Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB Analog & Digital Audio Adapter

I purchased Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II from Amazon without knowing if it would work with my Nvidia Shield Android TV 5.1 Surround sound.I plugged it in my Nvidia Shield and changed the setting in the menu to USB Audio Mode Surround sound 5.1 and restarted.YES, it works perfectly with 5.1 surround DOLBY and DTS. In normal menu mode it's 2.0 and when I use Plex or Kodi the movies/tv will use 5.1 if the audio is supported. Netflix however will not work with the Optical cable because they use EAC3.Great product!

After building my HTPC I found my optical SPDIF wouldn't pass anything but 2 channel stereo audio. After searching for hours I finally found the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II. I read as much about it as I could find about it, but wasn't sure if it could or would pass true Dolby Digital. Much to my delight, as I sit here typing my 12 year old Onkyo receiver is boldly showing Dolby Digital in its front display!In windows after selecting your sound playback device, under Properties running the Encoded Formats sound test both DTS and Dolby Digital pass the sound test!No matter what other reviewers say follow the instruction in the PDF file that come with drivers, and yes new drivers are available. If you have any knowledge of windows it's an easy install process.My HTPCASRock FM2A88X-ITX+AMD A10-6700 APU stock heatsink and fan4GB GSkill RAM 2x2Corsair HX520 modular PSTurtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB

It provides excellent audio, but only in stereo, not not 5.1 surround when used with my Nvidia Shield TV. My older Onkyo home theater receiver does not have HDMI ports so I am required to use an optical audio connection. The Micro II device connects to the Nvidia's USB3 port configured for 5.1 audio out, but my receiver sees it as a 2-channel source and simulates 5.1 as "Neo:6" simulated surround. It may provide true 5.1 out from a PC by downloading and installing special file from Turtle Beach, but that's not an option for my use.

I have both the Amigo and Micro II, and personally the Micro is better. It is not subject to the odd background noise that the Amigo does, that tends to get noisy if you have it plugged into a hub. By comparison the micro is dead silent, and you cannot hear the buzz and wizzing of the hard drive at all. Ultimately this does make a improvement to the overall sound quality performance over the integrated sound, and will preform flawlessly. The card is driverless so long as you do not use the optical, which requires you to download the driver. The card operates at either 16-bit at 44khz or 16-bit (CD Quality) at 48khz sampling rate (DVD Quality) which saturates the range of humanly perceivable hearing. 24-bit vs 16-bit will only make a detectably difference at volume far above the level which would damage your hearing. I perceived improved clarity, overall response, and a reduced noise floor with the card. Using a pair of Grado sr80is I could detect the differences between the card and the integrated sound. Night and day would seem a but melodramatic but there was a marked improvement especially to clarity and perceived sound stage. Setup is as simple as humanly possible. This card does have one interesting feature. When viewing it under the control panel, one of the enhancements it has is "Loudness". I leave this on and when set on my computer to 8% normal listening volume, so you can boost it quite high, perhaps dangerous-to-your-hearingly so. I am quite confident the sound card could easy drive higher impedance headphones unamped lying down and has absolutely no trouble driving the 60 Ohm KSC75s. I was very impressed with the Micro which in a side-by-side comparison bested some of my more expensive usb sound cards who shall remain nameless. This really is an exceptional value from a reliable company. Among the audio enthusiast community, the Micro is renowned for its exceptional performance and low price and is a venerable purchase for both hobbyists and those wanting a bit more out of their audio experience.

Out of the box, it works right away when you plug it in to your USB port. Doing this on a Windows 10 machine will install the "generic" audio driver which only allows 2 channel sound.In order to get SPDIF to work correctly, google "turtle beach audio advantage micro ii driver" which should direct you to the Turtle Beach support page. From there it tells you how to download and install the driver in order to get the full surround sound experience.Using this on a gaming laptop running Windows 10 64 bit, using with Turtle Beach DPX21 and the 7.1 sound IS AMAZING! Just sad that the Turtle Beach DPX21 did not come with this adapter in the box.

Though tempted to leave it less, now, it deserves 5 stars. I now, after owning this for 4 years and never been able to get it right with using it, have configured it for 5.1 dolby and it works like a charm. PC usb to pioneer 5.1 receiver, and it sounds glorious! Just gonna say my PC needed to be rebuilt, got a great 6 core motherboard, but it had no audio outs for 5.1 and was wondering what to do about a sound card Forgot I owned this, yanked it out, returned to some reviews here.. figured I'd check their website. and YeS! So far, so good, now that I followed the directions on their website. Search for the product on their website, look for a long paragraph, "(NOTE: This feature is only available on the Windows platform.) Windows User? Click here for driver download and installation instructions." And follow those directions to a T. I have enabled through playback devices, "Digital Output 2-audio advantage Micro 2", and it is sounding great!