How can I increase the volume in my headphones past what is put out from my laptop

Question

I have a HP Pavilion DV6 and I need more volume than what my laptop's integrated/default sound card and software offer. Will an external USB soundcard resolve this and/or do I need to upgrade the software. Volume for integrated speakers is acceptable, but I need more volume on my headphones (which are a decent pair).

Solution

An external USB soundcard can provide more volume than the internal one in a laptop. See this review of a Asus Xonar U3 USB audio device at tech report as an example of one such product.

With a native USB interface, the UA100 doesn't need a bridge chip to interface with a host system. Asus has, however, incorporated the same Texas Instruments DRV601RTJR headphone amplifier used in the Xonar DG. The headphone amp makes a lot of sense given the U3's notebook aspirations

Comments

[Shekhar]

you could consider buying an amp for your headphones

[Thalys]

You can get an external headphone amp pretty cheap - I have got a fiio e3 (which bumps up volume, and adds some bass), though a fiio e5 is a better choice. Both would be dirt cheap and should make a difference