Encore Electronics ENMAB-8CM 7.1-Channel USB Audio Box

This box offers a lot for a very reasonable price. It connects easily and sounds great. I love that it works in Linux too! I discovered a major benefit of this box when I needed to record streaming audio using "stereo mix" in Audacity. The on-board sound card in my desktop and laptop do not offer stereo mix recording. However, this Encore box does! I plugged the Encore into the computer and got a great recording.

Either this manufacturer has incredibly poor QC, or they just made a weak product. I hooked it up with Logitech Surround Sound Speakers Z506 (980-000430) and it works, but it creates an awful static sound every 30 seconds. It does this even if I just plug in the 2.1 component. I know the speakers work fine, because if I plug the cable directly into my audio jack, they are good. Will need to purchase a different external sound card.

Stopped working after a few short months... Bummer.

I bought this device to plug computers to my stereo through a toslink cable. All ports work. Microphone-in are in mono. Did not test spdif/in. When plugged in the device provides very limited functions. I have used this device on windows and linux. Installation was a breeze on linux but this device needed the installation of the included drivers on windows to use the spdif-out Surround sound through toslink does not work on linux. Linux surround sound is a pain with any device. Used alsa.

I connected this box to a hub, and then to the PC. Despite the indirect connection, it is recognized and works fine on both Linux and Windows 7. I am using just the line in and line out to record and play audio at 48000 ksps, and have no problems.

I purchased this unit specifically to use with ham radio applications that both encode and decode digital communications signals using a sound card in conjunction with a computer, a digital interface and a ham radio shortwave transceiver. It works perfectly--much better than the sound card that was built-in on the motherboard of my computer. As with any devices used in these applications, it is important to isolate the audio input and output lines with a digital interface that incorporates audio transformers to eliminate any possibility of ground loops that may introduce noise into the signal.

I plugged in 7 channels of audio out, and the USB Audio Box made a brief fizz noise, and then died. I won't be buying another cheap sound card again.

I like the sound that is produced by this little baby. The additional input jacks allows for the inclusion of DJ equipment