StarTech.com USB Sound Card w/ SPDIF Digital Audio & Stereo Mic – External Sound Card for Laptop or PC – SPDIF Output (ICUSBAUDIO2D),Black 0.6" x 1.8"

Sorry I don't have a picture of the product; I forgot to take a picture of it before I placed them (I have two of these).These are great to use on the computer, the only problem is unless you have the right optical cable for these (they take the ones like look like Earphone Plug), you will need to buy an adaptor to use the standard optical cable on them. You're in luck Amazon does sell these in a two pack and they are not that much of a cost.Are there better converters than these, you better believe there are, but then you are talking big bucks. These do a great job for the price.

After 2015 Apple deleted the S/PDIF TOSLINK digital optical output on Macs. For digital quality direct connection (not using some BT link thing) you need one of these. It (seems to) provide direct output without reprocessing, clean digital sound.Use Audio MIDI Setup.app to configure (see screenshots).I've tried a few othershttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CGXD2QKV/ seems to reprocess the audio and sounds muddy.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B9H53KD9/ doesn't work on a Mac.

I bought this to use with my travel headphones, Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 wired headphones. The M2 headphones are very efficient, which means that I can hear even a little bit of noise. When I plugged them into my business laptop, I heard an annoying hiss. I tried a Creative E1 device and also heard an annoying hiss. With the ICUSBAUDIO2D device, I initially heard a loud hiss; but I turned the volume control dial down a bit, and very abruptly the hiss cut out. My music is still plenty loud enough.The left jack accepts the standard 4-ring plug for headphones + microphone all in one (common on mobile headphones). I was able to plug the M2 directly into that jack; headphones and microphone just worked.I use Linux, and the ICUSBAUDIO2D showed up in the Sound preferences as "USB Audio Device Analog Stereo". I had to adjust the amplification slider for the microphone all the way up or the M2's mic is too quiet, but after I did that it was just fine.Initially, bass sounded terrible. Anything with bass sounded muddy and smeared. But then I realized that the ICUSBAUDIO2D has a mini-equalizer feature: a 3-position sliding switch, with positions for Bass, Direct, and Treble. It defaults to "Bass" and it was applying some kind of bass boosting effect... and I didn't like what that effect was doing to my music. But no problem; once I figured it out, I switched it to "Direct" and I'll just leave it that way from now on. It sounds fine in "Direct" mode.Given how small and light this is, and given that my M2 headphones just plug right in and work with no adapter needed, I have found my new travel audio device. I'll just leave this in my laptop carrying bag all the time.EDIT: I have used this for about a month, and I am completely happy with it. You can get a better audio adapter but it will cost a lot more and probably need a separate power supply. Therefore I have upped my rating to 5 stars. It's the best in its class.

My laptop doesn't have a Stereo Microphone IN port on it. And this USB Audio adapter advertised that it supported Stereo Microphones.Well... it does support Stereo IN, but I'm not sure it supports Microphones.I was trying to get an unamplified shotgun stereo mic to work with this, but the audio was just barely enough to be recorded via the audio software program. It definitely wasn't enough to use with a video chat software. This is where I think StarTech failed in their design.Curious what this thing was made of, I cracked open the device and took the plastic case off. This device is almost wholly a C-Media chip (model CN6533 to be exact) and a dual channel op-amp to amplify the headphone out port.And that's it!The C-Media CM6533 chip actually has both an analog and a digital amplifier on-board (according to the spec sheet), but I think the driver for this USB device only allows control of one of them. (In fact, I think StarTech relies on a standard Windows Audio Endpoint driver to get the job done.) This is unfortunate as some microphones need more amplification than others. Specifically, there is a "digital mic boost" feature found in some Microphone drivers under Windows, but it explicitly needs to be enabled by the manufacturer.StarTech didn't do this. They just "phoned it in" on this one and let the standard Windows Audio EndPoint driver do its thing. If you go to C-Media's website, they say to contact your manufacturer for a driver. Well, there is none on StarTech's website.As for the Audio Out, it's just okay.It has a switch on the back to either give you a Bass Boost, no EQ change, or a Treble Boost. The switch works and indeed you get a nice Bass boost (or Treble Boost). The sound amplification is "just okay" though. The sound is kinda flat. And if you listen carefully in a quiet room, you can hear a very light hiss/noise from the op-amp.EDIT: The op-amp onboard is a LM4808 "Boomer" brand. Designed for headphones. Low voltage/high output. Nothing special, but it gets the job done.For the price, this isn't a terrible unit, but it ain't great either.In comparison, the built-in Realtek audio chip in my laptop is audibly much better than this thing.

I got this for my steamdeck when it's docked. I have one pair of Blue Tooth headphones I have connected to my Steam Deck and ran a 3.5mm audio cable from my computer to my Steam Deck though this device's mic input so I can hear my computer when playing my Steam Deck. I did have to also buy a 'Ground Loop Noise Isolator' to get rid of a buzz, it just plugs into this device and then my audio cable from my computer plugs into it. It is only $10 here on Amazon. Most negative reviews is because of a buzz it seems but if everything is not grounded properly you need a 'Ground Loop Noise Isolator'. In fact growing up I wish I knew about them because I had this problem all the time.