Vista - Poor sound quality...

I just bought a Dell 1721 laptop the audio driver is SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC... Im assuming that means that its built into the motherboard... I used to be quite happy with the way everything sounded till I bought some SE210's by Shure... Now it does not sound very good... I have plugged the headphones into my brothers iMac and they sound great... What can I do to make the audio sound better and more alive... It sounds very flat and feels like low on power... At low volume levels there is no bass... I turn up the bass on wmp11 and all it does is almost mute the highs when the bass hits... Leads me to think there is not enough power going to the jack to support both.... I can turn it up quite loud and the bass sounds great if i wanted to go deaf in a week but the rest is still lifeless.... I am hoping there is some settings that need adjusting since i dont think i can install anything internally and dont know of any other fixes... (wanting better graphics also but dont think i can change that)

Yes you are right..its inbuilt into the motherboard. All laptops are like that. You could try and external soundcard or a gadget from Creative using its crystallizer software. Heres the link:

Creative Xmod

Hope that helps. Says its built to improve onboard sound like your problem

Figured so... Oh well a new laptop is in my near future anyways.... This one is just plain too big to be carrying around to classes along with all my books... Anyone have any suggestions on one that has its main great features being sound and video anlong with being thin(and screen smaller then 15inch)