Windows 7: Turtle beach sound card questions..

I bought a Turtle Beach external usb sound card today online.

Audio Advantage Micro II

Im planning on using it on my Sony laptop. Now i've read about laptop speakers being bad, and to be honest i didnt notice my laptop's speakers being too bad, in fact i think they're really good. But i heard an external sound card is better to isolate the noise etc.

So i dont know, am i going to hear much of a difference with this device? Could it be worse than my laptop's speakers? My laptop uses Realtek High Definition Audio and i have a pair of Sennheiser hd 280 pro headphones.



btw to make sure, i only use headphones, i dont use the laptop's external speaker. Also i realize this doesn't have anything to do specifically with Windows 7, but i thought there might be a few here who may have experience with usb sound cards.

When people say laptop speakers are bad they don't mean you can't listen to them and they're awful, it just means they don't have anything on professional speakers. They are perfectly fine just not top of the range.

Onto your question: whether or not you will hear a difference I don't know. Out of my brief experience with a USB sound card I couldn't tell all that much difference on my headphones (on my speakers the base seamed a little better but that was likely to do with settings).

In theory a USB sound card has the potential to be better than an internal one but in practice I can't hear much of a difference. You might disagree when you try it out but this is just from experience and is thus my opinion.

Looking at the sound card itself it seams to be quite good (I know all Turtle Beach Stuff is good), if you have headphones that support Digital Optical in I would recommend using that as well.

Oli

Depending on the sound card used, a USB Sound Card could potentially be better. For example, I bought an Audio Advantage Amigo (Turtle Beach) and it definitely was better than the previous SoundMax Audio Card that was integrated. But if you had a Realtek HD Audio card before, you may not notice that much of a difference; a placebo effect could occur though.

Another reason why i got this is because apparently it pumps out much higher volumes than my laptop's integrated sound card can. As for the quality i wont be too bummed if it sounds the same, im just hoping it doesnt sound any worse!

Darician, did u happen to notice any sort of hiss or noise with the Amigo? I've read some people mention this. I thought i would ask because the Amigo is really similar to what i ordered, although what i ordered is a gen ahead, the Micro II.

Haven't noticed any hiss or noise with the Amigo. I've tried both with speakers and headphones and have not noticed anything like that. Additionally, I've tested it in XP, Vista, and 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) and never noticed anything like that.

Speaking of which, since you're ordering a Micro II, when you do get it, I am curious if it has software because I've thought about ordering an Amigo II but am concerned it may not have the Pitch Shift (Karaoke) functionality I often use. I know the original Micro did not support it but I am just curious if the Micro II has some sort of software to manage it.

That's good to hear.

I will definitely check for that software and as soon as the package arrives. But i doubt it will have it, there's no mention of anything like that on their site.

Ok i have the Micro II set up on my laptop. I have to say im extremely disappointed with it. I have a couple of issues. Firstly the volume is TOO loud. Even the lowest volume setting on my laptop is a little louder than i'd like.

Secondly (this is the deal breaker), when i watch videos online there is a crackling sound that goes on throughout the video. The weird thing is this only happens with videos online, if i try a video on my hard drive then its fine, or an mp3.

Lastly when playing a song or video, while it is playing if there is a silent part in the video or song, i can hear a pretty loud hiss. I only hear the hiss during silence in videos or songs, so when i have nothing playing then i hear nothing. weird.

Also @ Darician, it didnt come with any software, simply plug in and it works without driver install. I have to say im pretty disappointed. Reviews online didnt point to any of this. But i guess i shouldnt have been to surprised since it only cost 25 euros.

Don't know why, but I had totally forgotten about Turtle Beach. It used to have a great rep. I assume it still does.

Definitely .

Some of the stuff they do is fantastic, for instance X41 headphones.

Oli

The original Micro (tried) it and Amigo (have it) did not have this issue. Sorry to hear that it crackles and pops with the Micro II. And Turtle Beach is still quite good though I am disappointed they discontinued the Audio Advantage SRM. I need a new PCI Sound Card though so a Montego DDL might be in my future soon.