Plugable USB Audio Adapter with 3.5mm Speaker-Headphone and Microphone Jack, Add an External Stereo Sound Card to Any PC, Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux - Driverless

I have some old out of print records, and with my old 2011 iMac I could easily digitize them so I could enjoy them on my other devices. So when I decided to buy a new computer to replace my old one, I bought another iMac thinking that I could still do this like before. Fast forward a couple of years, and now I hooked up my turntable and other equipment as before using the Sound Studio app to record and...NOPE...NOTHING.After reading everything I could find online as to why this wasn't working, buying various RCA to USB cables (still didn't work) I came across something where it showed the ports on the computer. My old 2011 iMac had an Audio Line in AND a Microphone port. This new iMac ONLY HAD A MICROPHONE PORT. Turns out that Apple deleted the audio line in port on the new 27" iMacs! :(I was skeptical that this little audio USB adapter would work, but I plugged it in, plugged in my 3.5mm cable in the audio line in port, plugged the RCA's connectors on the other end into my turntable and it worked immediately!If you are in the same position as me where the audio line in port is missing from your computer, buy this awesome adapter.

This fob "just works" and solved some janky audio issues I was having on my ancient powerhouse desktop. Occasionally you need to unplug/replug, but whatever that is to be expected.

Turned an older headphone into a usable item for my laptop computer.

Having gone through many USB audio adapters that claim to have a "stereo" microphone port, I can confirm this is true for this product (see image).If you're like me and plan on using this for line-in capabilities for either an instrument or to play two inputs of audio at once, do be warned there are a few things I had to do to get it working properly. This applies to a 2021 Dell XPS 15' model 9510, so your mileage may vary.Essentially, when first plugging this in, I noticed I was only getting mono audio, despite being set to 2 channels in the device properties. What solved this was disabling "Enable audio enhancements" in the device properties in Windows. Now I had 2 channels, but with a new issue, the channels were flipped, meaning right was left and left was right. After hours of troubleshooting and a replacement unit later I concluded this is an issue with the device itself (Note: The flipped channels aren’t present with the headphone port, only the microphone port).The solution that worked for me required two pieces of software (all free), VoiceMeeter Banana (regular VoiceMeeter also works) and VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device by VB-AUDIO Software, as well as Equalizer APO. Essentially, VoiceMeeter is taking the input from the audio device, outputting it to the virtual audio driver, and Equalizer APO takes the Virtual Audio Device and is flipping the channels back to their correct positions.As mentioned before, your mileage may vary, and you may not need to install the Virtual Audio Device, just Equalizer APO. I had to because EqualizerAPO requires the audio enhancement feature in Windows to be enabled, and for whatever reason, that forced mono audio.I only knocked one star off for this inconvenience because I haven't found another product in this price-range that uses a USB interface and supports 2 channel audio through its microphone port to allow this type of configuration. I will also mention there exists faint noise in the background, but adjusting the gain removed it for the most part.

On the surface this seems like a pretty basic peripheral. Jacks for headphones and microphone, USB-A for your computer. Only 44.1/16 audio; no options for higher sample rates and/or higher bit depth. But there are a couple of things that elevate it above most other similar low-end devices.First, it has been totally plug and play on everything I have tried it on. Windows, Mac, Linux, and even an Android phone with a USB-A adapter; just plug it in and everything works. No drivers to track down, no wait for drivers to download over an internet connection. You get sound in and out, and the volume controls work properly. I have tried a number of similar devices that can't do that. It's handy for to have around for Linux single board computers, including the Raspberry Pi, that have no audio jack or only have a very low quality one supported by PWM in software. And if you have a computer where the internal audio is broken, or doesn't have stereo inputs, or you need an extra input or output or two, it will fill in the gap.Second, it has STEREO inputs. The microphone jack can handle a two channel input, something that most similar dongles at this price can't do, including some other brands that look nearly identical.It won't suit all use cases. If you're looking to attach a headset or earbuds with a microphone, it's not what you're looking for; it doesn't support a TRRS input with headphones and microphones on the same plug, like you used to find on cell phones. (You could make those work with an adapter but it's simpler to just use something else.) It can't provide phantom power for your fancy condenser microphone. (But you should be connecting that to something better than a $10 dongle.) The sound quality and noise floor are fine for an inexpensive device, but it's not going to replace your high audio interface.All in all, if this addresses a problem you have, or if you are a computer experimenter and troubleshooter who wants an extra tool in your toolkit, this interface is a good choice. If you're putting together a traveling toolkit for fixing computers, this is small and light enough to toss in.