Adapters Review
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StarTech ICUSBAUDIO USB 2.0 to Audio Adapter
21 Apr2010
- Adapter turns USB port into two audio jacks
- Supports the USB audio device specification 1.0
- Compliant with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1
- Compatible with Windows 98SE and up, and Mac OS 9.x and later
- Backed by a 1-year warranty
Product Description
This USB to Stereo Audio Adapter Converter lets you add headsets and microphones to your computer without the need to unplug other devices! Compliant with USB 2.0 and USB audio device specification 1.0, this USB to audio adapter couldn’t be any simpler to install. Compatible with Windows 98SE and up, as well as Mac OS 9.x and later, the USB Audio Adapter integrates into any computer environment, providing superb sound quality and convenience that can’t be matched.
- In: Audio Adapters
- Tags: Adapter, Audio, ICUSBAUDIO, StarTech
5 Responses to StarTech ICUSBAUDIO USB 2.0 to Audio Adapter
Danschy
April 21st, 2010 at 9:57 am
I have a Dell laptop (Precision M20) with pretty poor sound quality – lots of background noise and hiss no matter how I adjust the volume. I often like to listen to headphones both at work and at home to avoid distractions, but the poor sound quality of the built in sound card made the experience barely tolerable. I took a chance on this StarTech product and have been very impressed. I just plugged it into an unused USB port and after about a minute Windows XP had found a driver (did not have to use the included CD) and told me it was ready to go. I plugged in my headphones and immediately began to enjoy great sound. It also has a mic port which I have not used. Also included is a short 6″ USB extension cable which may be handy in some applications. Very happy with the purchase.
Rating: 5 / 5
Anonymous
April 21st, 2010 at 11:09 am
Lasted me a year so far with great sound. Cheap alternative to installing a pci sound card. And it’s portable (FSX users can use it as their voice only channel) – super cool buy.
Rating: 5 / 5
M. Johnson
April 21st, 2010 at 12:56 pm
I was expecting an easy installation of this device on my computers; simply plug the device in and install the driver. However, installation failed on both of my computers. When running setup (automatically started when I put in the driver CD), I got a “Please Plug-In C-Media USB Sound” alert message, which I am guessing indicates it did not discover the device. After this, installation does not continue as described in the PDF user’s manual, and the device remains unrecognized. This device is likely a dud, and StarTech probably put their logo on some cheap USB Audio Adapter coming out of Asia (the manual requires a Chinese plug-in for the PDF reader). If Amazon replaces this device easily, and it works, I will do a new review or modify this one.
Rating: 1 / 5
G. J. McNinch
April 21st, 2010 at 3:27 pm
We needed a second sound card. At my house, we connect our home computer
to the stereo and use it as a music-player. Previously, if my son played a
video games on the computer while music was playing, one would hear a messy audio mixture (beeps + song….)
This USB-based “external sound card” was a perfect solution for me.
(My computer is GNU/Linux-based; I am able to route the output of the
music-player-daemon to this second sound adapter. So the computer has
then two diferent audio outputs.)
The adapter’s interface is standards-compliant, so it works without difficulty
under ALSA in Linux. I can’t comment personally on how it works e.g. with
a Mac or Windows-based machine; I would guess that it would be also trouble-free.
The sound is great. It is small and quite affordable. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5
Jordan Isaac Love
April 21st, 2010 at 4:34 pm
2 star rating… Shipping was literally NEXT day, However Startech is only open 8 – 6 EASTERN time if you have problems like i did… appearently the Card didn’t work with my computer due to there not being ANY DRIVERS for windows to locate.. and the install on the cd did not help
Rating: 2 / 5