A sound card from Hercules, a company converted to the audio (especially) after years of graphics cards, offers a new version of its USB sound card, the Gamesurround Muse XL Pocket LT3. The sound card, compatible with USB Audio and therefore used without drivers on a recent system, doesn’t necessarily offer a better quality than HD Audio codec but has the advantage of offering more outputs than typically found on laptops (and even some desktop PCs): it has three 3.5mm jacks on the back for connecting an analog 5.1 audio system (front, rear, center and subwoofer) and three 3.5 mm jacks at the front (line input, microphone input and headphone). Good idea, the volume control is on the same box and it is also possible to completely cut the sound very quickly.
This little sound card (price: about €30) can support an analog 5.1 kit or offer jacks to devices that lack them. Incidentally, the headphone jack is a priori “cleaner” than those found on laptops.
