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

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.

Wanted to be able to use for "line in" recording due to laptop only having "mic in" input... this little box works as described. Easy to use software. Am running on W11 with no problem. Did not need to use installation disk supplied. Got download from StarTech.com support section.

REASONS FOR BUYING:This was bought to be plugged into a Synology DiskStation Server (DS1513+) and output sound to a couple of cheap self-powered stereo speakers.The DiskStation software has a facility to play music via a *supported* USB-connected DAC. This (in my case) is controlled remotely via an App on my phone.The officially supported DACs are in the £30 and upwards bracket, so I took a gamble and it paid off.OBSERVATIONS:Let's get this out of the way up-front. This is not in any way a premium audiophile-rated DAC, but for playing music in my noisy office, it is more than good enough. It is superb.I am so used to having to battle with drivers (even in 2015!), that I was really surprised when I plugged it into the DiskStation and it was recognised. Not only recognised, but works flawlessly.(The DiskStations run a cut-down and modified version of Linux)I have not used the Microphone-In capability so cannot comment on this feature.SPECIFICATIONS:The DiskStation reports that it is a "CM108 Audio Controller" chipset made by C-Media Electronics, Inc.CONCLUSIONS:For £10.99 (the price at time of purchase), this certainly does the job I required it to do. Much much cheaper than the recommended ones too.If you have a Synology DiskStation and want a cheap and effective way to listen to music directly from the server, I can heartily recommend this device.

The sound created by the Startech 7.1 USB Audio External Sound Card is okay, though it has a bit of a hollow sound. It doesn't provide any software to control sound quality.I almost returned it because the sound suddenly went to trash after a few minutes of use - constant static and garbled sound. However, I decided to check out the company's website to see if there might be an updated driver for my Vista system. There was, and after installation the sound is as described above.The product is acceptable, but nothing more than that. If you want the ability to control bass or treble, try different effects - or anything that requires software, forget it. The fact that the most current driver isn't included is not good, and that they don't even tell you that you should upgrade it or where to go to get the upgrade is inadequate.

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 had an old sound blaster pci card in my pc. It was working fine, but I had problems updating the driver and it crashing windows 10. The software for it was over 10 years old. This seemed easy to set up and works well with my old 5.1 surround speaker system.

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