I have a dell insperson 1501 with a Sigma Tel High Definition Audio CODEC sound card. It seems fine but people keep talking about other types of sound cards.Do I really need something better or is this fine.Most music is 192kb and I tried lossless but couldn't hear any difference! I was listening with Ipod phones and a male voice(gene Pitney). I swithched from 192kb to lossless on the same song.This is the only song I could use because you need the song on 2 CDs.One at 192kb and one ripped in lossless

Something is wrong if you can't hear the difference between 192k and lossless.

I'd check into the Sound Blaster X-Fi line. I use their Xtreme Music card.

I been using DAL Carddeluxe. GREAT CARD! Bit pricey though. Cost around 3 to 4 times the Soundblaster. Plus it's semi professional. Requires 4 TRS or TS phone plugs 2 for input and 2 for outputs but also has digital in and digital out. I dropped soundblaster years ago. Last one I ever bought was Audigy(1st gen). It sucked big time. Carddeluxe sounds better than Soundblaster. At least to me. The catch is it does not have built in MIDI circuits. To see what I'm talking about here the link. http://www.digitalaudio.com

You people failed to see that the OP has a laptop. He will need either a USB, or PCMCIA sound card. These should fit the bill:

Echo Indigo PCMCIA (http://cgi.ebay.com/ECHO-INDIGO-DJ-SOUND-CARD-NEW-PCMCIA-AUDIO-INTERFACE_W0QQitemZ350019045544QQihZ022QQcategoryZ 41787QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l 1247QQcmdZViewItem)

SoundBlaster USB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102174)

PCMCIA Audigy (http://cgi.ebay.com/Sound-Blaster-Audigy-2-ZS-Notebook-PCMCIA-THX-CARD_W0QQitemZ190199198116QQihZ009QQcategoryZ15012 8QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

You people failed to see that the OP has a laptop. He will need either a USB, or PCMCIA sound card. These should fit the bill:

Echo Indigo PCMCIA (http://cgi.ebay.com/ECHO-INDIGO-DJ-SOUND-CARD-NEW-PCMCIA-AUDIO-INTERFACE_W0QQitemZ350019045544QQihZ022QQcategoryZ 41787QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l 1247QQcmdZViewItem)

SoundBlaster USB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102174)

PCMCIA Audigy (http://cgi.ebay.com/Sound-Blaster-Audigy-2-ZS-Notebook-PCMCIA-THX-CARD_W0QQitemZ190199198116QQihZ009QQcategoryZ15012 8QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

Sorry, I'm used to Desktop. I have very little interest in Laptops anyways. ;)

Since my last post I have ordered grado headphones. I will try listening again to lossless and 192k with the same song doing a A/B comparison.This will tell me if it is the ipod headphones or the laptop that needs inproving.thanks:yes:

well i got a sound blaster usb version,and i can say the sound quality is first rate.