graphic Card: good for HD video playback.

Sound : Must have integrated sound card with Optical Out and SQ on par or better then Apple

Weight : as light as possible

Any suggestion: Thanks.

 

[SteveR750]

So long as you have an optical out or a decent usb DAC the it's down to the music payer software you use, and making sure it can stream directly to your external DAC as windows adds all kinds of interference. I bought a Sony Viao VPCF121SE for around the same price as a macbook pro, and with J River media centre should get similar sonic results as the latter running itunes through the optical out.

 

[Overdose]

If you are taking a digital output from any laptop to an outboard DAC, I cannot imagine that you would notice any difference in sound quality separating them.

In which case, don't worry about sound quality and focus on the other aspects of your laptop spec requirements.

 

[AnotherJoe]

There arent that many laptops out there with a spdif out - most have an HDMI out so theres no real need.

Dell Alienware's have an spdif - but they are quite expensive. You might want to think about just getting a USB DAC.

 

[d4v3pum4]

The Dell XPS laptops are meant to have good speakers. I heard a new laptop with the Dr Dre speakers and they were good. I wouldn't pay for the badge though but the sound was pretty good.