Features:

  • 7.1 Channel Surround Sound
  • Simple USB 2.0 Connection (Backwards Compatible w/ USB 1.1)
  • Support 48/44.1 KHz Sampling Rates For Both Playbacks and Recordings
  • SPDIF Optical Digital Input And Output
  • Separate Left And Right Microphone Inputs For True Stereo Recordings
Great for VMs

I use my laptop with virtual machines for my work and needed to be able to have each of them accessing a different physical LAN network for testing. This does the trick nicely with two separate interfaces. As it turns out on my home network this adapter is 10MB/s faster at transfers than the single port adapter I was using making real world transfer speeds to the NAS around 50MB/s. Needless to say this is now the adapter I use for everything. Would highly recommend for anyone working with virtual machines and needing physical interfaces for them.

I use this to digitize my old compact audio cassettes.

That function is very easy to set up on my Thinkpad laptops. There is a optical disk included with this, that has the up to date software on it, or you can download the same software from the manufacturer's site if your machine has no optical disk drive. Software driver installation worked without a hitch on both Win 7 SP 2 and Win 10 Home. I downloaded & installed the free Audacity software. Audacity recognized the unit as soon as it was plugged in. There are many more options on this unit that I have not looked into. It works well for my purposes. I recommended it to my local public library for their new Makerspace program, to loan out to patrons.

Good performance on a tight budget. The next level of performance is a costly step up.

Good performance on a tight budget. Automatically installs on a Windows PC without any drivers needed. Instructions are very limited, but there is help on-line thanks to the popularity of this device. The settings are hard to find, but once you find the control panel (it installs in the system tray) there are plenty of adjustments including an equalizer and DSP settings to work with. I did ultimately upgrade to a higher performing USB DAC, but at a much higher price point. Still totally blows away the internal sound on most PCs. The next level of performance is a costly step up.

Works great in Windows 10 + Lenovo Y510p [How To Install]

[Update: Sept. 4th, 2016] Download this: [...] Just run setup.exe, and restart your computer. You're good to go! [Update: After experimenting for a while I discovered I didn't' have true 5.1 and/or 7.1 surround sound - Found a Fix] Hello again. (June 6th, 2015) update: I was tinkering around my sound card and noticed that I didn't have true surround output with the fix I showed to you. Fortunately there's a workaround for installing the program and outputting correctly the sound. This has been tested on Windows 10 Build 10130. Here it goes: 1st. Download this file [...]2nd. Open it and extract its content anywhere, in the case of this example I'm going to open the file and copy and paste the folder "CM6206-1.08(QR)" into my desktop. There will be a bunch of folders in there. 3rd. DO NOT CLICK Setup.exe (I know you did it ;) ) 4th. Go to the extracted folder and head into "WIN81(WHQL)", there you will see a "Setup.exe" and "Setup.ex_" file YES, with the underscore at the end!. 5th. Rename "Setup.exe" to "Setup.exe_bak" (or whatever) 6th. Rename "Setup.ex_" to "Setup.exe" 7th. Run "Setup.exe" by double clicking or pressing enter. 8th. You will now see the "Installing USB Multi-Channel Audio Device". If it asks you to connect it, connect the device. 9th. Restart your PC. 10th. After restarting on the task bar at the right (system tray) you'll see a blue icon. Double click to configure 11th. Enjoy! :D ****ORIGINAL**** Here's a quick guide on how to get working it on Windows 10 (and other Windows versions in case setup does not work): 1st. Download this file [...] 2nd. Open it and extract its content anywhere, in the case of this example I'm going to open the file and copy and paste the folder "CM6206-1.08(QR)" into my desktop. There will be a bunch of folders in there. 3rd. DO NOT CLICK Setup.exe (I know you did it ;) ) 4th. Plug in your device to your PC, wait for Windows to finish installing your device. (It doesn't matter if you plugged in the device before extracting the files, but before step 5 you need to have it plugged in!) 5th. After Windows finished installing the device, head to Device Manager. To open it, press start and type "Device Manager" Or press Win + X, then M 6th. Go where it says "Sound, video and game controllers", and find USB Audio Device. Right Click on it and select "Update Driver Software" 7th: Click "Browse my computer for driver software" 8th: Now, where it said "Search for driver software in this location, click "Browse". And go to the extracted folder, since in my case I extracted it to the desktop I head to the desktop, and open my folder. Go to this folder: (this is your extracted folder) CM6206-1.08(QR) => WIN81(WHQL) => SoftwareDriver With SoftwareDriver highlighted, press OK. 9. Click Next 10. Wait for Windows to finish installing the drivers. 11. Go to the Speaker icon at the right bottom of your taskbar. Right click and select "Playback Devices" 12. Select "Digital Output" and then "Set Default". Press OK 13. You now have setup your digital adapter! :D :D :D In case you need to roll back to your previous configuration, repeat steps 11 - 12. Instead of selecting "Digital Output" select your original device. Now about the proper product, I've seen an increase in sound quality Sounds louder, brighter and deep bass can be appreciated. I'm no audiophile so I don't have that ability to perceive great sound quality... But for me it was worth the addition! Now rocking 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound in my Y510p ;)

Five Stars

Its works perfect with my razer tiamat 7.1 headphones, and have good control panel for surround sound .

Awesomeness for $25 6****** (download the updated software though)

I am using this soundcard on a Windows 7 x64 XBMC/Kodi media player, using the optical passthrough to a Logitech Z5500 DTS/DDD/THX 5.1 system. Flawlessly I might add. I am also using a Creative Labs EMU 404 on another laptop, using the optical passthough on that soundcard (OUT) to the optical (IN) on the Vantec, which also allows a direct passthough to the Logitech Z5500 as well. I downloaded the updated software from the Vantec site and this fixed a problem with the optical (OUT) that I was having using the Windows default drivers AND the CD that came with the card. This has been stated many times to not work on a Mac/Apple. It will work as a stereo ONLY soundcard on a Mac (tested on Mini 1,1 / 10.6.8 32b) For $25 you are going to be hard pressed to find a better usb soundcard with optical connections and I will not hesitate to buy another should the need arise.

GREAT for HTPC

Works great! Slightly tricky to set everything up for an advanced setup. I use a Lenovo L430 for my home theater PC, no cable/sat TV. I use a pc-style Logitech 5.1 sound system with 3.5mm inputs, thus needing the Vantec box. It all works great. When watching vids on the PC, video is displayed on the TV and audio is sent to the 5.1 sound system. When I switch to antenna, the TV then outputs over the SPDIF-out and the Logitech plays that. The real trick is getting the settings correct. You have to set the correct channel input/output in their software, enable the SPDIF-in checkbox, then in Windows 7 you go to audio properties and enable "listen to this device" for the SPDIF-in. The only remainder was setting my Samsung TV to PSDIF-out & PCM sound instead of Dolby. The only down-side I've found is the PC must be on to use SPDIF-in, no big deal since this laptop only pulls a few watts.

Works Great, Perfect ADDON

Bought this for use in a Media Server and was able to configure each port individually or bridge them if needed. I'm currently using each port individually so that my home or my internet streaming can use/access my server and it's made a huge difference, no more pausing when streaming. Great product and I've always had excellent luck with Vantec products, this is just one more on my list. Thank you Vantec!

Just what the sound Doctor ordered!

I researched internal sound cards vs external sound cards and found that computer manufacturers use cheap cards that pop,click and do strange things to digital music files, add in the compression rate and you've got crappie music i wanted to make my music come alive again so i first purchased a Berringer sound exciter to add depth but the internal card could not keep up so i see this low price card thinking it's low price would not hurt if it did'nt work but low and behold my music now sounds like it did back in the day the blue light will blind you but i just cover it up. it took a lot of adjusting to all my components to get it right but it was worth the money and time if you have a Dolby Digital 5.1 sound system use the 2 chan stereo mode via headphone jack then adjust your system for effects the Berringer is a Analog device so to get Great sounding music you have to go Digital to Analog and back to Digital. Good Luck and Good Sound!

Works in Ubuntu linux

I bought it because the laptop has stereo sound and I wanted at least 5.1 for when I can take advantage of it. I read that the card works in Windows and Linux as well, which is true (Windows 7 and Ubuntu in my case). It is automatically recognized (though in Ubuntu I had to reboot for "output" to be recognized; I also had to install Pavucontrol to enable 7.1 instead of the default stereo sound). My laptop's internal sound card output is a bit bass heavy. The Vantec card gives a more natural sound, IMHO. I would certainly buy it again. I didn't try the digital connection or microphone, so I can't comment on that. Cons: I found the powerful LEDs to be annoying. I plan to obscure them with some black tape. This may be an issue if aesthetics are important/you place this in a visible spot. I planned to have this card hidden from view anyway, so the tape will be a non-issue for me.

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