[Mr.T]

"Serge Auckland" wrote in message
...
The ACER laptop was quite good enough for measurements, although I
preferred
to use my Digigram VXPocket card as it has balanced analogue and digital
I/O, albeit with only up to 48k sampling. Unfortunately the screen failed
so
I had to buy a new laptop as getting the screen replaced would have cost
the
same as a new PC. My new HP laptop's internal audio card is appallingly
bad
for both noise and distortion, although the frequency response is from DC
to
light (well almost!). It's so bad that I can't use it for audio other than
the occasional Internet radio or other non-critical application.

I've been unimpressed with the external USB audio cards I've tried as few
have balanced I/O, and those that do don't take more than +4dBu for 0dBFS.
The only exception I found was the Lexicon Lambda that would go to +10dBu
for 0dBFS like my VXPocket, but that had such poor distortion and noise
figures that I returned it for refund. I then decided to keep my Digigram
card and reuse the ACER as new laptops don't have PCMCIA slots any more.

I've removed the faulty screen and mounted the ACER laptop into a large
briefcase, with an external screen mounted in the lid, and a large
hard-drive underneath, and kept it purely for audio recoding and editing.


Of course a simple 10dB attenuator would have been a lot easier and smaller.
Then there are number of firewire devices with balanced inputs up to 14dBu,
(and even a few USB devices if you look), but whatever works for you.

MrT.