Terratec Aureon Dual USB Sound Card for PC and Notebook

I bought this as an upgrade from a cheaper usb sound card. It's ok but not that much better than the cheaper option. Perhaps it's just me (or my laptop)but I find the sound too 'thin'and lacking quality. Perhaps I should just bite the bullet and have my laptop headphone output port repaired!!

I bought this so that I could use a headset-mic for Skype on my 2007 white Macbook (Mic signals need to be boosted in order to use a mic in the Macbook line input, and I don't have a special boosted mic). As a collateral benefit, I thought it might be useful for watching DVDs.It's brilliant for both. Skype is much clearer using the Aureon than using the Macbook's headphone output, and the mic signal is very clear (much clearer than using the macbook's built in mic).Film sound quality is significantly improved (surprisingly full) when using the Aureon compared to using the Macbook's headphone output to drive my X-Mini Max speakers. Still a little disappointing for music - whether this is the speakers or the card I can't say.Build quality seems good - no problems after 6 months of regular use and travelling. It's the size of a very long and broad USB flash card, so I use it with a Belkin Pro USB extension cable.** UPDATE NOV 2015 **I have just bought another one of these cards. It pairs perfectly with the excellent and cheap Logitech Z120 speakers. Together they deliver a quality that, while a long way from audiophile, is warm, rather than harsh, and clear enough for films, and casual listening to music, if you don't need too much bass. I was a little nervous, given some of the negative reviews since my first purchase, but this second unit is just as good as the first.

Purchased One of these years ago and it has been very useful. easy to use has line out and optical.I have only used this with computers running linux and with my android phone. works perfectly with both. sound quality is a big improvement over the laptop and phone audio out. but if you want Hi end hifi quality you have to pay more money.I have used it's optical out between my phone/laptop and a hi end exposure dac and it sounds great. not dropout or click or pops as other people have experienced. possibly windows driver problems.The volume is loud from the computer. but its not a problem. does not distort the sound.It will drive my headphone not problem as well. So works well as a portable Headphone Amp/Dac with my android phone.

I purchased the Terratec Aureon USB to provide an optical audio stream from the USB output of my laptop to an external DAC in my Hi-Fi system. Unfortunately the device did not seem capable of providing a steady input to the DAC that would play without frequent dropouts and interruptions in the music. I sent an email from the Terratec website but received no reply. Five calls to the help desk were cut off after being on hold for 5 minutes. Independent advisors have subsequently suggested that it is a technically challenging thing to achieve USB to SPDIF conversion without the "jitter" or timing problems that cause such interruptions, implying that there is no cheap solution. I have been recommended to purchase something considerably more sophisticated and expensive such as the Firestone "Bravo" USB to SPDF converter. The Terratec device also includes an analogue output for headphones/loudspeakers but I did not test this as I specifically needed the optical output capability. I had high hopes of a cheap solution to my needs and was initially disappointed that this didn't work. As always you get what you pay for, particularly in the world of audio and electronics, so with hindsight I am not surprised and a little wiser from this experience. One other point to note for UK purchasers, the supplier is in Germany which was not immediately clear when I purchased and it did cost me a little more to return the faulty product. This is the first time I have had to return anything purchased via Amazon but they were quick to process my complaint and issue a refund so no complaints there.

After the headphone port on my laptop broke down, a USB soundcard seemed like a simple and elegant solution. Rather than go with the cheapest models, I went with something a little more expensive, hoping to get a bit more sound quality from the device.Unfortunately, the quality from this little card is rather lacking. There are frequent pops or crackles in audio, which escalates to a roar if you attempt to hook the signal up to an amplifier, and the lowest volume possible on the device is still very loud.If you are a person in need of a cheap sound solution requiring high volume but not bothered with quality, this would be a great item.Otherwise, I would look elsewhere.

Bought this to get optical into my outboard DAC on the cheap. I don't know if it's 'bit perfect', but it works just fine straight out of the box - just plug it in, wait for the driver to load, plug in an optical cable and you're away. (If the media player you are using was open when you plugged this in you just need to close it and then re-open). Easy, cheap and it works.UPDATE : yes it is bit perfect - if you have you PC set up correctly. I'm using JRiver Media centre with ASIO4all and when set up properly I get a bit perfect output from the Aureon. (I checked ripping the output bits and comparing back to the original file) You would be forgiven for thinking that a bit perfect output from a PC is a given but, unfortunately, it isn't. Why is 'bit perfect important you might ask? The answer is that the resampling that takes place inside you PC can really screw the sound up. So, this is the cheapest way to get the bits out of you PC that I know of. You just need to set things up properly (with the aid of some free and slightly fiddly to set up software) a DAC that's jitter 'immune' and you are away.