🔊 Vantec NBA-200U USB External 7.1 Channel Audio Adapter (Black) - Enhanced Sound Experience with USB Convenience Review

As an audiophile I have tested and used many PCI sound cards in the past, from 1st generation Soundblaster sound cards (ISO to PIC) to other expensive and cheap cards. I've been using HTPC and building my own rigs so I know a thing or two. This sound card uses the C-Media M6206 chipset which sounds GREAT! There are other brands you can get from this card e.g. B. ad startech and vantech. The one I use is from Vantech. I've had this card for over a year now and it still sounds fantastic. I've…

Three 🌟 because it doesn't connect USB to optical cable. Why does it need optical connections but no USB-to-optical audio output!? It doesn't mention it and it really should! It was a real bummer! Also, my cinema audio processor does not support HDMI. It accepts eight-channel direct input, as well as old-school optical and other audio connections. My cinema devices are Xbox, Blu-ray player and HTPC. They are all connected to the projector via an HDMI splitter. Audio for Xbox and Blu-ray…

Like many other reviewers, I bought this unit because I wasn't happy with the audio adapter on my Windows 10 PC motherboard. My speakers support Dolby 5.1 and I wanted to use this feature. The price was right and it seemed like the right choice. Installation was easy. I first downloaded the driver from here: https://vantecusa.com/search_dl.php?keyword=NBA-200U. The downloaded file was compressed, so I had to decompress it in Windows Explorer: left click on the file (nba-200u_v8182166), right…

I bought this to work around the buggy sound my motherboard's SP/DIF output is making and so far it hasn't produced any noticeable artifacts in the audio output so it does the job its purpose. However, I noticed a couple of issues: When connected to my Win10 system, it immediately presented an audio interface ("speakers") with the appropriate inputs, but selecting them produced no sound. It wasn't until I installed the drivers from the Vantec website and rebooted that I got another option that…

Let's be clear. First, when I plug my headphones into the 3.5mm jack on the front of the unit, I don't get any playback through the left and right ears. I can move it to the right to make left and right sounds, but it's impossible to keep it there. only one ear Also when I plug something into the 3.5mm line jack on the front of the unit the audio works but the unit gets too hot to tamper with. I've seen too many accidents with cheap developers trying to sell at discount prices and manufacturers

This unit works exactly as advertised. If you know what you're doing. The key here is that this device is NOT a Dolby Digital/DTS decoder. You need a device with an optical connection that can decode an uncompressed PCM stream. My use case was simple. I needed to stream optical digital PCM to my Logictech Z906 system to watch movies and listen to Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1 music. That's the problem. For this to work you just have to a) enable the Vantec software for PCM - the rest of the settings…