The audio on laptops is notoriously pretty lousy, partly because there isn’t a whole lot of space for putting in a decent sound card, but mainly because manufacturers know they can get away with it. The Register reviews a gadget that tries to rectify the situation, Creative’s SoundBlaster MP3+, a 16-bit external sound card for adding high-fidelity audio to laptops. The SoundBlaster MP3+ connects via a USB port and has both analog and digital output ports, and line-in ports for digitizing vinyl or making audio recordings. Not the best possible external sound card you could get for your laptop (it lacks surround sound, for instance), but The Reg says it’s a good value for the money.
