Turtle Beach Micro USB "Soundcard"

[sandbasser]

Has anybody tried one of these??? To me, for $30 it doesn't seem like you could go wrong.

Any comments, problems, tips, etc would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[audiosteve]

I tried one based on many favorable comments I saw on the web. I was very disappointed. The sound just seemed flat (I mean lifeless) with an uncomfortable edge to it. In this case I think you get what you pay for. A $30 DAC sounds about like you'd expect a $30 DAC to sound. There is no free lunch here IMHO.

 

[sandbasser]

I fully understand that a $30 device would not compare to a full-featured, all-the=bells-and-whistles DAC. Nevertheless, my question was pretty vague... Let's try again

Does the Turtle Beach Micro sound better than the typical 'soundcard' built into a modern mid-level priced LapTop???

Thanks,

- Ray

 

[CBRworm]

I have used one of the turtle beach USB adapters with optical out. Using the optical out It sounded better than the analog out of my dell laptop. I did not try to analog out.

 

[Gutbucket]

I have used one of the turtle beach USB adapters with optical out. Using the optical out It sounded better than the analog out of my dell laptop. I did not try to analog out.

Same. Bought one years ago for SPDIF out of a laptop - 16bit/48kHz limited optical worked fine and passed DTS/DD. Analog out works but I never really used that or listened to it seriously. The rubber coating got weird and gummy after a few years.

 

[dangus]

The chip inside the Turtle Beach "Audio Advantage Micro" is supposed to be the C-Media CM102S. I ran across this chip in a cheap USB sound adapter from Radio Shack. It sounded OK with headphones, although the volume control didn't have enough steps. The chip has an S/PDIF output pin, and the pins are big enough to connect to fairly easily. It's encouraging to hear that it should do DD/DTS passthrough, so I may just convert that dongle into S/PDIF only.

There's a RightMark test of the TB AAM here:
http://166.70.233.190/rmaa/Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro.htm
Not bad, although IMD is relatively high.

 

[dangus]

Devices based on the Burr-Brown USB audio chips may be better. Those are used in some boxes priced in the hundreds of dollars, if that means anything. Specs are better than the C-Media chips. About the cheapest thing I've found that uses Burr-Brown is the ADSTech "Instant Music" USB sound thing, or there's also the Behringer UCA-202 that uses the identical chip. From looking inside the ADSTech box, it is very close to the evaluation design that Burr-Brown describes, down to the resistor values in the low-pass filters. It includes RCA line-level in and out, and Toslink S/PDIF in and out, and was made in Taiwan, not China. The Behringer UCA-202 also has line in and out, S/PDIF out (only), and headphone out. Someone did RightMark analog loopback tests on them both, and the ADSTech performed slightly better.

 

[gychang]

Does the Turtle Beach Micro sound better than the typical 'soundcard' built into a modern mid-level priced LapTop???

Thanks,

- Ray

I have one running in my home reference system (linux with optimal output to the receiver) video clip here.
YouTube - DIY speaker demo

I am more than satisfied of the sound from my flac-TB - speakers. Definitely worth the $$ IMHO. I will guarantee it will be better than builtin laptop sound chip.

gychang

 

[luzhu]

Devices based on the Burr-Brown USB audio chips may be better. Those are used in some boxes priced in the hundreds of dollars, if that means anything. Specs are better than the C-Media chips. About the cheapest thing I've found that uses Burr-Brown is the ADSTech "Instant Music" USB sound thing, or there's also the Behringer UCA-202 that uses the identical chip. From looking inside the ADSTech box, it is very close to the evaluation design that Burr-Brown describes, down to the resistor values in the low-pass filters. It includes RCA line-level in and out, and Toslink S/PDIF in and out, and was made in Taiwan, not China. The Behringer UCA-202 also has line in and out, S/PDIF out (only), and headphone out. Someone did RightMark analog loopback tests on them both, and the ADSTech performed slightly better.

dangus is right!No doubt about it,the Burr-Brown USB audio chips is better than the C-Media chips.but the prices also higher than the C-Media.
For the better sound effects,I think use an External DAC and USB-SPDIF device is a good idea.

 

[sandbasser]

FYI - There's a mini-review posted on the Anything But iPod site (Anything But iPod - MP3 Player Reviews & News).

I am NOT a shill for them - or anybody else

 

[dangus]

The Behringer UCA-202 sells on eBay for around the same price as the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro. The TBAAM is smaller, but the analog and digital output comes out of the same hole, so there's a small Toslink adapter to lose. The UCA-202 has more features and is based on a chip with better specs. The TBAAM doesn't seem like good value, unless this is a case where specs either lie or don't tell the whole story.

Not a shill for Behringer; I respect ADStech more, but their box costs more and lacks headphone output, and the case is larger than necessary. But, the Toslink input is an unusual and useful feature, and analog performance is superior.

 

[greenmark59]

I have been using the UCA-202 with the ASIO drivers installed and I must say flac files played thru foobar from my laptop sound very good. You must add the ASIO drivers, they make a substantial difference in the sound. You could instantly hear the difference.