Audio Advantage Micro USB Sound Card

by Turtle Beach

Product Details

Product Manual [1.69mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 1 x 0.4 inches ; 4.5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002ICGDY
• Item model number: TBS-1120
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 28, 2006

Product Description

MODEL- AUDIOADVMICRO VENDOR- TURTLE BEACH-VOYETRA FEATURES- Audio Advantage Micro Home-Theater realism on your PC or Laptop! Surround sound experience with stereo headphones! The Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro is a portable USB Audio Adapter with both digital and analog outputs that incorporates a surround-sound simulator for creating an immersive listening experience on standard headphones or stereo speakers. Power LED lights up when the Audio Advantage Unit is plugged into an active USB port to indicate power has been applied. Insert headphones or analog powered speakers into the Analog Mini Jack. Use the USB Connector Cap to protect the USB socket when storing the Audio Advantage unit. Insert the SPDIF Digital Adapter into the mini jack to connect a TOSLINK optical cable when using the digital audio output. Includes Audio Advantage Unit with cover USB Extender cable Optical SPDIF adapter software CD.* Stereo analog output. Connect headphones or powered speakers to your PC or laptop. * Works with USB port on any PC or Laptop Provide a second audio output source or additional headphone output so you can stop fumbling around the back of your computer just to switch from speakers to headphones * Multi-channel digital audio pass-through Send Dolby Digital and DTS multi-channel DVD sound to A/V receivers or digital speakers. (DTS pass-through is only available in Windows 2000/XP).* S/PDIF optical digital audio output. Connect your PC or Laptop to the latest high-tech home entertainment equipment with a pure-digital distortion-free signal for highest fidelity low noise audio reproduction. * Revolutionary signal processing system. Listen to stereo digital music or movies with the simulated sound of a multi-speaker surround-sound system using ordinary stereo headphones or stereo speakers. * Virtual 5.1 Surr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hands down the best audio improvement on a laptop under 100 dollars., July 2, 2005

By 

FM (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Audio Advantage Micro USB Sound Card (Personal Computers)

Really...this little device wowed me. I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 and despite it being the latest model from Dell, there is a frequently discussed low level hiss present in the headphone output. You really have to get the volume to a good level to not hear it anymore...and that was annoying. I recently was advised to look in this little device and after looking at my alternatives on the market, I saw that this was the most affordable laptop audio improvement solution on the market. The closest thing to this device is the M-Audio Transit USB pod and the last thing I needed was a bulky silver device hanging from my laptop by an A-B cord on my already 7 lbs desktop replacement machine. I decided to go with this and I dont regret it one bit. Its so tiny you can slip it into a laptop sleeve in your case and best of all, I'm actually able to replace the audio on my desktop with this device.

As for sound quality, its crisp as you can get. The only better sound you can find, according to reviews, is a full fledged PCMIA card like the Audigy 2 which would set you back 100 dollars...compared to the 20 buck thumb sized device this is. I usually listen to my music using Foobar2000 and I do notice a significant improvement in my audio, even realizing that some of my files werent as well recorded as I originally thought...Thats how good the quality is on this little device.

As a reminder, this is output only. If you need to fix your microphone input look somewhere else. Bottom line, this is the best improvement for laptop audio you can get on a budget, from a quality audio card manufacturer, no less.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best sound output from a laptop, June 28, 2005

By 

topchem (Fremont, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Audio Advantage Micro USB Sound Card (Personal Computers)

I got this for my Powerbook (Mac OS), so the included Windows software was of no concern to me. The main purpose was to have an optical audio output for listening to MP3's. When piping music to my stereo, I always have a very noticeable hum, both from the internal audio jack and from my iMic (USB-to-audio converter).

The adapter was recognized upon plugging into a USB port and shows up in the Sound control panel as a generic "USB Audio" device. The blue LED lets you know that it is powered up (and you can see the red LED in the optical port). No hassle, and most importantly no hum (and the sound volume was much higher too so I no longer have to jack up my stereo's volume when switching from radio to iTunes).

I didn't test any of the other functionality (audio jack, mini-disc output) since I didn't care. I just wanted the optical.

Bottom line: I got an optical output on my laptop for $30 and zero effort.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for its purpose!, August 3, 2007

By 

D Jones "DP Jones" (Alexandria, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Audio Advantage Micro USB Sound Card (Personal Computers)

Using a Thinkpad T40, I have the Advantage micro connected to a USB port with installed drives. I then use the digital (s/pdif) output connected to a Denon ADV-M51 mini desktop stereo system. I encode all my CDs using Windows Media Player and iTunes at Lossless bit rates.

The sound quality is far superior to the headphone/line output of my notebook when connected to this system. Using high quality Sennheiser HD-595 headphones, the sound quality is exceptional. No distortion, no hiss, wide dynamic range, full frequency response, no ground loop hum. This is about as good as it gets with a system of this type.

I suggest problems folks are having are not in the Advantage Micro but in another part of their system.