RE: Laptop recommendations

[Patrick Bolan <pbolan@csiconstruction.com>]

Dells hum badly when they are plugged into the AC power adaptor.  I
found this out on performance, when ...BAM hum all over the place - I
had plugged it in!  Mine also squeals a bit when over headphone when its
plugged in.

If you run them on batteries for the actual recording, they are as quiet
as a mouse!  

Thanks for the tip to drop the ground... I'll try it.

Patrick

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Weissman [mailto:paul-mailinglists@nioterra.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 1:04 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: RE: Laptop recommendations


couldn't disagree more.  dells rock.  i've worked with sony, ibm and
dell laptops... i'm about to buy a new laptop (old one was stolen)
and... it's going to be a dell!  and yes this is the machine i'm going
to be using for music performance.

it's true that there is bad ground hum in my old dell, but a 3-2 prong
converter on the laptop power supply makes quick work of it.  no hum.

outside of that, everything else is great... price/performance.. look
and feel... latency with rme hdsp (3ms)... just a great deal overall.

but, to each his own, i guess...

paul


> -----Original Message-----
> From: biz-looper@groovetronica.com 
> [mailto:biz-looper@groovetronica.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 10:37 AM
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: Re: Laptop recommendations
>
>
> > Also, most of the new laptops have Firewire, but you might also look

> > for
> USB
> > 2.0 for flexibility. I just noticed the new Dell laptops now
> have USB 2.0,
> > which is great.
> >
> >
>
> Unless you can check the unit before you buy it, STAY AWAY from all 
> things Dell.
>
> I haven't seen their current production models, but on every unit I've

> tried (more than a few, since we use them at my day job), their power
> supply feeds
> directly into the ground, which means that you can't use them for any
kind
> of audio with the power plugged in - a horrible and unavoidable hum
occurs
> when you plug them into any kind of mixer or power speakers. There is
no
> solution - it even happens with USB audio.
>
> When I talked to Dell support, the said they knew of no plans to 
> rectify this.
>
> bIz
>
>