com USB Sound Card w/ SPDIF Digital Audio & Stereo Mic – External Sound Card for Laptop or PC – SPDIF Output (ICUSBAUDIO2D)

Got this because the headphone socket on my Toshiba laptop had intermittent sound due to a loose connection or similar. Read that a repair would have cost as much as a new laptop, so took this route instead. Checked a few things by ringing up Startech.com first, then bought sound card here on amazon as it was a lot cheaper. Dead easy to install, just plugged in to USB port, waited two minutes, then plugged in headphones after turning down the volume control on sound card which had been factory-set to maximum (then I turned it back up to max), then went on youtube and listened to Celibidache conducting Bruckner's 6th symphony and could not believe how much better the sound was compared to my onboard sound card; much more balanced, spacious, static-free. Then I tried the bass and treble boosts, both of which were far more subtle than I had expected; sounded great on direct too. How on earth do Startech produce such a great product at such little cost? This little gem gets the ultimate recommendation from me

Its small, convenient and works straight out of the box. Not too expensive either

Does what is says on the tin. I needed a cheap external device to plug my headphones into as I was getting lots of static and interference from my computers onboard headphone sockets. Using windows ten I was able to simply plug this in and it worked with no setup or drivers to install (this may be different on older versions of windows). Sound quality is far improved with no trace of interference and music on my computer (especially 320kbs files) sound far better. A nice plus is the spdif output on the rear in case I want to add surround sound in the future. Great product so far.

I bought this for use with the Raspberry Pi 3b+ and experienced occasional issues with playback (muted/crackling sounds for some tracks). After experimenting, I figured out that this only occurred for a 96khz input, and when I forced input at 48khz the distortion(s) went away. Testing similar outputs on a £6 usb product showed that this issue did not exist there. Startech support states that the device is not supported for Linux even though almost all USB audio card nowadays are driver-free. I did not test this exhaustively on a windows PC as this error might only be reproducible on resampling. Caveat emptor - if you are buying this for a raspberry pi/linux kit! Additionally, sound output is muted on the linux/pi, compared to the £6 kit, or the on-board 3.5mm output. I couldn't be bothered spending a few weekends debugging the thing and have returned it (If I wanted a DIY kit I wouldn't be going for a USB solution!).

My work PC has an abysmal on-board soundcard (really tinny) so I wanted a cheap USB DAC to get decent sound. This fits the bill perfectly. If you're not interested in spending £50+ on a product from a more well known audio brand and just want decent sound, this is a great choice. The volume control is also a nice bonus that is lacking on other similar products.

I had experienced problems with an internal sound-card. This solved the sound problem and all I had to do was plug it in. Very good and audio quality not bad for the money.

I don’t like it because of unclear sound

My on board sound card failed on my PC. Saw this and thought might as well try it, given its pretty cheap. It turned out to be a good bet. Good sound quality with some equaliser capability and a volume knob on the front. Volume pretty good usually the source that is the problem. Its loud enough with a good recording to stop me turning it up full blast even at my age BTW this is very small device so not going to swallow up lots of space on your desk..