Is there a difference between a laptop and a full sized PC for sound quality?
Yes. A sound system is only as good as its weakest link. The actual sound chip that the majority of laptop makers use costs them less than $5 per chip to manufacturer. It doesn’t support a full dynamic range, and it doesn’t have a very good (technically speaking) signal-to-noise ratio. Some “full-sized” sound cards use the exact same chip. The actual quality of a “full-sized” sound card can vary from poor to amazing professional systems that cost thousands of dollars. Differences can be heard between the ESS chip (under $20) and the Sound Blaster LIVE! card (under $200). Of course, the best sound card wouldn’t improve a low quality amplifier, it would just give it a high quality source signal.
