Features:

  • 7.1 SOUND CARD: This 1.7 USB sound card turns your laptop or desktop PC into a 7.1-channel home theater-ready sound system through a single USB 2.0 connection.
  • COST-SAVING UPGRADE: With support for analog and digital audio output for stereo to 7.1 channel audio applications, the audio to USB adapter upgrade the existing integrated audio on a laptop or portable computer.
  • BUILT-IN FEATURES: The external sound card features easy-to-use volume control and two external microphone inputs. It also supports 44.1KHz and 48KHz sampling rates for analog playback and recording or 48KHz for SPDIF.
  • EASY INSTALLATION: The digital audio adapter is easy to install with plug and play support in Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.
  • RELIABLE SUPPORT: Backed by a 2-year StarTech.com warranty, this 7.1 USB sound card also comes with free lifetime technical support.
Laptop needs to be connected to 5.1 analog speakers? Get this!

I bought an HP EliteBook 755 G5 with a docking station and wanted to connect it to my existing Logitech 5.1 analog speakers. These speakers have three 3.5mm stereo jacks: Front speakers (green), Rear speakers (black), and Center/Subwoofer (orange). The laptop contains two built-in sound cards. One is only capable of 2.0 stereo and works through the 3.5" audio jacks. The other built-in sound card works only through the DisplayPort connection. For example, if you connect the laptop to a TV with audio capability or to an A/V receiver, that sound card handles that audio output. Since I have a monitor with no audio jacks or processing, I cannot take advantage of that built-in device. (There is another kind of product that could. I’ll talk about it at the end of this review.) I chose StarTech because I had luck with their products in the past. This external sound card is more expensive than the cheap Chinese ones on eBay and it supports 7.1 as well as 5.1. I did NOT have to use the driver CD. I have Windows 10 1809 and it recognized the card immediately. It shows up in the Device Manager as “USB Sound Device.” Don’t be alarmed if you check the properties and see a message under the “Events” tab claiming "Device requires further installation." If you look at the list, you will see that even though the entry in the list of Events might be the top one, the Timestamp is older than the entries below. This means that this message is normal and has no significant meaning at all, even though it can be confusing and previous Windows versions did not show something similar. Configuring the sound card for 5.1 (or 7.1) audio is simple. Go to the Control Panel and select Sound. Under the Playback tab, click on the “Speakers” for the USB Sound Device and click on the Configure button. Choose 5.1 and click the Test button to make sure everything is connected properly. Click Next. Make sure all optional speakers are selected. Click Next. If you have a satellite speaker system with a subwoofer like me, you do NOT have full-range speakers. You can verify this by plugging in the green plug into a 2.0 stereo source and listen to the sound quality. If it’s sorely missing bass, then they are NOT full-range speakers. Uncheck these options. (BTW, sometimes the front speakers are full-range, but the rear speakers are not. If the rear speakers are smaller than the fronts, uncheck the rear speakers only.) Click Finish. Another option I could have tried would have been to use a device that converts the digital audio supplied over HDMI to analog. Amazon sells such a device: SKSL HDMI Digital Audio Converter. However, I would have needed to buy a DisplayPort to HDMI cable. Also, I would have to get RCA to 3.5mm adapters, too. And, that option costs a lot more.

Wonder 5.1 speakers solution (works out of the box on Fedora29)

I got a new PC and installed Fedora29. But the pc supports HDMI sound but does not provide 5.1 output ports. I looked at different solutions including Bluetooth 5.1 speakers. Finally I saw this device which adds 2.1, 5.1 and 7.1 ports via USB. Just plug and play. I don't even have to reboot the OS. Just config the sound output to this device and alas 5.1 sound ... Five stars for sound quality, ease of install. Since I got it just 10 min ago and cannot say about durability. But I expect it to last.

couldn't be simpler to set up and use

OK, I'm not an audiophile looking for the realism of the concert hall. And I'm not a gamer. I was just looking for something so I could watch my YouTube videos without disturbing the Better Half watching TV (and vice versa). This fits the bill just fine - just plug in some earphones and watch your videos without disturbing others. And it is quite small - will take up virtually no room on your messy, crowded computer table. A couple of words of advice: the drivers for this thing installed in about 2 seconds after plugging it in to a USB port on my Win7 system. So fast you can miss it and think that nothing happened. But the lights came on and it had, indeed, installed successfully. #2, I couldn't get any sound out of it into my earphones. Looked back at the instructions and found where it told me that I have to change the Sound Property settings to set this as the default - click on the speaker icon on your task bar (that one that no one pays any attention to) and then on Playback Devices to set this as the default. Voila - I'm watching my YouTube videos in peace! RTFI, right?? It will take you longer to unpack it than to set it up and start using it.

More Sound For the Buck

I recently purchased a new Dell computer and was surprisingly disappointed by the quality of the sound. My old Dell computer from the early 2000s sounded way better. After two weeks of making adjustments to enhance the sound quality, I couldn't take it anymore, I needed an upgrade. Since my computer was still under warranty and I didn't want to pay someone to install a new sound card, I looked for an external one. I came across the Startech external sound card. I did have one major concern, would this card be powerful enough with good sound for my huge gaming headphone. I took a chance and bought it. I installed it by just plugging into the USB port, but surprisingly it took a bit longer for the computer to recognize it which is not a big deal considering I have anti-virus/malware on my computer. After about a minute and a half, close to two minutes, the computer said the device was ready to go. I plug in my earphones. Adjusted the volume on the computer, and the device itself. I was blown away by the clarity and power of this card! It made the headphones which I have used on a newer computer even better. Music was high quality, video, and gaming was really good. I'm not into the heavy bass, but I tried it out nevertheless, I made adjustments by using the switch on the back of the unit to "bass" and then make another adjust using iTunes equalizer which has its own bass boost. Same with the treble. So there is a wide range of sound that you can make adjustments too depending upon your taste. This card was only 30 dollars which don't break the bank, and it helped salvage a brand new computer. I love this card! Thank you Startech! :)

This card works with Slackware Linux!

This audio card works with Slackware 14.1 and Ubuntu 14.1 Linux. I installed it in a new MSI K8MM3-V, Socket 754, AMD Motherboard who's integrated sound does not seem to work. I installed this pci sound card, and started KDE in Slackware, and it played. Success! I tried it in Ubuntu also, and got it to play when in the sound settings app, but, I do not know yet how to reconfigure the system so as to start using the pci sound card on boot.

Works great with Windows 7 64 bit

It works great! I have Windows 7 64 bit, I plugged it into one of my 3.0 USB hubs and plug-n-play did the rest. I did NOT use the CD that came with it. I had to change my default speakers in a couple of places, so make sure you check. I have Altec 5.1 surround computer speakers that I purchased many years ago and they are awesome! I read the reviews from people that had trouble and that made me a bit worried but I'm very glad I bought it anyway. I do feel bad for the folks that are unable to get it working.

I'm reviewing the 7. 1 USB audio adapter. ...

I'm reviewing the 7.1 USB audio adapter. This was worth the price. I have been using it for 2 years now. I recently upgraded to windows 10 and had the same issue as some of you. It wouldn't output 5.1 surround sound. Fiddling around with the settings, I finally got it to work. For those who haven't figured this out yet, here is what worked for me. Right click on the sound Icon [The default sound icon in the task-bar], and select Playback Devices. Then from the list, right click on the "USB Multi-channel audio device" and select Configure Speakers. Here, just ensure that it is set for the right speaker config [Stereo, 5.1 or 7.1] That should do it [Hopefully].

Phenomenal sound. Works with Linux.

Great sound when used with headphones. Volume knob to adjust output volume. With a desktop tower computer the cable length is a bit short but it does reach the desktop. I will probably add a USB extension cord with can be had for a couple of bucks. The equalizer capabilities are rudimentary and I usually just leave it on neutral. It worked for me plug-n-play under Linux Debian 8.0 operating system.

Very Impressed Linux User

I bought this USB sound card for a small Linux Mint powered TV computer, to replace a full old power hungry computer that used to be stashed behind my TV for media center purposes. I wanted something to connect my 5.1 surround sound system and the computer did not have native surround sound capability or any possible expansion slot capabilities. I am VERY impressed with this under Linux Mint. I feared that it might not work at all or might require me to mess around with driver issues for hours, but all I had to do was go into sound preferences and set my output mode to 5.1, and viola. In fact, I like the behavior of this device better than I liked the behavior of Windows 10's surround sound on Realtek audio. This device outputs sound on my rear speakers even when I'm listening to something typical like a Twitch stream. I'd gotten sort of used to my rear speakers always being dead aside from the rare occasion that I played a movie with surround sound encoded. The new dimension to my listening experience is very welcomed and actually something I tried to do in the old setup but couldn't get working. I'm planning on picking up another one for my DJ computer for some additional sound inputs. This device is great!

Works almost perfect in Linux, with JACK2 and 10.3 ms latency!!

This is a review of the "StarTech.com 7.1 USB Audio Adapter External Sound Card with SPDIF Digital Audio Sound Cards ICUSBAUDIO7D" card. I bought this card to do one thing -- take the input from my PS4 from TOSLINK and output it to my speakers and headphones. I figured I could use this to not only replace my laptops horrible onboard audio but also get input from the PS4 to my laptop. I am running Arch Linux, and using jack2-bus with very low latencies (10.3 ms) with this card from my Lenovo Thinkpad T520. Realtime kernel, with pulseaudio-jack running in the background. I do get about 1 xrun every 10-15 minutes, but that is most likely due to my laptop having shared IRQs all over the place. No matter what I do I can't get 0 xruns. Considering I bought this card September 16th, 2016, and it is now July 25th, 2018 as of this updated review, the card still performs without issues. For around a $30 USB card that works out of the box with no configuration this has been some real bang for the buck.

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