Haven't posted here in ages, but at least I want to put in a blog entry about this - no news to anyone except me. Dragon 9.5 Preferred + Boot Camp/XP + Andrea ANC 750 headset + Andrea USB pod = absolutely sensational recognition & speed. Dragon is a pleasure to use now.

Whereas before, it hadn't been. I'd been running the exact same software & headset on my old eMachines XP desktop - slower chip (I forget how much slower), 1.5 gig of RAM, and an Xfi sound card. Recognition seemed OK but not super (I never did a percentage check), and response was loggy. Out of ignorance, I blamed it all on Dragon.

The Macbook I'm usng now is the current top-of-the-line white model, with 2.13G chip and 2 gigs of RAM. I chose Boot Camp rather than Parallels to start with so as to give the maximum amount of CPU over to the OS running Dragon. Later I may try Parallels or VMWare just for the convenience & see how it compares.

Another thing: I'd bought an iMic USB pod some time ago to try out with my original setup - it seemed fair though not quite as good as the Xfi card. But on the Macbook, the iMic is revealed as terrible - doesn't boost the headset enough, so one must use the Andrea battery preamp as well; and the sound is super-scratchy, lots of hiss & static.

By comparison the Andrea USB pod (purchased through Martin's site) is wonderful - the best sound quality I've gotten yet, with plenty of boost & what seems like absolute quiet except for well-recorded voice. I highly recommend it.

Anyway ... nothing new here; move on, move on. But just in case anyone Googles at some point for "Macbook" "Boot Camp" and "Dragon" ...