A question about the soundcard in x200s

[mp107]

Welcome

I was looking for some inexpensive netbook/mininotebook and I came across Lenovo x200s.
I've got a question about this model.
Does the internal soundcard support 192kHz sampling (on input)?
I couldn't find any information regarding this on the Internet.
I need this option to identify weak FM radio stations with RDS Spy program (that's part of my hobby).

P.S. English is not my native language so mistakes are possible.

[Dekks]

The HD chipset in an X200s is a conextant CX20561 Azalia class one which corresponds to Intel HD Spec 1 which can sample upto 192KHz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_High ... tion_Audio

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ ... audio.html

However you need to check yourself as the implementation seems to vary card to card how well they comply with the spec and the datasheets for the CX20561 are seeingly not on the net.

[Billaboard]

I've just fired up an x200s running Windows 7 Pro and looked at the audio properties.

It looks as though you can set audio playback to the speakers to 192kHz sampling rate at various bit depths, but the microphone input only lists sample rates up to 96kHz. There is no line input, although I haven't got a docking station to hand and don't know whether that might provide one.

I don't know whether these soundcards resample internally to 48kHz as some do, and I don't know whether you might get them to sample at higher rates on a different OS, but I see that RDS Spy is a Windows program.

[Dekks]

It looks as though you can set audio playback to the speakers to 192kHz sampling rate at various bit depths, but the microphone input only lists sample rates up to 96kHz. There is no line input, although I haven't got a docking station to hand and don't know whether that might provide one.

My X61 running Vista does let the mic sample at 192kHz but but i'm not too surprised as cutting off at 96kHz no doubt the chip makers want you to buy a discrete sound card as sampling at 192kHz was considered Pro.

[Billaboard]

I've just checked an X61s running W7 and using an Analog Devices sound chipset, and it does indeed list 192kHz sampling for the mic.
My X60T, which I see has a slightly earlier version of the Analog Devices chipset, is running Windows 10 Preview. It only lists up to 48kHz.
Interestingly, this latter machine exposes the (vital but nowadays usually suppressed) Stereo Mix function for the audio, whereas the X61s doesn't.

I think the OP's project calls for a line input and looks for residual encoding signals. I think these would probably be buried in the noise if a mic input were tried.

I think it's fairly well established that these higher sampling rates don't have any real value except for specialist uses, and certainly would be redundant for audio from a laptop mic, so for audio the X60 seems the best machine. Shame it doesn't have a 64-bit processor.

[RealBlackStuff]

There are lots of X60/X60s with Core 2 Duo CPU, which are all 64-bit!

[Dekks]

I think the OP's project calls for a line input and looks for residual encoding signals. I think these would probably be buried in the noise if a mic input were tried.

It's a pity the line in died with the X32.

[rumbero]

This might not be directly related to mp107's question but, to my understanding, capabilities of the audio devices in Thinkpads running Windows were once for all deliberately crippled by shipping drivers (=software!) limiting certain features of the audio hardware on behalf of recording industry interests:

support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht003577 (via forums.lenovo.com/t5/General-Discussion/Why-has-stereo-Mix-been-disabled-on-thinkpads-amp-when-do-we-get/td-p/10258/page/24).

So basically the issue might boil down to a software issue, and not really to a factual hardware limitation.

Apparently there exist software workarounds: vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/index.htm and sourceforge.net/projects/virtualaudiodev.

Please note that the aforementioned information is basically only digital hearsay, as i am not a Windows user and have no direct experience with these issues.

Personally, I use an external sound card in the cardbus slot of my trusty T61 Frankenpad under Linux whenever i have any serious audio recording needs:

www.trustedreviews.com/Creative-Sound-B ... ook-review
www.cnet.com/products/creative-sound-bl ... sound-card
www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/c ... ard-review

This card can still be had via eBay and Amazon, either used or new, for varying prices. Not an option for more modern Thinkpads lacking a cardbus slot, though.

[mp107]

Thanks for all the answers.
It looks like in order to find out and make sure about it I'll have to buy X200s on my own.

It's interesting that even Acer Aspire One A110 (Atom N270 processor so definitely not high-end) or MSI U270 (AMD E-350) are able to decode RDS signal (there are some videos on pe1etr's YouTube channel, for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYLGLA21-Cw). So they must support 192kHz sampling.

[Billaboard]

This might not be directly related to mp107's question but, to my understanding, capabilities of the audio devices in Thinkpads running Windows were once for all deliberately crippled by shipping drivers (=software!) limiting certain features of the audio hardware on behalf of recording industry interests:

support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht003577 (via forums.lenovo.com/t5/General-Discussion/Why-has-stereo-Mix-been-disabled-on-thinkpads-amp-when-do-we-get/td-p/10258/page/24).

So basically the issue might boil down to a software issue, and not really to a factual hardware limitation.

Well off-topic, but this is very interesting about Lenovo blaming Microsoft because I've discussed this with a Microsoft representative on the Windows 10 preview forum. On my X60T, the Microsoft basic audio driver that came with Windows10 didn't expose Stereo Mix, but the Lenovo-sourced Vista driver did and it works well with Windows 10. The Microsoft rep seemed to imply they might try to activate this in the final release of their driver and pointed me to the code written by Microsoft developers to implement this in software. (I could never make it work when I tried years ago!)

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/matthew_van_eer ... -hear.aspx

Maybe the politicians and engineers within Microsoft don't speak.

It is interesting to me because now that I'm retired I might be able to play with drivers etc. When I used to do audio professionally, we had to point users either to machines we had tested and provided the facility or get them to install a decent third party application such as "Total Recorder".