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Review on πŸ”Š Sabrent AU-EMAC: Hassle-free Plug and Play USB External Stereo Sound Adapter for Windows and Mac [Silver] - No Drivers Required by Aaron Lewis

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Great for guitar muting with Windows 10 PC/Android and external amp

I wish I'd tried this thing sooner. I bought a laptop a while back not realizing that it doesn't have proper line in/line out jacks and instead has a headset mic/headphone jack which cannot be used as traditional sound card jacks. Fundamental error. I ended up buying an EZCAP audio jack. I figured I could use Bluetooth Esiinkin (guitar delay issue) or Miracast projection to combine the output from my Line 6 Pod Pocket. What was that cluster? So I decided to give the Sabrent Aluminum USB External Stereo Audio Adapter for Windows a try after looking at a few other things. (see images for setup components) I have less recording lag compared to audio playback (about 130 milliseconds as far as I can tell, from recording the tuner on the pod with my phone to both the sound of the guitar string being played and the sound to include the speaker laptop / USB). Playing the guitar along with a shortened backing track ready for looping works, but I really don't think even a slight delay is good enough for "jamming" (look for the dopez "Rock Ballad" by the way Backing track in Em" tracks for a great example). Guitar effects output (see photo), stereo output works with mic input, at the same time a stereo line is connected from Pod Pocket, but I'm not sure if it's not just mono output, but it sounds good through the background track loop. . Finally, the levels for the backing track (output) and guitar (input) are shown on the same audio control used for the device, so I can easily control the balance (mix) of the jam session. This is also easily possible with the Windows Volume Properties Mixer. But the lag/delay doesn't work. After all the wasted approaches, this USB audio I/O was pretty smooth, it cost seven bucks and got it in two days. I also bought a cheaper one but it seems to have the same latency on Windows 10. But I did get the Sabrent to work with a fairly new Android tablet that has a headset/line to connect the Sabrent to. Tested with a recording app, the login also works. Then I found a free app called n-Track (see 2nd image) that tracks both input and output at the same time, and my phone uses a tablet as the source. Sabrent, my Android tablet (and phone, I think) with N-Track (free version) looks simple and lag-free, although it took me a while to get used to the interface. technical difficulties but ended up getting a $7 sabrent and a free android app and it seems to be working like a charm.

Pros
  • Electronics
Cons
  • unreliable