Laurence Payne wrote in message . ..
I'm afraid you've just confirmed one of the limitations of
ultra-compact computers.

There are a few. Unfortunately there hasn't been a lot of
intermediate ground between a full tower/desktop and something like
the shuttle for kit that takes 'desktop' rather than 'notebook' parts.
Since i'm using powered speakers the seperate sound card is actually
pretty convenient as it gives a volume control.