Vantec NBA-200U USB External 7.1 Channel Audio Adapter (Black)

One year in. I use a desktop PC as a Home Theater PC (HTPC) that I have plugged into a Yamaha receiver. I was using a Sound Blaster sound card in it and the results were "ok" but not great - a distinct lack of silence when nothing was playing. The receiver has a built in DAC that is better than that on the sound blaster or the one built into the PC. I plugged this little dude into the USB port and connected it to my receiver with an optical cable and: IT WORKS! I'm using Linux and the operating system recognized the device immediately, as did the receiver. Whether I'm playing audio files or the sound from movies I'm watching from Amazon/Netflix/Hulu/etc, the sound is much better than from the SoundBlaster card or the onboard sound circuit in the PC. The biggest downside is that MP3s may sound worse as you can hear the imperfections of compression, so, if you are ripping CDs, make sure you use a lossless encoder like FLAC. There are much more expensive boards for this, but unless you have a dedicated room and VERY highend equipment on the other side of the cable, this is as good of a device as you need to get sound from a PC into a receiver and you can put your extra money toward other things that would give a greater improvement - like better speakers. My Yamaha has 3 digital inputs, and many others do as well. Using an outboard DAC is the best way to get sound out of a PC as the analog circuits are too exposed to electrical noise from the motherboard and accessories. By allowing (in my case) the receiver, which is designed to be as noiseless as possible, you greatly improve the sound quality. I've also noticed the CPU runs slightly less than with the sound blaster. FINAL NOTE: I would NOT buy this for the analog outputs and only bought this as a test in using a SPDIF to DAC on my receiver. I feel the analog ports are no better than the ports built in to the PC. They might come in handy if I needed to use it with the analog ports on a preamp that didn't have a DAC, AND needed to move it often - but there are probably better devices for that use.

WOW!!! I have never been so blown away in my life by such a little device! the drivers are simple and diverse, the sound is absolutely amazing for every genre of music and gaming, plus it is portable and easy to install! The only downside is that a headphone and speaker shouldn't be plugged in at the same time on the device, it doesn't prioritize the headphones. This little device is durable, portable, and sounds fantastic! the cheap price isn't because its discounted, its because its a STEAL! I'm not joking when I say this is completely worth the investment, buy this and take full advantage of your speaker set! Edit 10/6/14: Welp, after over a year, this little card is still satisfying as ever! However, I have some gripes I've found over the initial acquiring of this product: * The sound drivers are only meh. While they offer plenty of options to customize the type of sound, the EQ filters, the environment, and microphone and line-in settings, I've had issues forcing it to remember my profiles! It always tends to self-delete my customizations if I either plug it in to a different USB port, or if I try to reboot my computer. Sometimes it remembers, other times it doesn't. Also the UI of the program is not all that polished, but it is easy to use. * The Microphone is surround input, which means you need a splitter to actually make the audio input stereo instead of mono. There are 2 jacks on the side of the device for microphones, so you either need 2 microphones or 1 microphone with a 2 male --> 1 female 3.5mm splitter. Also, there are no settings for this in the driver program. * The headphones jack does not stop the audio output to the other speakers plugged into the device, so you can't use your headphones without having the other speakers still turn on, which is VERY annoying. Other than those major complaints, it's been working fine for me! Still sounds good, there are no issues with the jacks falling loose or becoming duds, the device is still very easy to use, and the line-in and S/pdif features work very well! Overall, still highly recommend it, but it's not quite as poise and polish as I thought it was when I first purchased it. Still a good value!

En connectant le Vantec sur un port USB d'une Shield TV Pro (le nouveau modèle), je pensais pouvoir avoir un son Dolby Digital 5.1 sur la sortie optique. Et bien non ! Stéréo au mieux. Par contre ça fonctionne en le connectant sur le port USB d'un PC sous W10 mais c'est pour moi sans intérêt. Je retournerai donc le produit.

Lo compre en un inicio para conectar la salida audio óptico de mi Tv a la entrada de audio óptico de la tarjeta Vantec pero no dio señal, probé con otros dispositivos como Xbox one, play 4 y otra computadora con salida optical y estos si daban señal, por lo que deduje que la salida optical de mi tv era la que no servía y la entrada optical de la tarjeta Vantec si. Por lo tanto, estaba a nada de regresarla debido en que no cumplía lo que requería pero me convenció la excelente calidad de sonido que tiene a pesar de ser externa y de bajo costo, la recomiendo.

Works very well to connect external stereo audio input from a multi-channel mixer, into a computer through a USB port, as well as obtain an audio output from the computer, into an audio system or headphones. Regularly used for Zoom connections in both a church and choir environment, bypassing the poor (or malfunctioning) microphone and speaker in my laptop. No problems so far.

I like the VANTEC USB external audio adapter, works like a charm, the only complaint I have, I couldn't purchase it locally, had to buy it from the US of A, but only took one week to arrive, that's cool, the price tag is very affordable, They even have a web site for this product should you need support, Oh and it works on Windows 10 32/64 Bit systems. Installation and use worked with out any problems, in 5 mins I was up and running, I'm a happy camper now.

I got this for my nvidia shield tv pro and it works well however i thought it comes with the USB cable but unfortunately it doesn't. On the instruction manual, its mentioned it comes with the cable, but its not when i opened the box