With the ongoing price drops with notebook computers aimed at the consumer retail market, it is no wonder that notebook sales are out pacing the desktop PC market. I see it quite often with my business clients which prefer replacing traditional desktops with a notebook computer. The advantages they site are space savings and the ability of taking their work home with them, without having another computer at home. When small business users meld the requirements for their technology between their professional and personal lives, they are sometimes forced to make compromises.

One of the common complaints that I hear from users making the switch from their desktop to a notebook PC, is that the sound of their notebook is not as robust as they would like. I always have to illustrate to these users that the internal speakers on their business notebooks are very small and lightweight and as such are not made for high-volume multi-media escapades. Now it is true that there are multi-media notebooks on the market that have good sound and even sub-woofers, but these notebooks tend to be more on the larger and heavier side; a big issue with small business road warriors. Still, these larger multi-media notebooks don’t compare with the audio quality from traditional consumer electronics.

For general listening, I recommend that my clients get PC speakers from Logitech, Creative or other companies. They are inexpensive enough that you can have a set in your office and at home. For most users, a good set of PC speakers is more than enough for listening to webcasts, the occasional DVD and listening to music. Notebook users should generally experience the same sound from these speakers as when they were using a desktop. The good thing about these types of speaker packages is that it all comes complete in one box, like a complete kit. The bad thing about them is that sometimes the connections are proprietary and if one satellite speaker blows or doesn’t work, you usually have to get a whole new set of speakers.

Using home recording monitors for high-performance audio?

For users that are very discerning about their audio, it is important to do your home work. I’ve seen some notebook users who think the way to go is to use a powered monitor like the Chinese-made KRK Rokit 5 from KRK Systems and an external pro-audio sound card. Monitors like these are made for the home recording market, but don’t be confused thinking that just because people generally use these to mix tracks that they sound the best. Sound is quite a subjective thing, and what sounds good to one person might not generally sound good to someone else. While it is true that monitors for home recording are generally designed so that the sound has a flat sound response, a flat sound is generally not ideal for home listening environments. If you are listening to music, watching a DVD or playing a video game, it is important that your sound be immersive, lively and have a wide dynamic range.

Smaller monitors like the Rockit 5’s are usually used as a tool by sound engineers so that they can approximate the sound of mainstream home electronics. In traditional recording studios, an engineer or producer would use a variety of different monitors to record and mix down tracks. Usually a small monitor would be used at the end to validate the mix done on very expensive, accurate and large monitors.

A good “sound” experience for the notebook user is to think about the entire chain, not just one or two products along the way. I know that powered monitors are convenient for many people, because they don’t have to worry about amplifiers and extra connections. I think the Rockit 5’s are a moderate value in this type of application, but more discerning listeners would be well advised to read the next section.

My recipe for a getting awesome sound out of your notebook PC

I generally don’t like powered monitors (especially the entry level ones). For a discerning audiophile, it is better to design a system based on your specific performance requirements using quality discreet components. Think of approaching a task like this the same way a chef would approach making a meal — use good quality ingredients, but if a component does not live to expectations, make sure your system (or recipe) is flexible enough to change.

A favorite set-up of mine is shown in Figure 1. As you will notice from the diagram, the notebook computer feeds an external sound device and goes into a direct injection box. In many cases, you can omit the external sound card and plug your equipment straight into an injection box. Some external USB sound interfaces have the facilities of a D.I. box — in a case like this, skip the D.I. box in the diagram. If you need a D.I. box for your notebook, give Radial Engineering’s JPC a look.

I like to feed my sound inputs into a compact preamplifier so that I have the flexibility of switching between other sound sources. In an application like this, I would prefer using a tube preamp feeding two compact tube mono-block amplifiers. I know that some people are squeamish around tube equipment. There are a lot of nice alternatives out there, just choose what works for you.

And when it comes to speakers, take your time auditioning different makes so that you find the perfect match for your ears and your room. When it comes to a set-up like this, take your time and experiment with different components until you find what works best for your ears.

High-Performance Audio Tips

In order for you to make the best of the audio performance on your notebook computer, I have assembled together a bunch of tips to aid in your journey.

Use only high-quality source material — Make sure that your digital audio and video files are encoded properly for playback using good quality encoding settings. I find that many users have poor quality audio files that may have gremlins from the analog world such as crosstalk, static and audible noise. In addition MP3 files are sometimes encoded at such high compression (very lossy), it really kills the dynamic range in the music and makes the music sound dull.

Install your system properly — Avoid taking short cuts in your installation process. I’ve seen problems where a user will install a 12 foot section of speaker wire on the left and a 4 foot length on the right side. To obtain good stereo imagery, make sure that all things are equal and cut speaker wire to equal lengths and make sure that both speakers are correctly angled and placed equidistant to the listener.

Comparatively test your system — To make sure you get the best performance out of your system, occasionally take inventory of your components and find out where you can make performance gains. When replacing interconnects or other components, try and do a comparative A-B test to evaluate the difference and fine-tune your system accordingly. Don’t be afraid to swap interconnects or speakers with your friends to evaluate their differences.

Tags: audio, Creative Labs, KRK Systems, laptop, Logitech, notebook, PC, Radial Engineering

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 1st, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Technology Solutions.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.