Smoother and sounder without ultimate in bland drivel (9)
I believe the answer is:
sandpaper
'smoother' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'sounder without ultimate in bland drivel' is the wordplay.
'sounder' becomes 'saner'.
'without' is an insertion indicator ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'ultimate in' says to take the final letters.
'drivel' becomes 'pap' (pap is a kind of drivel).
The final letter of 'bland' is 'd'.
'd'+'pap'='dpap'
'saner' enclosing 'dpap' is 'SANDPAPER'.
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for sandpaper that I've seen before include "Material used for smoothing" , "Means of smoothing wood" , "Abrasive material" , "Make smoother" , "Spared pan for the stuff used to prepare surfaces" .)