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.

[Update: Sept. 4th, 2016] Download this: [...] Just run setup.exe, and restart your computer. You're good to go! [Update: After experimenting for a while I discovered I didn't' have true 5.1 and/or 7.1 surround sound - Found a Fix] Hello again. (June 6th, 2015) update: I was tinkering around my sound card and noticed that I didn't have true surround output with the fix I showed to you. Fortunately there's a workaround for installing the program and outputting correctly the sound. This has been tested on Windows 10 Build 10130. Here it goes: 1st. Download this file [...]2nd. Open it and extract its content anywhere, in the case of this example I'm going to open the file and copy and paste the folder "CM6206-1.08(QR)" into my desktop. There will be a bunch of folders in there. 3rd. DO NOT CLICK Setup.exe (I know you did it ;) ) 4th. Go to the extracted folder and head into "WIN81(WHQL)", there you will see a "Setup.exe" and "Setup.ex_" file YES, with the underscore at the end!. 5th. Rename "Setup.exe" to "Setup.exe_bak" (or whatever) 6th. Rename "Setup.ex_" to "Setup.exe" 7th. Run "Setup.exe" by double clicking or pressing enter. 8th. You will now see the "Installing USB Multi-Channel Audio Device". If it asks you to connect it, connect the device. 9th. Restart your PC. 10th. After restarting on the task bar at the right (system tray) you'll see a blue icon. Double click to configure 11th. Enjoy! :D ****ORIGINAL**** Here's a quick guide on how to get working it on Windows 10 (and other Windows versions in case setup does not work): 1st. Download this file [...] 2nd. Open it and extract its content anywhere, in the case of this example I'm going to open the file and copy and paste the folder "CM6206-1.08(QR)" into my desktop. There will be a bunch of folders in there. 3rd. DO NOT CLICK Setup.exe (I know you did it ;) ) 4th. Plug in your device to your PC, wait for Windows to finish installing your device. (It doesn't matter if you plugged in the device before extracting the files, but before step 5 you need to have it plugged in!) 5th. After Windows finished installing the device, head to Device Manager. To open it, press start and type "Device Manager" Or press Win + X, then M 6th. Go where it says "Sound, video and game controllers", and find USB Audio Device. Right Click on it and select "Update Driver Software" 7th: Click "Browse my computer for driver software" 8th: Now, where it said "Search for driver software in this location, click "Browse". And go to the extracted folder, since in my case I extracted it to the desktop I head to the desktop, and open my folder. Go to this folder: (this is your extracted folder) CM6206-1.08(QR) => WIN81(WHQL) => SoftwareDriver With SoftwareDriver highlighted, press OK. 9. Click Next 10. Wait for Windows to finish installing the drivers. 11. Go to the Speaker icon at the right bottom of your taskbar. Right click and select "Playback Devices" 12. Select "Digital Output" and then "Set Default". Press OK 13. You now have setup your digital adapter! :D :D :D In case you need to roll back to your previous configuration, repeat steps 11 - 12. Instead of selecting "Digital Output" select your original device. Now about the proper product, I've seen an increase in sound quality Sounds louder, brighter and deep bass can be appreciated. I'm no audiophile so I don't have that ability to perceive great sound quality... But for me it was worth the addition! Now rocking 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound in my Y510p ;)

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