Before the review, I want to mention that I write as an audiophile (for the past 3 years) with quite a bit of equipment so far and having heard great sound from other sources. Also, I understand that it is a highly budget option, but coming from a Sybasonic AMP/DAC that I had for headphones/microphone for gaming, I can say that it is not even worth it for a budget option.

The biggest downside, in my case, is that the headphone out never worked. It simply does not produce sound. Is it a faulty unit? Maybe.

I had to connect my headphones (Philips SHP9500 32ohm) to the 2.1 front out. The second biggest "issue"... For some reason, they thought it was appropriate to amplify the signal that would go to the front channels speakers to an unacceptable degree. In order to hear anything, I have to set the volume in Windows to 2 out of 100. Considering that it is not a power amplifier for passive speakers and the sound card would not amplify the speakers to which it would send a signal, there is NO reason for it to have such power output.

Fun fact, the power output from the 2.1 front out does not scale according to the ohms. I jokingly tried it with my Beyerdynamic DT880 600ohm and it sounded like a whisper.

The microphone in is in such a position that if someone uses a splitter cable (from 4-pole 3.5mm to 2x 3-pole 3.5mm, one for headphones and one for microphone), it might not even reach the cable to connect both.

There are no drivers for Windows 10. It works fine with the drivers that Windows has, but even the website for this specific model only provides drivers up to Windows 8.1.

Don't even bother. Go straight to the Behringer U-Phoria UMC22.

I use it on my laptop to output 5.1 sound to a speaker system! I noticed a significant difference compared to the headphone output of the laptop that I had connected before... I didn't want anything more! I am fully satisfied...

I had a lot of unwanted noise from the new motherboard's sound card. Since changing the motherboard is not an easy task, I decided to go for the easy solution of an external sound card. My problem was solved with this specific card, which provides a crystal clear sound. I use it on a Windows desktop and it has all the necessary ports for 7.1 surround sound (line in, mic, front speakers, rear speakers, surround speakers, center/subwoofer), as well as optical in/out, which many motherboards do not have! I recommend it to those who have a laptop or have problems with static noise on a desktop computer.