Need Sound Advice...

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I'm getting a Toshiba Satellite E45T-A4100 for my birthday! It's great! There's only one problem, and that's with the sound. It's low quality compared to my Satellite A Series Laptops with Harman Kardon sound. I've been tweaking the sound settings since I started the iHeartRadio app, and I'm still not happy. I looked up on Microsoft's website, and apparently laptops just have a sound processor, and that you can upgrade it by putting in an actual sound card and disabling the sound processor. Is this true, and can I actually do it? I really like this laptop, but good sound is important to me. Can I fix this or am I stuck listening to my favorite music with a crappy sound system?

I've been trying to solve this problem with speakers, no luck so far. Computer speakers are horrible for music.

I think that depends on the laptop, but for thee most part I would say 'no', at least for consumer audio. For Pro Audio, there a are several solutions, none of them particularly cheap, and usually involve an outboard piece of hardware for D/A conversion, for use with either studio monitors or other powered speakers that have SPDF interface connectors, or headphones.

The cheap route may be to use either headphones, or a multimedia speaker kit that either plugs into a USB slot, or your headphone jack. --Some lower end powered studio monitors (M Audio,Behringer,etc) may be dodgy for pro audio use, but acceptable for home playback.

The only truly portable option that is expedient is to just geta cheap pair of earbud headphones. --Besides, laptop speakers suck anyways, irregardless of the brand on them.

I think there are external USB sound cards.

As a rule, most laptops don't have exceptional sound abilities. Good enough for most people's needs, but not for someone with high standards but not an equally high budget.

I already have headphones. That's what I've been using. I don't have the laptop at the moment, because it's a birthday present. I'll get it on the 17th. I'll start messing with it then and see what happens.

Thank you guys for the replies, I need all the advice I can get for my future career.

Holy crap... I actually managed to solve it on my own! There's an app called "Toshiba Audio Enhancement" and it solved all my problems! The sound is much richer now. It's a little too rich in places, but it's much easier to tolerate now than before. Thank you all for the suggestions.

Sweet!