StarTech.com 7.1 USB - External Sound Card for Laptop with SPDIF Digital Audio - Sound Card for PC - Silver (ICUSBAUDIO7D)

Having purchased an internal sound card recently from somewhere else, I was a little concerned that this would work properly. I wanted to connect my Desktop PC to a 7.1 HT System using the TOSLINK and the sound card only supported 2 channels via this connector.However, this USB Sound Card works a dream.I initially plugged it into a Windows 7 based Laptop and it installed everything first time. A reboot was required and I was quickly able to play some music & films using the full 7.1 surround sound.The next task was to check out this sound card with my desktop PC which has Windows XP. This initially installed the Windows drivers for a USB Sound Card which didn't support 7.1 channels on the TOSLINK. Once I realised that this was the issue I ran the installation program on the supplied CD ROM and the correct drivers are now installed and it works just fine. Page 4 of the manual identifies the chipset used (C-Media CM6206) in case you have a problem finding the driver.Again I can play music & films and all the channels are used.I have briefly tested the other output sockets (headphone & surround outputs) and these all appear to be working. I have yet to use the two microphone sockets to see how good they are at capturing stereo sound.The LED on the device is useful. It flashes slowly when sound is being received, which is a good indicator if you are having configuration problems. The volume & mute controls work too.As for the quality, I've had no problem with this on the TOSLINK output. I no longer have a surround sound that would use the 3.5mm sockets, but may use it if at a friend's home, so I can't comment on their performance at this stage.Overall I am very happy with this product. It has done just what I wanted and works well. It definitely works with both Windows XP & 7.

I brought these to replace my on board audio built into my pcs motherboard, when I brought these I wasn't expecting much for the price they are but when I plugged in the external soundcard and tested them out on my m-audio BX4 they sounded pretty good. compared to how they used to sound on my motherboards built in audio the bass isn't as pronounced but its still present. Overall for its price there a decent choice for a soundcard on a tight budget

I needed this as the onboard sound chip on my motherboard stopped working. It's a little annoying to have to use an external device, but once it's sat on top of the PC case, I soon forgot that it exists. As usual with soundcards, the software for controlling it is not particularly great. You do need to install this though, as you can significantly alter how bassy/tinny etc (bass/treble) it sounds. I suspect some reviews complaining about sound quality have not chosen the right speaker profile and messed with the equalizer. I haven't noticed any lag in the audio, or any weird artifacting in the sound output, so it's doing its job fine and has been for 2 months.It works fine in Linux as well as in Windows, too.

This is a neat little device that I've had to use due to a hardware defect in my MacBook Pro audio input. It functions effectively as an adapter, receiving the sound from my laptop via the USB port and converting it out into whatever audio cable I have connected.The downsides are:- It is fairly flimsy; the USB connector doesn't seem to be held that tightly within the plastic casing and at one point bent downward (it return to its normal position with a little wiggling but still concerning).- It is bulky; once you have it plugged in along with an audio cable, it protrudes pretty far. Worse than that - the width of the thing means it ends up blocking the other USB port of my laptop (the same problem I have with large USB sticks). I've had to buy a USB hub to counteract the problem; but of course a USB hub + USB Audio Adapter + Audio Cable means one side of my laptop now looks ridiculous and is unwieldy.My advice is: if you have USB ports that sit on top of each other rather than next to each other, and don't mind that the StarTech adapter is fairly large, you probably won't have any problems. But personally I wish I'd bought a sturdier, smaller alternative. I wouldn't buy this again.

I installed Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software to speed up my work - the headphones and mic that they supplied with the software were simple jack type and worked off the sound card in the computer. The software was not satisfactory and when I looked into it I was told that I ideally needed a usb mic and headphone set as voice recognition software never works well with bullt in sound cards. I looked at the price of a good usb mic head set and found they were very expensive - then a little bird tapped on my window and told me about external usb sound cards and how good the star tech external sound card was - after reading rave reviews I bought one - and WOW! what a difference - Dragon Naturally speaking is working like a dream and I now finish my work several hours earlier! and the sound output and quality of the computer using the star tech card is unrecognizably better ( and my laptop is a high quality Sony Viao in the first place!!)I would recommend this to anyone - my husband and son have now ordered one each - the difference in performance between the laptop without the star tech usb external sound card and the laptop with the startech usb external sound card is truly amazing!