College Students Willing to Pay More for Upgraded Laptop Audio

"A study conducted by Dolby Laboratories pegs the fulcrum of change on the shifting notebook shopping tastes of the back-to-school crowd. Specifically, the survey cites the mindsets of college students as the harbinger of increased focus on punchy audio and media capability in notebooks. In a survey of 300 college students and 300 non-college students, the latter reported that they would likely spend $719 on a PC with an ideal audio setup; college students, however, tapped out at a Benji Franklin higher, $824."

Of course the reasoning behind this is pretty obvious.  For many college students, their laptop is more than just their computer, it is their home entertainment system, so paying a premium for something that does the job is certainly in order. Still, no matter what the upgrade, nothing is going to beat a set of external speakers.