
For me it is better than a dac. Out of sight and sounds just as good to my ears.

Works awesome with my beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro’s (250ohm). Powers them well, sound is great!


Coming from years of using audio cards (PCI & USB) utilizing C-Media chips i can say this is an upgrade. The C-media were always plenty loud to drive high impudence headphones and sound quality was great but i could not tweak the EQ too much because i would get sound clipping, the amps on the chips were simply not able to handle much more headroom. This sound blaster has the head room and the volume. After installing the driver \ software from creative site you get options for bass boost, virtual surround effect, sound enhancement (works well with music and movies alike) and Equalizer. The software also includes a toggle switch between low impudence and high impudence headphones (Large driver headphone usually equal high impedance which requires more power for the sound card to push through). The sound maintains clarity even when tweaking the Equalizer although i found that out of the box i only needed a light boost at the 16k and 60hz (old ears). The mids are perfectly tuned for my taste with plenty of bite, presence and clarity. Your experience may vary depending n the headphones you use.

The Asus Sabertooth Z77 motherboard audio (Realtek) would not work with Windows 10 no matter what driver I tried. This little USB2 device worked immediately and there is a nice Control Panel available for download. The sound is very good.

I brought this because my mother board sound card was dying and was unable to install an internal card due to my graphics card being mounted vertically in my case preventing access to the card slots. This little device was easy to connect and use having noticeably better sound quality than the original mother board audio before it developed issues.


Comes with low profile bracket. Sound is great compared to onboard sound component.

Works well ( and I am using Linux Mint and Cachy

* Quality of sound * Lots of sound options * Very good design

Sound Quality Build Quality Portable