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Forum Guru
      
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| Hello All! I am looking into purchasing an external sound card for my Dell Laptop. I want to make sure that the equalizer will show up and be compatible with Vista. Can anyone vouch for a particular type? I have the capability to use the Sound Blaster X-Fi express card or I could choose the Sound Blaster Live. Turtle Beach doesn't seem to be compatible with Vista. Can someone please help out so I don't end up spending money on something that will be of no use to me. I should mention that the reason I am looking into this is because I have a SigmaTel card now and I can't here most of the little words occurring in my transcriptions. Sigma Tel has no equalizer. Thank you all!!
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Supreme Being
      
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| Hello - I installed the SoundBlaster Live external sound card onto my computer with Vista and it works great. I am able to adjust the equalizer settings very easily and so far, I'm very happy with it. I am not using it on a laptop, but I'm assuming it would work just the same. I'm waiting to get a test back right now and hoping the sound card made a difference with all of those little words I was missing before. Good luck!  Lanie
Lanie
Happily Employed M-TEC Grad, 2010
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| Thanks Lanie, that's good to hear. I will give it a try. Did you order yours online? Best of luck on your test results! Keep me posted. Lorrie
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Supreme Being
      
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Hi Lorrie,
I have a Dell laptop with XP and the SigmaTel card. I use the Sound Blaster Live external sound card, and it works great! There is a definite difference in sound quality. I bought mine at Office Depot.
Hope that helps.
Carrie
Carrie Hebert Proud M-TEC Graduate, July 2009 M-TEC Chapter of AHDI-2009 Membership Chair
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| Excellent Carrie! It seems like that is the way to go since it is under $50. I don't have XP so I didn't know if the equalizer would show up if the software wasn't compatible. Glad to know it helped you out. Did you notice an improvement in discerning the little words? Lorrie
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Supreme Being
      
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| Lorrie - Well, I just got my test back and I must say that I am very pleased. I only had a few missed little words on this one versus over a dozen on my last test. I really do think it's attributable to the new sound card, especially since the doctor on this test mumbled and stumbled quite a bit. I purchased mine at Circuit City for around $50 and it's well worth it. My next big purchase is going to be quality headphones. Lanie
Lanie
Happily Employed M-TEC Grad, 2010
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| Congratulations Lanie! Glad it helped. I found a Sound Blaster PCI Express Card at Office Depot for under $50.00!! I need to go order that now! Thanks for the advice!
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Well I received the wrong sound card in the mail last week so I am still taking any suggestions on external soundcards for laptops. I was hoping to get an express card sound card and received a regular sound card. Anyone have an express card sound card for their dell? They look pretty cool and compact but $80.00 might be a bit much if the quality of sound doesn't change a whole lot.
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| I got a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Amigo. It is tiny, easy to use, and has an on-screen equalizer that really helps with hard words. Oh yeah, it was about $29 from the Turtle Beach web site. I tried looking on Ebay, but there were so many no-name brands for $5 to wade through, I got fed up! Hope this helps. Anita
Anita Sale- Graduated and employed October 2009
- Member, AHDI, OA-AHDI
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Sorry it took me so long to respond Lorrie. I did notice a BIG improvement in discerning the little words. I find that the difference is in being able to manipulate the tone of voice that you hear. The sound card that came with the computer didn't allow any adjusting.
Carrie
Carrie Hebert Proud M-TEC Graduate, July 2009 M-TEC Chapter of AHDI-2009 Membership Chair
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