Customer Reviews

SIIG CE-S00012-S2 USB SoundWave 7.1 Audio Adapter

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The hub of our home entertainment system is an Intel-based Mac Mini, which does a great job with video but has terrible built-in audio: the output level is way too low, and when amplified is nearly drowned out by buzzes, whirs and other ambient electronic noise.

I bought the SIIG USB SoundWave 7.1 to bypass the lousy built-in audio, and it works perfectly. I just plugged it in, connected the stereo to the 1/8" jack, and selected it as the default audio device. The driver built into Mac OS offers only volume and balance controls, but I wasn't expecting anything fancy. Now I can leave my stereo volume way down at 4 instead of 40, and enjoy clear, undistorted audio.

I use a laptop for mostly home computing, and I watch a lot of TV and movies on my laptop with a nice set of Klipsch speakers, Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX Certified Computer Speaker System (Black). When my laptop sound card stopped functioning, I didn't want to pay a lot of money to install a new internal card, so I got this little USB thing.

The sound quality is very good, and the diagnostic program that comes with it helps you create exactly the sound you want, which is nice since on the default setting there was a very noticeable echo. With a little bit of tweaking, I got that cleared up. When I use my headphones, the sound is actually better than when I used them with my old sound card.

My problem is with using my speakers. They are powerful speakers, and maybe that's the issue, but as soon as I turn the volume up past 1/4 of the dial, there is a noticeable buzzing in the speakers, and it only gets louder and more intrusive the higher the volume goes.

Given the other options, though, I would still buy this product again. It is a great package, has some great features, and is a great deal for the price.

Because I can hardly abide the strident, grainy sound of MP3 files (even at 320 KBPS), I've started ripping my favorite compact discs to the lossless FLAC format with "CD Ripper" by Apen Software. When it comes to playback, "Winamp" by Nullsoft has a built-in FLAC codec and handles my files just fine. Unfortunately, my Dell laptop's built-in sound card does not.

Based upon other Amazon reviews and my own intuition, I purchased the Rohs USB Soundwave 7.1 for a pittance. I hoped for the best but I was prepared to be underwhelmed. I didn't need to worry. My Dell and properly-adjusted Rohs Soundwave now power my Vic Firth isolation headphones to near Stax-like sound. This is not hyperbole.

The trick is to make sure you open up the Xear 3D control that the Rohs Soundwave installation places in your Windows tray (down by the clock in the lower right-hand corner of your screen).

From the Main Settings tab:
(1)Select the headphone icon to indicate your output device
(2)Turn on the Virtual 7.1 mode
(3) Turn down the volume setting for each headphone channel

From the Effect tab:
(1) Select Generic environment from the droplist
(2) Select the icon representing the smallest Environment Size (right most of the three icons)

Enjoy!

So I bought this because my dog ran into my sound cord yanking my macbook pro off the desk and more or less broke the mini stereo output. No software install, just plug in and go to Audio Utils, change the built in outputs to usb audio device and you're set. i can't comment on what it does to the quality because I run mine through an external mixer before my speakers, but it seems to sound the same. Volume is a huge boost though, which improves quality and drops buzzing all around. Anyways, totally affordable alternative if you're built in output is broken somehow (mechanically at least) or you want another mini stereo out (except they can't work at the same time).

I bought a laptop with a horrible soundcard, this solved my problem. Decent price and probably much more than I actually need. I didn't buy it for the 7.1, I just needed high quality stereo sound, which it gave me. Simple solution, small price, good sound.

I bought this because I was running iDeneb on my netbook and I had no audio drivers for it. I also used it on my desktop as a headphone jack for my usb port since I didn't want to reach down to the back to plug in my headphones on the computer. The only problem I have with this "sound card" is that the volume is too loud on it. On the windows PC I have to set it to 1 / 100 to get a decent non-deafening sound. On the mac I have to play with both the playback app and the system sound (since the system sound doesn't go as low as the windows setup. It also doesn't have a hybrid mic port like some of the others. So it costs a bit more...it looks really nice but overall if I had to do it again I'd get something else. It doesn't have noisefeedback or anything though so the sound is clean if you make sure you set it to the lowest setting before hitting play, you'll be fine with this model.

Overall a good buy. It performed as advertised. Plug and play at anytime and thats it. No restarting or set up CD required. Good quality sound too. My actual rating is four and a half stars.

I bought this adapter because the sound card of my laptop died. It turns out that most laptops have the soundcard welded to the motherboard such that if you need it replaced then you need to either (i) replace the whole motherboard (which can be uneccesarily costly) or (ii) buy a new sound card and weld it yourself (which most of us dont know how to do, or wouldn't risk to do it anyway).

One -sometimes very annoying- drawback is that the volume output is very loud even for a low volume level of one. The upside is that you get a significantly higher volume output than your speakers would usually give. The downside, however, is that even the lowest volume level can be too loud for earphones (thats why I took half a star off its rating).

Additionally, it comes with an extension cord for the USB of about one foot if you find a need for it (I didn't!).

Bottomline, I got my laptop sound back and my speakers are sounding at a higher volume than before for a decent price. I do not use earphones most of the time so the volume issue is not a biggy for me. But it might be for you!

FYI: My OS is Windows Vista. Have not tested for any other audio adapters.

This is essentially an external sound card with some fancy sound management software, for a very low price. I used it to bypass the existing, broken sound electronics on the mother board. Worked well and worked immediately. I've got two of them. Highly recommend.

The sound card on my compaq laptop had stopped working and I was considering buying a new computer. I stumbled onto this product on Amazon.com and decided to give it a try. It works fine and saved me from having to buy a new computer. Just be aware that you won't get sound through your laptop speakers. I use headphone connected to the product.

I'm so pleased with this product!! After downgrading to XP from Vista, I had an impossibly difficult time finding the drivers for my soundcard, and after many hours of searching, I decided to explore the option of buying a USB sound card. This device works great!! Install the driver, plug in the USB, and you're good to go! It even comes with a USB extension cable!! I would definitely buy this product again!