With laptops you usually use USB or Firewire sound cards. There are quite a few good ones available there, and just perhaps a few less good. One reason is that there are very few PCMCIA sound cards around. The ones I have read about though got good reviews though.

But, to make a very sweeping statement, yes you can get very good sounds out of your laptop, as long as you get a good soundcard. PCMCIA, USB or Firewire all can be good.

Personally I use an MBox most of the time. Two channels in and out, quite respectable sound quality. A bit high on latency for some uses, but never a problem for me. For on-location recording needing more channels I have a Motu 828mkII firewire card with some outside mic preamps.

Gunnar

Echo Indigo:
http://

Digigram:
http://

RME Multiface or Digiface:
http://

The E-Mu 1616 is due out soon and it has a PCMCIA interface. It has a breakout box, but the card has a headphone socket that works even without being hooked up to the box.

I have an Echo Indigo I/O, and it's miles ahead of any computer's output, although I wouldn't really call true pro quality. It's great because of its convenience if you have a laptop.

It doesn't have balanced outputs which is a shame, although the price is ridiculously low. If you have a laptop, buy one -you might surprise yourself by how often you use it.

The Digigram cards can be very expensive, and are quite limited in some respects.

Apart from the E-Mu, I don't think there's anything that Sigir hasn't mentioned.

John Stafford