StarTech.com USB Sound Card - 3.5mm Audio Adapter - External Sound Card - Black - External Sound Card, TAA (ICUSBAUDIOB)

I have a desktop computer with a tower on the floor. To plug in a beloved old pair of headphones that had a large plug, I had an adapter that would accept the large plug in one end and plug into the audio output on the front of my computer with a small plug on the other end. This worked for a while, but then one of my headphones went silent. I did some pushing and shoving of plugs and the other headphone went silent. I guess I broke something in the audio ouput hole, as no other headphones would work, either.Looking for online help, it seemed that this was not an easy thing to fix. I was stuck without sound at night or during times when anyone else was around who might not want to listen to what I was listening to, unless I turned my speakers very low and sat with my ear to the speaker. This did not work well, as I didn't get clear enough sound to understand words.Enter the Startech USB to Stereo Audio External Sound Card! Somehow I found it on Amazon and bought it. I couldn't get it to work at first. So I phoned Startech.com. I reached Jeff W., who was very pleased to troubleshoot with me. He told me how to change a setting to get this external sound card recognized: In Windows 7, he had me right click on the little speaker icon in the tool tray - the one that is for "speakers," not the one specific to my sound card. (This item is actually a sound card, so the internal sound card settings don't control it.) Then click on "playback devices," and set the new device as the default. I also asked Jeff to help me set it so the speakers go silent if I plug in the headphones and then the speakers go on if I unplug the headphones. I really didn't want to have to go into settings every time I transitioned between the headphones and the speakers. I think this setting was specific to my internal sound card. Sorry I can't be more specific; I tried a lot of settings!It was the Friday evening before Labor Day, and Jeff W. stayed late to help me. He was very patient and knowledgeable. My notes from the conversation say that the plate in front of the computer with the audio input hole is called the "speaker output header" and might be attached to the motherboard. It could be attached to the computer case, so the fix could be a new case for the computer.I'm very glad I could use this easy little plug to fix my computer headphone capability! I get clear sound in my headphones with no noticeable distortion or loss of volume. The transition between headphones and speakers and back again is smooth. This external sound card is plugged into a USB receptacle on the front of the computer, next to the broken audio output. This external sound card with the headphones plugged into it (I'm back to modern headphones with a small plug) sticks out a little less than 3 inches.

I'm actually kind of surprised by how good this thing sounds (I just got it today -- product matches the picture). Based on some product reviews of other inexpensive USB sound cards (like the "3D sound" ones), I expected a lot of buzzing and humming to come out of the speakers as soon as I plugged it in. Instead, I can turn up the volume all the way on the speakers without hearing any unwanted noise come out of this thing. All I needed was voice quality, but this sounds great (to my ears, its crystal clear) for music too.Windows 7 installed it without the need for the included driver disk.The construction of the audio jacks isn't flimsy, but neither is it as high of quality as you'd find on your laptop or PC audio jacks. I have not tested the microphone.Also, there is a slight skip in the audio every few seconds, but not at regular intervals. I can't blame the sound card though... Long story, but I bought this sound card to work with a virtual PC (VirtualBox, if you care) that's installed on my laptop: laptop runs Ubuntu, virtual PC runs windows 7. Using VirtualBox's emulated audio hardware has a lot of problems with delays and skips, which is why I bought the USB sound card in the first place; now, I just let the virtual PC use the USB sound card instead of the on-board one. The StarTech hardware doesn't have the delay/skip problem anywhere near as much as the emulated hardware. Anyway, I can't rule out the possibility that the virtual PC is behind the audio skips. That said, the skips are minor, and this thing sounds much better than I expected it to. So, 4 stars from me.

I had to run the supplied driver in compatibility mode for Windows 7 but it installed and worked. I just had to enable and start the Windows audio service. This is great as I'm having issues getting sounds cards to work on this server hardware. Now I have audio!

It works well enough. The sound quality is good, sometimes better than the onboard card, but there is some barely noticeable noise when the system volume was turned up higher. The volume was very loud but it was easy to turn down in the settings panel.However the construction quality is poor. Most of the metal of the USB port doesn't actually extend into the plastic case, so it bends very easily. This shouldn't have been a problem, but the short USB extension cable that came with it (to prevent bending) was cheap and became unusable within days.Just today, the adapter finally came apart. I pulled it out and I was left with the USB port in the computer and the plastic case in my hand, with three metal prongs sticking out. It still works if I put them back together but the contact is very poor. The slightest movement and it will disconnect.I would not recommend this product. If you use it with a laptop it is likely to fall apart, with a desktop you should get an internal soundcard.

This is a very nice, well-made, handy little device. It is perfectly adequate for desktop speaker applications and for casual listening in headphones. But the signal-to-noise ratio is not suited for uses beyond that. Considering the price, it's still a good value.RECOMMENDATION: For a high-quality device, try the Behringer UCA202 Digital Audio Conversion Module. At $29.99, it's more than twice the price, but hardly a bank-breaker. It is a real audio device with real audio specs. It's worth every penny (and a lot more).