On Amazon (yes really) Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Amigo II USB Sound
Card & Headset Adapter
Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Amigo II USB Sound Card & Headset Adapter Review
Turtle Beach Amigo II USB Sound Card & HeadUSB Sound Card &Headset Adapter Audio Advantage Amigo II Convertsa standard headset to USB, Stereo output drives headphones or powered speakers, Microphone input accepts headset or external mic, Perfect for online game chat and VoIP software, Powered by USB, no power adapter required, Premium sound quality-- No drivers required - 3.5mm jacks for Stereo HeadphoneOutput and Microphone Input
Price : $24.95
* Get the best price and special discount only for limited time
Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Amigo II USB Sound Card & Headset Adapter Feature
- Converts a standard headset to USB
- Stereo output drives headphones or powered speakers
- Microphone input accepts headset or external mic
- Perfect for online game chat and VoIP software
- Powered by USB, no power adapter required
Maybe you should visit the following website to get a better price and specification details
Costumer review
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
Turtle Beach's new refreshed design should last a long time...
By Gamearts
May 2010 Update:
Just an update to say the sound card is still working fine. I've moved over to Fedora Linux now and this beast installed without a hitch (no restart required of course, unlike Windows!). All in all happy with the Turtle Beach amigo. If I had to do it all over again I'd probably go with the Micro II since that seems to be offered in the real black color I was looking for (don't need the mic input that badly), but this is still a good product!
INTRODUCTION:
My 1 year old Star Tech USB Sound Card (Model # ICUSBAUDIO) decided to break literally two days before Turtle Beach released their updated Amigo and Micro cards. The reason it broke was a phsyical design that I wasn't happy about with nearly all USB sound card adapters, including Turtle Beach's previous Micro iteration.
I can't explain it well, but they have the metal connector fused right into the card. My Star Tech literally had the metal connector eventually come apart. Just really cheap, but for the price you can't complain.
So, rather than ordering another cheap USB sound card that will probably give out in another few months I put in a pre-order for this Amigo II refresh that was slated to be out March 16 2010.
MINUSES:
First, let me get the bad out of the way and list why I don't think it's deserving of a perfect 5 stars.
This comes in a clam shell type packaging so it's an inconvenience to have to go find some scissors just to get it out.
The color of the adapter is not a dark gray/light black as the stock picture might lead you to believe. It is actually a very light to medium gray color. Kind of disappointing to me because I wanted it to match the black laptop it was being used with.
There is this really annoying blue indicator light that just keeps flashing on and off every second (unfortunately, it's on the side where you will have it be facing up in clear view to you).
It still makes that little pop sound when you put it in your computer like the older USB sound cards, but not as annoying.
POSITIVES:
New design should have this last for years. This comes as a little cable attached to the card. Now the USB metal connector part is no longer "fused" into the card itself, rather there is a short little cable that is attached to it, making a distinct separation between card and connector. This should make the product last a long time (I hope). I have never had a USB cable go out on me, and this looks like that, so it should be ok. Of course, I have only just got the Amigo II today so I can't say for sure if this will be the case...
When driving the volume up, it's not like the other USB sound cards you might have used where it's really, really loud even at the lower volume settings (I think I had my old Star Tech only at one or two volume bars out of like 20!). It looks to me like Turtle Beach toned it down where you really can up your computer sound a bit more bars/notches and not have to worry about it being too loud. Even at the loudest possible setting on my laptop, I find plausible to listen to (just like using my native sound card built into my laptop -- but definitely louder of course!).
Sound quality wise, it's pretty good to me. I wouldn't say it's a noticeable improvement to my old sound card. I'm not much of an audiophile, but I know there's products that sell for way more than this that will probably give you better sound quality if you are really willing to pay for it. I honestly don't notice much background static noise even on the highest volume, so I think this is reasonably good. My old sound card had a lot of static noise at those type of volume levels...
I haven't used the microphone input. Most people will most likely get the Amigo II over the Micro II because the Micro does not have a mic input. If you need the Digital Audio Out feature though, you should get the Micro. Since I am going to be using headphones with this only and not connect it to another sound system, there was no real advantage to get the Micro for me personally, as I assume both products would give you the same analog sound quality.
Also, this is just plug in, let your OS do its thing, and play. Although I did have to restart Windows 7 after it installed the drivers (automatically). But no software or additional processes taking memory away needed to make this work.
CONCLUSION:
Overall I recommend this because I think it will last a longer time than the other conventional sound cards. I will try to remember to update this review in case this sound card ever breaks down in the near future. If it breaks within a year, you should be covered because Turtle Beach has a 1 year warranty.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Great for an extra output device
By M. Hart
I was primarily wanting to have a 2nd output device for my headphones, so I didn't constantly have to fiddle with cords to answer calls when switching from my desktop speakers. I wanted my 3.5mm Razer headset to just work independently, and this accomplishes that very well.
Unfortunately, the mic input port is absolutely useless. It plays the input back directly to the audio out port (headset speakers)! This isn't utilizing the Windows option, either. It happens directly in the hardware, making it impossible to disable.
This makes that feature of the product absolutely useless. I don't need to hear myself, I do that just fine already.
I ended up plugging the mic directly into the computer, since it doesn't need to be isolated.
It's astonishing to me how stupid of an engineering decision there must have been to decide to play back input through the output. It makes absolutely no sense, and this is NOT what most people want.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
good replacement for broken laptop headphone jack
By mrnrnm
Others have reviewed this product (thank you!). From the many USB sound devices available at Amazon, I chose this one because it requires no software drivers, because the soundcard is not rigidly attached to the USB, and because of the of the reviews here at Amazon.
No software required. Using with linux is easy. Plug it in and Ubuntu identifies it. In Preferences / Sound, tell it which audio hardware to use. That's it. It is just as easy to use with Fedora and Sabayon Linux. I have not checked it with other versions of linux yet. It can't do 5.1 audio without the 'Windows-only' driver. If Turtle did not mention 5.1 audio, then I would not feel disapointed that I can't get 5.1 on linux. The bad reviews I have seen for this product are from users of the optional 5.1 drivers. I have decided to be happy without 5.1 audio.
The short bit of cable between the USB plug and the soundcard allows it to plug in any USB without blocking adjacent USP connectors. This also adds some flex so that accidental bumps and tugs do not damage the connectors. This has the benefits of a USB extension cable without the extra cost and extra clutter.
I got this product to replace a broken headphone jack on a laptop. It works very well for that. Sound is louder and clearer, a big improvement over the original audio. Also, the audio jack on this product has a very firm grip on the headphone plug so there is no 'loose conector' audio noise.
No comments:
Post a Comment