USB 2.0 External Sound Card 6 Channel 5.1 Surround Optical S/PDIF Audio Sound Card Adapter for PC Laptop Recording Compatible with Windows 10/8 / 7/ XP

Though the package is generic and mentions a top end of XP, this thing runs great on Windows 10, plug and play installed the driver. There is a tiny CD that requires and old ATA IDE DVD drive capable of playing a tiny disc with a small center hole, and no web site listed, and the CD is hand made. China knock off? Who knows and who cares? Amazon backs up their stuff. However, a couple of tips to avoid frustration: If your speakers are plugged into your laptop with a mini jack, the plug needs to be transferred to the like-colored outlet on the External Sound Card. Volume control is now via a driver provided mixer. Right-click on the Win 10 little volume icon in the task bar and select Playback Devices. Select the Levels tab. Now you can mute and change the level each of the Speaker Out, Line In and Mic In inputs to the external card box. Right-click on the volume icon in the task bar and select Open Volume Mixer and you can adjust the Mixer combined output. Under Speakers in the Mixer, select Speakers USB Sound Device so that the External Card takes over duties from the internal sound card. Voila. Sound. Left-click on the task bar's volume icon and the Mixer will pop up where you last had it. Close the Mixer window, and clicking on the volume icon in the task bar will pop up the normal Windows 10 level control. I place the Speaker/Line In/Mic In window at the lower right above the task bar, along with the Mixer window, so that I can right-click the volume icon and choose either the Volume Mixer or Playback Devices (Speaker Out/Line In/Min In in Levels tab) and get whatever volume control or mixer control I may need at the time. Great little unit. Great price.

Update: The two additional devices worked very well. Test these in windows using the setup button after choosing the driver. Then test online with a dolby test in Youtube. I also got one in blue and it was noisy in the windows test. I used it's case for the first one to get a fully functioning device. for that one I had to remove the face plate because the green plug would not keep the jack in due to poor tolerances. These are tiny little devices. It's all about the chipset. The drivers off the mini CD worked in my 2009 win 7 system. This will keep the old motherboard working after the onboard sound in the R&L front speakers quit working. Even though I had to dismantle it to make it work I just ordered two more. Maybe one can be capable of working without modification and the others are for backup spares and test tools.

I bought this product for my dorm room so I can play games, watch movies, or enjoy music in 5.1 surround sound. I definitely like the product, I'm able to tell actual from virtual surround sound and I love it, it just takes a little messing around with on the included disc. The sound card settings software doesn't make itself apparent at all and requires a little digging into files to find it and even then, the software is called "facelift", which doesn't give any hint to that being the sound card controls. It's a little tedious, but I believe it's worth the hassle because now I can use my 3ds and other devices just using the line in and an aux cord and enjoy the music on my speakers. (Facelift is found on the disc under [Your version of Windows] > SoftwareDriver > DLL > CPL > x64 or x86 [Depending on your processor]) Hope this helps people. {Update} Upon further tinkering, I found out how to shift the settings to true 5.1 and I'm rather disappointed because there's a high pitch sound running through my speakers that I don't know how to fix. So, I'm contemplating whether to just give up and look for a better option or if there is some way to fix this issue. This is still a decent porudct but, not for what I'm looking for. {Update 2} I found my problem and that was having an additional aux cord in my computer which was unnecessary, so I'm set with this product and back to enjoying music and video games on it. If anyone needs an explanation on how this product works, I can give a lot more info about the product that what comes in the box

I'd give this product 5 stars, but... I work from home and bought this product so that I can use quality external speakers with my work laptop. The product works as advertised, delivering clear audio... when it works. The problem appears to be that the microUSB input is so poorly constructed/connected to the chassis, the slightest vibration on the table will cause it fail. I drop a pen on the desk, the device fails. I type too hard, the device fails. The dog sneezes and the device fails. The sound quality is terrific, but Windows is constantly telling me that a USB device is not recognized and I need to adjust the connection. Very frustrating.

The product worked great until I had to reinstall it on a Windows 7 machine. No response from the manufacturer after a week and evidently the company or website responsible for hosting the drivers "cmedia.com" no longer works or is in business. After days of searching for a drivers I'm at a loss. Now I understand, I had recently installed windows 7 and I had to select "allow non-essential updates" then wait for ALL of the updates to be installed. I guess the reason the drivers are not found on the internet is because Windows has incorporated them as a "plug and play" device. After the last update I unplugged it, did a full shutdown, restarted as the administrator and plugged it in. Windows recognized it and installed the correct drivers automatically.

I upgraded my old computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10. When I did that, my sound blaster audigy sound card stopped working and there were no available drivers for windows 10. So I came across this and was a little worried about using USB for audio. But when it arrived and I plugged it in, installed the drivers, it worked great. It has it's own setting and EQ interface which makes things easier to control sound levels. I haven't had a chance to test it for recording sound. Usually there is latency with usb so hopefully it is not too bad. It is very light and small and super easy to set up. Very happy with this.

The only way I could achieve 5.1 sound from my laptop was to send it over the Display Link cable to my monitor which had 5.1 out ports that were connected to my sound system. This worked fine until my monitor gave it up, and in my search for a new one found that audio throughput was something of a rare novelty without paying a fortune. Instead, I bought a standard display only monitor and this product to output my 5.1 sound. No, my audio outputs via USB straight through this to my sound system. It just works!

It may work with other people, but with me, it didn't. I was trying to setup a 5.1 surround sound system and nothing would budge, seriously. And I tried everything that there is to try with it. I ended up returning this product. Took a while, but I'm glad I have my money back.

The sound card I received is faulty and isn't recognized by the computer. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to opening it until the return window had closed. I imagine it would be okay if it worked.

People complaining about loose USB port on device, just plug the cable in and bathe it with hot glue and it'll stay in place for eternity. Everything is cool except that it's generic and there are no "real drivers", so no control panel that you might get with Creative SoundBlaster for example.