are Laptops getting Worse for Recording? instead of better? especially for use with a DAW?

chintzy parts ect? crappier built in audio cards and speakers with every new release? useless batteries after a few months. ect ect.
Last edited by memyselfandus on Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:37 am; edited 1 time in total

This is a weird question.. even if they are "getting worse", just.. spend more money to buy a higher end one. Problem solved?

In what way could they be getting worse exactly? It's just a computer.

edit: He edited his first post to make my second comment redundant.
Last edited by JD Gaffe on Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:43 am; edited 3 times in total

I have noticed a huge decline in the audio card and speaker sound quality with each new laptop I buy. for sure. same price range. it is a weird question. some will get it though. just the laptops you can buy from best buy and all of that.
Last edited by memyselfandus on Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:41 am; edited 1 time in total

Well.. I hope you're not really using your laptop speakers for any serious audio work, no matter what year you're in. Also, I just plug in the same external audio interface I use for my PC into my laptop when I'm out and about. Even if the audio card is dodgy, again, if you're depending on it for any serious work then there's more problem abundant.

yea. I wont even touch a laptop for what I do because of this stuff. If I was using mainly midi in say reason or live I would be fine.

I may be wrong in my assumptions, according to the poll results so far. can someone recommend a laptop that works awesome with their daw? must be doing a lot of midi and audio.

even then. you would think laptops would be getting better.. at a faster rate.. than they are at the moment.
Last edited by memyselfandus on Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:45 am; edited 1 time in total

^ Hasn't this always been a present and known issue with working on laptops though? I'd hardly call it a problem of declining recent times.

edit: To comment on your second post, I just use a macbook. I have an external audio card (Komplete Audio 6) plugged into it, have a mouse plugged in because workflow is out the window with a trackpad, and I have a tiny nanoKey2 attached sometimes I try out chords/synth patches.
Last edited by JD Gaffe on Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:46 am; edited 1 time in total

All built-in speakers are crap, not only those in a laptop. Onboard audio in a desktop is the same 'quality' of that in a laptop.
Are you trying to make a point here, or are you just bored today?

true true

its not just the sound quality though. it's everything. with each new laptop.. comes shittier parts. same price range. $500-$800..in my experience. even friends who spend a lot more end up with crap parts that break and stop working relatively fast. a laptop that I spent $800 on four years ago beat the pants out of the last two I spent even more money on.

I have no idea how your friends are abusing their laptops, but the only thing noticeable is the battery life, in which you can just replace after like 3-4 years. Which isn't a big issue in my opinion.

3-4 years would be amazing. it's usually within a year max from what I have seen. Dell ect.

if no one on here has had or noticed any of these issues, then I am buying my laptops from the wrong places. which actually makes me happy and more optimistic.

Well, I guess I'm just commentating on macbooks, but that's not exactly within the $500-$800 range you're talking about.

Maybe try looking at newegg.com and reading some reviews of laptops in that range? That's what I do when looking to buy anything computer related.

I am speaking specifically about windows laptops. I could have added that also.
although I have heard some off the wall stuff about apple taking firewire and cd rom drive options away? in one of their laptops? not sure. talking out of my %ss

my battery health in my 18 month old mbp is still at 96%

i really look after it though and you have to, with batteries.

What i do is simple... I pull the plug out every night i go to bed and put it in sleep to give the battery a rest from the power...

on the first day of every month i do a complete drain and charge. that's it really.


Now i voted YES, but for different reasons, as i voted YES before i saw your comments.

WINDOWS based laptops ARE becoming worse for recording. A few years ago everything used quality TI firewire, for example, now it's all ricoh crap, and even some DAW builders can only build usb compatible stuff with the newer sandy and ivy bridge.

Furthermore, dpc latencies in older systems were never an issue but now it's really hit and miss. You can not go and buy even a 2K dell and expect it to work even with USBm it's a crapshoot, so.. yes, 3 years ago things were different.