[SOLVED] Is a portable USB sound card a good buy?

[stinnergfx]

So, I'm currently on a budget where I'm getting a quite cheap condenser mic with an XLR cable and a 3.5mm that plugs straight into the pc, and I've seen a bunch of reviews on that microphone and since it's quite cheap and plugs straight into the mic jack, it causes a lot of static and digital interference. I saw some people suggest buying an adapter from 3.5mm to usb or the so called portable sound card, and I'm wondering, will it affect sound quality a lot, what's the deal etc... Another thing is, I'm currently using my phone's earbuds and plugging them into the front port of my pc but the front ports are quite messed up because of an incident, so my sound tends to just cut off and I have to readjust my earbuds into my ports for a long time to get them to work, also I can't move since that will cut the sound. So I figured that the sound card since it has both a headphone and a mic port will be useful for that too seeing as my usb ports work great and I wouldn't have to worry about sound cutting off etc, so my question is, should I buy it and how much will it affect both the mic and headphone quality?

 

[Mrgr74]

Unless you're an audiophile, then yes.

I bought this exact unit for my daughters PC about a month ago and it sounds frankly amazing. Her & I game together everyday and to my untrained ear, it sounds just as good as the ALC 1220 on my X470 Taichi. It has a mic port, a speaker port and a mic/headset combo port, extra USB 2.0 ports, volume knob and well, take a look at it for yourself. You do not need ANY extra drivers. Just plug it in and go. Works great over Discord.

 

[stinnergfx]

Unless you're an audiophile, then yes.

I bought this exact unit for my daughters PC about a month ago and it sounds frankly amazing. Her & I game together everyday and to my untrained ear, it sounds just as good as the ALC 1220 on my X470 Taichi. It has a mic port, a speaker port and a mic/headset combo port, extra USB 2.0 ports, volume knob and well, take a look at it for yourself. You do not need ANY extra drivers. Just plug it in and go. Works great over Discord.

That's good to hear, not an audiophile frankly, I do plan on doing youtube commentary videos and such though, so I just wanted to know if the difference is very noticeable in my case, even if, I believe that it's still a better option than constantly yanking my earphones and a microphone with insanely high static, thank you

 

[hang-the-9]

If you are trying to minimize noise and interference I would avoid a sound card with extra things like a USB hub. There is a smaller and cheaper version just with audio interface, unless you actually want the USB hub option I would go with that. One of the reasons the external sound cards are considered better is that they are removed from the computer case where there is noise and interference from the motherboard and power components. When you stick a USB hub inside the sound card again you are just adding in extra electronic noise which you worked to reduce with an external card.

If you don't have, and are not planning to buy good headphones the linked model is fine to get, but I would get the smaller one that looks to be only $10.

This model is a lot more, but for the price it is at it's a good buy, it's the cheapest I have seen it https://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-1...yba+sonic&qid=1581442493&s=electronics&sr=1-6 but really only worth it if you have higher end headphones.

There is also this for $100 https://www.schiit.com/products/ful...9tDmtoATd1JgbSJ1LMkM9pAXi1eQHvmRoC7PEQAvD_BwE

But the higher end stuff is only good to spend money on if you are into audio in general and have good headphones to use with them.