If the song sounds good through the headphones, but lousy from the speakers--it's not the sound card's fault--it's the speaker system.

Most OEM sound cards work just fine, and more often than not they'll provide you with excellent quality recordings, both midi and audio (.wav/mp3). I wish I had a dollar for every person that thought their recordings would dramatically improve just by changing the sound card--hell, I could have been retired by now.

The bottom line is the card is likely not the culprit. The easy test is to put a professionally recorded CD in the laptop,fire it through the speakers, then plug in the headphones and take note of the difference. If the speakers don't sound as good as the headphones, and you cannot tune the sound system to closely match the headphones using the EQ, etc, then it's time to think seriously about buying a new sound system.

Good Luck,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy