[thelonious58]

Newish here, and very much enjoying reading all the witty and erudite posts and reviews on various products
The headphone socket on my Toshiba C660 laptop is playing up ( basically sound dropout/change even when I move my headphone(s) cable ever so slightly), so after reading several reviews I ordered a Startech external sound card (the third one on the top row of the attached page);
 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=STARTECH.COM+sound+card&rh=n%3A340831031%2Ck%3ASTARTECH.COM+sound+card
 
Has anyone here had any experiences with this product? The general view is that it will outperform most onboard sound cards built in to most laptops
I know there are already a couple of threads on budget external sound cards, but they seem ancient, so i thought I'd open up this can of worms again
Apologies for any duplication of threads!

 

[Rodricus]

Hi there.
I just got my startech.com Stereo Audio USB External Sound Card with SPDIF Digital Audio, bought it from ebay for $30.

http://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/Sound/USB-Audio/USB-to-Audio-Converter-External-SPDIF-Sound-Card~ICUSBAUDIO2D

As I plan to use it in my computer, it seems like a very good choice. I´m currently running some tests, but so far so good! I wonder, however, what the "SPDIF Line-out" output is for. I know this might sound dumb, but I´m still a newbie.

 

[thelonious58]

You have made a good choice there. Try emailing Startech. As I live in the UK I rang them and found them very helpful