Ah, the nineties. Fresh Prince was on the TV and sound cards were a growing part of every top-end household PC. Not only did they put us past the archaic beeps and boops of the era but also added a level of Xtreme! to everything. We had the inaugural X-Games, the Chevy Xtreme, and for a time, the whole world forgot that there ever was a third-E in "extreme".

Then the 21st century arrived. We put the E back in "extreme", Fresh Prince was in syndication, and motherboard manufacturers began integrating audio onto their boards. For a time the world seemed to have gotten a bit more structured with a clear vision of the future.

Modern computing continues to shrink at an incredible pace. Ultra-thin notebooks and tablets are all the rage and small form factor computing is making a comeback. Of course as components get smaller so does their proximity of there functions. While the obvious advantage is size and cost the drawback can be increased interference, distortion, and degraded audio quality. So, what can be done to help improve and enrich the modern audio experience if your system is lacking in the department? Well, we can start by taking some advice from our past, and get a dedicated sound card.