Sorry to re-animate an old thread but got some updates since...
I purchased a Dell XP7100 about a year ago. It's an Win7 OS Home Premium with AMD 6core and has 6gb ram. This set up, without altering anything like installing ASIO, sounds better than my X60 tablet laptop (can't just call it tablet anymore as it now means something else). The sound is more fluid and effortless. Other than that, the sound is pretty much the same. So, it's not demolishing the Thinkpad, but it's noticeably better in terms of listen-ability. Win7 > XP tablet OS right?
About a month ago, I took delivery of a Toshiba Ultrabook. It has i7 processor with 8gb ram w/ Win7 Pro OS and a 128gb SSD. So, it has to sound better than both my Thinkpad and Dell right? It's got better processor, more ram, better OS and SSD in lieu of harddrive. Wrong. It sounds bout the same as my wife's Macbook, clean sounding but sorta lifeless and definitely less bottom end relative to the Dell and Thinkpad.
Anyways, that's my anecdotal observation. The Ultrabook is now hooked up to the TV while the Thinkpad is hooked up to the stereo.
