Audio quality of T40

[atct86]

How is the audio qulaity of the T40.

I am interested in one of thoose PC Card sound cards, but wonder if i could really tell a difference. if the sound is good I would like to purchase some nice 2.1 speakers.

[Leon]

purchase the speakers AND the sound card, and you will get very good sound......

[Kenn]

How is the audio qulaity of the T40.

I am interested in one of thoose PC Card sound cards, but wonder if i could really tell a difference. if the sound is good I would like to purchase some nice 2.1 speakers.

The sound quality isn't bad, but remember that the speakers are at the bottom front of the laptop, pointing down towards the table. This isn't designed to be an audio powerhouse and it's not going to bring down the house. With an add-in card and speakers though, it'll compete with anything out there.

[atct86]

Would there be a noticeable difference bewteen speakers connected to the audio out of the thinkpad, and a PC card sound card?

[Leon]

If you are looking for "acceptable" sound, amplified speakers will do well. If you want great sound, get the sound card!

[Laurence Spiegel]

The built in speakers are tinny and grating. My T40 is easily the best machine I've owned, but sound quality was not part of it's spec. They're marginal even for voice, such as the better speakers of the BBC world service.
You may want to toss some Koss headphones in your case as well.

[beeblebrox]

Actually, if you spend some time reading the technical spec of the sound DSPs you would be surprised that the T4x and T2x have excellent signal processors and higher-end (20bit) converters. They are even 7.1 full surround, and have been used in various PCI cards (e.g. Hercules, Soundblaster, etc.)
The analog layout on the T-series is quite good, without crosspolution from the digital circuitry.
However, in notebooks most are implemented in 2 channels only.
If you plug in a good link to your stereo amplifier, you can get really good sound and would have a hard time to hear significant difference to an external soundblaster card.
However, if you want 5.1 or 7.1 or a good line-in or micro, you have to go the USB cards way. Or try to get a WLAN link to avoid cables.

[Leon]

beeblebrox, thanks for putting details around "acceptable" vs "great" sound! Best description I've heard of the T4X sound system yet!

[beeblebrox]

just be careful with docking stations. They route the analog signal thru to the back port.
The analog signal at the end is crap. Good for the Windows beep, but not for anything else. Problem is the high-frequency signal emission from the digital lines.
So, the best way is to use the audio output on the notebook itself, because the analog signal there is not far away from the analog converters and amplifiers.
The ThinkPad is actually very noisy in terms of electromagnetic pollution, especially the RF-based switching power with its power cord bricks is like a small radio-station. Not very well shielded.

You also might consider using a bluetooth or WLAN connection to the amplifier to avoid ground-based signal distortion (happens sometimes) and all radio signal inductions on the audio cable.

But try the easy and cheap things first.

[marko]

I have a T40. Audio is nothing notable. No bass or treble controls by default. 3rd party software could solve that.

Let me note the Creative Audigy 2 PCMCIA card that was mentioned by someone earlier on this forum. I read a review about it on Tom's Hardware. Looks like one possible portable solution, if you need a portable sound solution. Appears to sticks out a little on top and may block one of your slots depending on the other card's setup.

For portable sound use where I listen to the music with my headphones, I am happy with the T40 and don't really need extra. Since the extra would be mostly needed at home it's a toss up b/w external or PCMCIA solution, at least for me.

[CChoi83]

Actually, if you spend some time reading the technical spec of the sound DSPs you would be surprised that the T4x and T2x have excellent signal processors and higher-end (20bit) converters. They are even 7.1 full surround, and have been used in various PCI cards (e.g. Hercules, Soundblaster, etc.)
The analog layout on the T-series is quite good, without crosspolution from the digital circuitry.
However, in notebooks most are implemented in 2 channels only.
If you plug in a good link to your stereo amplifier, you can get really good sound and would have a hard time to hear significant difference to an external soundblaster card.
However, if you want 5.1 or 7.1 or a good line-in or micro, you have to go the USB cards way. Or try to get a WLAN link to avoid cables.

I'd have to agree although I don't know the technical specs of the actual hardware (who makes the D/A converters and the DSP chips? Burr-Brown? Crystal? Cirrus Logic? etc etc). I will tell you that just by using a pair of good headphones the sound is quite excellent for a notebook, even better than some desktop's. The signal separation is pretty good for a sound card and the channel's don't have much bleed. Additionally, like Beeblebrox stated, RFI/EMI interference rejection is quite good too. Currently, I'm using Grado RS-1's as my reference headphones. If you can live with headphones, spring for Sennheiser's, Grado's or AKG's. If you need a 2+ channel speaker setup, get something decent. There's no point in getting the latest 24-bit 192Khz cards without getting a decent pair of speakers. It's like putting a F360 V8 in to a 20K automobile if you get my drift. It also all depends on your budget too. You can get speakers anywhere from 10 bucks in to the thousands so look around if you can, demo them. Of course my opinion's really only count for the audiophiles. Just my 2 cents. Happy hunting and good luck.

Best regards,
Chris

[oversky]

I did a RMAA test on T42. The frequency respond is very nice, even better than SB pci128. But the s/n is not so good.


16-bit, 44 kHz
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~chang22/RMAA ... 201644.htm

24-bit, 48 kHz
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~chang22/RMAA ... 202448.htm