Seeking upgrade to laptop audio

Hello guys (and girls), I come here seeking advice.

I have been poking around online, and looking for better sound on my laptop. I recently bought myself some Ultimate Ears Super Fi 5 Pro headphones (which sound amazing) to go with my sondigo inferno and my Cowon A3 (which sounds and looks amazing).

The creative ExpressCard X-Fi Xtreme (losing the E makes it THAT much more extreme!) was the only thing I could really find. I'm already strapped for USB ports, as my laptop only has 3, so the Expresscard seems nice. I just have a personal beef with creative. I forgot why, but I'm pretty sure a lot of it has to do with their EAX hoarding.

The onboard sound (intel HDA) on my laptop is terrible, and I hear so much interference. It's useless with these headphones.

Are there any good audiophilic sound cards for expresscard or USB (preferring Expresscard) that sound about the same as the x-fi? I'd just cream myself if there was an 8788 based express card soundcard out there (I can't seem to find anything).

And also, if I get an external sound card, will it still pick up on all that inteference? Is this all just a waste of time?

Oh yeah, and I'd be really, really, nice if it was Linux compatible, because I dual boot Ubuntu and Xp.

Man, you read my mind as I have the exact same problem. After monts of struguling, I found that there is no expresscard soundcars on the market exept the creative.

As for a GOOD usb audio soundcard... well, good luck.

Poke around here. These are all really recording interfaces, but they'll have the best fidelity you can find. Expect linux support for most devices to be nil.

first: how much do you wan't to spend ?

if it's all about music sound quality i would recomend a external soundcard or stand alone usb dac. external sound devices shouldn't pick up the interferences you mentioned.

external soundcard:
http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=610&subcategory=611&product=15186

external usb dac:
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-DAC-24-192K...oryZ3272QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

the external dac will be detected as simply usb audio interface, it should work under linux aswell.

does you laptop feature firewire? would open some alternatives.....

i have a usb siig c-media sound card thats picks up no interference, and also have an Extigy
for higher end- i believe EMU makes a usb sound card

Yes my laptop has a firewire port, but it's the small one. I'm assuming it's like a min-usb, but for firewire.

I would like to try and keep it under 150. This isn't something I'm going to be using all the time, just when I'm away. I'd really like an Expresscard soundcard, so I wouldn't have to cary around another box, but x-fi is not supported in linux yet, and I think it would take even longer for the expresscard format to show up, if at all.

The emu 0404 seems nice, and there is alsa support in linux, but it's somewhat big. I'm thinking it might be worth it, I should get the dimensions and see if it'll fit in my messenger bag for my laptop, which is already tight because I have an external HD with all my music and video (porn) on it.

I was eying the Asus Xonar U1, but alas, no linux support. It sucks, because I NEED to use Linux for school, because I'm a computer science major, and we do all our coding work in Linux.

There really isn't a good way to get decent sound on a laptop. Someone should come up with something decent. IDK how everyone is so content with these shitty cards that come from the factory. The one in my laptop is "high def", I'd hate to hear how a standard one sounds, because this one REALLY blows.

And, I found an m-audio groovelab USB card floating around my room. Sounds like garbage, it has no bass.

on ebay youre able to find external dacs with built in headphone amps, small enough to carry around. maybe thats exactly what you looking for?
e.g: http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-DAC-HIGH-PE...ryZ14978QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

there are better/more expensive models as well.

I'm trying to switch the message I wrote here to a private message, but have not been able to figure out how to delete this message.

I was in the same predicament as you a few months ago. After some research I ended up going with this:
http://www.audiophileproducts.com/fubar3

The sound quality is excellent through my 2.1 system and through headphones. Much better than onboard laptop sound. It works with windows, OSX, linux, and pretty much any other operating system that has USB support. I've only tested it on the 3 mentioned though. It's a little over your stated budget but I don't think you'd be dissappointed.

edit:
I've also heard good things about the iBasso D2. Never tried it myself though.
http://www.ibasso.com/en/products/show.asp?ID=30