[REVIEW] Unbranded "3D Sound" USB Sound Card (~£3 eBay)
Bored, so I wrote a quick review of this:
"3D Sound" USB Mini Sound Card
http://www.hermann-uwe.de/files/imag...sb.preview.jpg
Approx. £3 from eBay (inc. shipping)
Intro
I came across this little unbranded USB sound card on eBay about a week ago and was stunned at it being so cheap. I therefore assumed it would be pretty nasty but decided to buy it anyway, just for a laugh.
Note: There are different versions of these sound cards which look very similar. The picture above IS NOT the same as mine; mine lacks the two LED on the top and simply had one red LED inside. Apart from that, it looks pretty much identical.
The Good:
- Very cheap
- Sound quality is good for its value
- No software/drivers (for Mac at least)
- Nice and small
The Bad:
- Took just over a week to arrive (most of these are sold in China)
- Poor case design (bends to allow two sockets at a time?)
- Red LED flashes even when there's no sound output, which becomes a bit irritating.
Sound In
I haven't tried it in Windows yet, but in Mac it requires no drivers and appears as an extra Output in System Preferences -> Sound. As is the way with a lot of Apple machines, mine has no built in microphone socket, only a Line-In (which requires a more powerful signal, usually through a Pre-Amp). Therefore this USB card makes a perfect solution for adding a low-quality microphone.
Sound Out
When I played some music through it using Spotify (~128Kbps) it didn't sound all that bad. You could tell it wasn't quite as good as the on-board sound card, but you could still enjoy the music. I then tried out my (ancient) Creative headset. Unfortunately, the 3.5mm jacks were too close together, so you feel like you're actually going to break it under the pressure of plugging both plugs in.
3D SOUND AMG!!?!1
I think it's also be possible to use it for surround-sound, as the microphone socket is supposed to act as the rear speaker out (Hence "3D SOUND").
Conclusion
It's great for use with a headset for Skype etc, where quality isn't a major issue. If you're about to buy a USB headset, you could try one of these first. :eusa_danc
