| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
PPA 1455 USB 6 Channel External Sound Adapter |
 |
Our Price -
1 Used - from $17.95
2 New - from $17.99
Availability - Usually ships in 1-2 business days
 
|
|
PPA 1455 USB 6 Channel External Sound Adapter
Need to upgrade your PC sound system? It's simpler than you might imagine. You don't need any tools. Simply add the PPA 1455 USB 6 Channel External Sound Adapter to an available USB port on your desktop or notebook PC. While many people focus on upgrading video, many ignore the improvements in sound over the last few years. More people are downloading music, streaming Internet radio, and even streaming video. This sound adapter lets you add an optional 5.1 channel speaker system so you can listen to surround sound from websites and your DVD collection. If you use your PC for TV reception, this adapter is ready for Dolby Digital HDTV sound. Skype your friends and family (Skype is a virtual free PC-based phone service) and share. Tell them what a great adapter this is and how it really improves the sound output from your PC.
Plug n'Play allows you to connect the device to your PC right out of the box without having to read a long and boring instruction manual. There is also the feature of Hot Swappable, which you don't have to reboot your PC to connect/disconnect the external sound adapter. It is powered directly by an available USB port on your PC. No external power source required. Only R, L channels PCM audio in 5.1 channels can be conveyed in digital playback mode Plug n'Play Hot swappable Compliant with USB Specification v1.1 Compliant with USB audio device class v1.0 Supports USB full speed up to 12Mbps serial data transmission USB bus power (through one available USB port to directly power the device) Supports multi-channel audio codec interface for 6-channel playback Requirement - Pentium or equivalent PC Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista CD ROM (for driver installations) In the box - One USB 6 Channel External Sound VoIP One Driver
PPA 1455 USB 6 Channel External Sound Adapter Accessories
PPA 1455 USB 6 Channel External Sound Adapter Reviews
The internal sound card on my media computer died. I had no idea that you could get an external sound card but thought anything is possible, started with a google search and found this one at a great price! Works great on XP, had to install drivers that came on CD, rebooted and it worked. Do read the directions - won't work until you reboot.
This box can decode it to give you the 6 analog channels. But, the optical link would have only two channels. Box that came with the drive, does not work in windows 7. I contacted PPA Support via email ([...]). They responded later than same day with a link to their Windows 7 drivers. You can download the driver from the link below. Open the run the Vista_7
folder. "[...]"
I have a 6 speaker system from dell but my new laptop does not have a sound card for them and I hoped that this would work so I could use the speakers. I could only get one channel working well and a second channel that had a lot of static.
Do not buy.
One of my home PCs that is based on a server type mother board and doubles as a media server for me would not work with my name brand entry level sound card even though Windows recognized the thing and appeared to install it OK. I finally gave up and got this little gem on the recommendation of a friend with a similar problem. It's about twice what the nearly ubiquitous little dongle type adapters sell for, but this is a whole lot more function and I don't worry about bumping into it or snagging a cable and having it break or worse breaking my host machine's USB connector. Unlike the little dongle types, it also won't block other USB ports because it connects via a cable and you don't have to worry about the thing falling apart as the smaller units seem to have a reputation for. The software installs OK and neither XP nor Windows 7 has had a problem with it although when I boot my machine the driver does leave a useless dialog box up on screen that I have to close to get rid of. Bottom line is that it works. The software allows you to customize the speaker setup and has some canned sound processing if you want to mess with it. I mainly just wanted to be able to get sound, add a mic input and have some flexibility to easily reconfigure for different uses without it coming apart and this does all of that painlessly.
Pros:
It's USB - It just doesn't get easier than that.
It works!
It installs easily
It has connection/setup flexibility and they're spaced far enough apart on the panel to be useful
It's small enough at approx 2.5"x4"x0.9" to be unobtrusive, but large enough to make it easy to deal with if you change around your configuration.
It appears to be solidly built
Cons:
The cable is hard wired to the box and is too short if your system case is under the desk. Mine is plugged into a hub on my desktop, so it's not a big deal for me, but it's a pain if you're a ways off from your rear panel USB ports.
It runs a bit warm to the touch. Not anything to worry over, but what's going on when it's idle to dissipate that much heat anyway?
It needs 3-4 rubber bumpers or a hook/loop tape on the bottom to keep from sliding around.
Why-Oh-Why do all of these designers feel compelled to stick superfluous LEDs on everything these days. Well at least this one isn't very bright, but the thing flashes constantly, so the box is banished to behind my monitor screen except when I need to get to it. A Piece of tape oveer the LED works too :-)
I got this to utilize the surround sound capability within FPS games on my laptop, which runs Windows XP SP3. It works great and have been using it for a few months now. However, I did have one problem. When playing Counter Strike Source as soon as the game would start I would get a blue screen of death error, which would restart the computer. I figured out it was caused by leaving this sound card plugged into the usb port before Windows was done loading. If you have this problem, make sure to unplug the card before turning on your computer and then plug it in after Windows is done loading.
|
|
|
|
|
|
