[SOLVED] Need a cheap USB soundcard. Any recommendations?

[BrunoMiranda]

I don't have a headphone jack on my new laptop. Yes, they can already be shipped without these!

I have a bluetooth speaker that does the job, but I also have some headphones that I'd like to plug in for the stereo and privacy. For this, I've seen some cheap USB soundcards on eBay like this one:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/0F28-Externa ... ctupt=true

I don't record, so all I need is some decent sound quality for my headphones.

But my question is, Is this supported on LMDE2 / LMDE3 / or any late Linux Kernel?

Any hints / suggestions, please?

Thanks!

[MrEen]

Hi BrunoMiranda.

This is one I have bookmarked for forwarding to people with no functioning sound: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External ... 49F313TS1V

If you scroll down to the Questions, I insert "Linux" and see positive info such as this:

Question:
will this work with debian linux?
Answer:
I've tried it with several Linux distributions including one based on Debian. It was recognized by all distros but one - PCLinuxOS. Some of the other distributions required me to edit a configuration script in order to get it to work. The Debian-based distro worked out-of-box.

It really boils down to alsa/pulseaudio more than your distro to get it working. It shouldn't be too hard to make one work as long as you have a spare USB port as I don't think these will work in a hub. I could be wrong about that, though.

Hope that helps

[BrunoMiranda]

Thanks, @MrEen.

So I guess it's more a question of the chip that card is built upon. I've never seen any mention of what's the chip on any of these selling pages.

I wonder if the €1 card I've given the link will work. No idea of what chip is it using, nor how to build a script go get it running. But one thing in life at a time.....

[all41]

My guess is that this device is usb standards compliant---and will be Linux compatible.

[BrunoMiranda]

For €1, I'll risk it. I'm buying it.
It'll take more than one month to arrive from the other side of the world + 'vacations' in the customs, but when it arrives I'll let you know how it goes...

[BrunoMiranda]

My guess is that this device is usb standards compliant---and will be Linux compatible.

It works!

The sound is very chewed up and processed, and I have to increase the bass in order to listen to things a bit more properly equalized, but for €1 the thing sure works.

I go to the sound settings in Cinnamon and it is recognized there, all I have to do is select it and it is now active.

The build-in volume and mute buttons also work. Very handy as this cheap-ish laptop does not have practical volume control shortcut keys. So now I know where those buttons are should I need an emergency mute or volume down. (don't you love when you're playing something embarrassing in public and you just can't find that weird mute combination hotkey? )

Final recommendation: it has a green LED light for sound output activity and another red one for recording. These disturbed me while watching things in the dark, so I got some black masking tape and covered the microphone jack so I won't plug the phones there and the LEDs don't disturb me anymore. Neato!


Isn't is nice when we plug in the strangest things into Linux and it just works!?
By now I already shouldn't be amazed by this, but I cannot emphasize the quality that Linux has achieved nowadays. Kudos to all those that have made this possible. Marking this topic as [SOLVED]!

[MrEen]

That's great BrunoMiranda! Glad you got an acceptable solution.