SABRENT USB SOUNDCARD WARNING 

Contrary to your problems with the bias voltage, the Sabrent [AU-EMAC] for around US $ 8,-, that's the one with the alloy cover, has a phantastic low noise floor of -125db. For Amateur Radio use, using digital transmission, this is an important criteria! I have measured half a dozen USB dongles, beeing in the range of -80db (!) to -110db at the noise floor. Only the Sound Blaster X-Fi, that costs ten times as much and is 25 times in volume has a noise floor of around -130db. The conclusion: don't buy it, if you want to use a special microphone, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for some special applications, like JT65/FT transmission.

who else watched it right after buying it

It is awesome that you call out a product as bad, most youtubers / magazines / other pro websites are often too frightened to do this because it might mean the manufacturers stop funding them.

So in essence, the actual manufacturer changed the chipset in the latest model to the C-Media CM108 which only gives about 3 VDC, whereas the 2015 models use an older C-Media chipset which pushes more volts. That's a shame. Looks like AntLion's own brand USB adapter (which looks VERY similar to the Sabrent) might have to be the solution for ModMic and condenser users, but it costs about $20 plus shipping.

I watched this video after buying mine a couple days ago on Amazon (DE) and although I received no complaints regarding the volume or quality on TeamSpeak (using it with a cheapo Creative HS-810 SB Blaze), I was curious and opened it up regardless. My chip is labelled as HS-100B, which apparently is the "original" chip used for this thing. Measuring the voltage, I get around 3V on the mic jack and 1,6V on the audio jack, which seems about right after checking the block diagram for this chip on the Cmedia website. When you take a look at the specs for the C108B, though, you'll notice that is outputs the exact same voltages (1,75V audio, 3V mic), which means that the chip itself isn't the problem here. My theory is that Sabrent maybe had an amplifier of some sort on the PCB that boosted the output voltage of the chip up to ~5V, which they probably removed with later revisions. Thermal issues maybe? Would be interesting to see if the aluminium version performs differently. Maybe I'm totally off and your first 2 ones were from a faulty production batch that shouldn't have had such a high output voltage in the first place. After all, 4.something instead of actual (or closer to) 5V seems like a rather heavy voltage drop for such a simple device.

Technically 2 to 3 volts is the specification for plug-in power and anything higher is out of spec. And condenser microphones are typically phantom power totally different system with 48 volts. In the case of the microphone that's being used I suspected that they allowed quite a range of tolerance for their internal circuitry.

Make sure to post this video on the Amazon listing for this sabrent USB soundcard. It has thousands of good reviews because it was indeed a good USB soundcard, but now they pulled a bait and switch and they deserve to be called out on it. You can't post links in amazon reviews so you will have to upload the video directly to amazon. We will make sure to rate your review as helpful.

Thanks for warning us, i was going to buy it lol very interesting tho.

If I want to get one of these just to use some normal earbuds, will that be fine? (My headphone jack is broken)

For anyone using a ModMic 4.0, I bought one of these adapters and it works fine for me on a Windows 10 PC. The one I bought looks identical to the one in thee video, and the packaging says the model is a Sabrent AU-MMSA. Before buying the Sabrent I'd tried a Syba USB adapter, which didn't work well on 2 different Windows 10 PCs (really bad noise), but worked fine on a Windows 7 PC.

In all honesty, a condenser mic has always needed 48V phantom power unless its electret. I would still recommend using one with a condenser mic and external phantom power or with a regular dynamic mic if you were streaming on PS4 for example for pure versatility of gear.

I just bought one for my Bro-In-Law for a Server i gave him. This server doesn't have builtin sound card of any kind not any sound outputs/inputs from the Mobo. I hope this will work for him since all he will use the server for is gaming since his computer has a Very old Very slow AMD tripple core. I found this server at the dump and it has 2 Xeon E5620s in it and 16gb ram so it should work better for gaming for him. I just hope the USB sound card will work to power his headphones and mic.

Thanks for the heads up! You could have kept quiet about it or ignored the issue all together... BUT! You're bigger than that so kudos :)

So glad that A. The TRS con mic I used to use was battery-powered & an electret type, & B. I hadn't even *heard* of USB sound cards when I used it.

Hey podcastage! Thanks for the amazing video!. One question: My soundcard is connected to the BM800 XLR with and without phantom power and whenever I record, sometimes without even connecting anything, it gives me a high pitch static buzz sound. What could be the problem? And how to fix it? thanks!

after all that month of research and everything i found the best mic was the blue yeti for my budget and i got it for 50 dollar for a used not even scratched blue yeti and bought it and got a pop filter so cheap for such good sound and you you will reach 2k subscribers congrats with one more subcriber

Considering the burn I got a couple years ago on a cheap but very well reviewed looper pedal for my guitar that turned out to be changed after the reviews to a completely different board that was complete garbage with high latency (which kills a looper pedal real quick from a usage standpoint) I posted comments on the good reviews, got completely ignored and the great review is still up with no retraction in all cases. Thanks for posting this.

I bought a USB Soundcard the other day and it works really well with my BM-700 as an alternative to Phantom Power. Its called the TROND USB Audio Adapter. Cost me less than 10$ Canadian.

Hey folks & Podcastage, I just bought one of these cards (Model:AU-MMSA) to bypass that static hissing that was happening with my Mod Mic 4.0. It works perfectly, in that regard! Though, the headphone port is absolute garbage. I used my Sennheiser HD 598cs & the quality is so distorted and damaged! It's not worth it if you also intend to use the headphone port. But I never did so that's fine =p I appreciate all the work you've put in these videos. They've helped a lot!

can i just use one so that i can plug my mic in? i have phantom power but my jack port in my laptop sounds crappy.

i'm pretty sure it's not only the sabrent adapter that produces less than 4-5 volts cause the Gino adaptor also gives little voltage not enough to power condenser mics but i'm using a phantom psu with my motherboard sound card and i guess it works good

Hey congrats on the 2k subs! By the way what about the other sound cards that you did reviews on? Instead of Sabrent being #1 you should re-do the list and have them by how good they sound with condenser microphones with sabrent either being out or criticized in the review due to the change in the chipset.

I have this exact issue, glad you made a video on it. Not working with my BM-800.

I’ve used it on iPhones and iPads. Beautiful. Today I tried to use it on my MacBook Pro and I can only get input audio on one channel (LEFT). I’ve checked everything. I have stereo signal on my 3.5 mm. But the MacBook is only processing one channel. It’s like the MacBook thinks it’s a microphone and won’t switch to stereo line.

So True! I bought one of these "About a week ago!" and I had the exact same problems! Great Video! Really Helpful!

I bought this adapter based on the best budget mic video from you, one week before this video came out! I have no idea if mine is bad or not, but it does produce an okayish sound, certainly much better than the regular laptop 3.5 mm jack. Still, sucks that this happened.

Just bought one. But it's been five years. I'm hoping things are better now.

I wish this video would have came out a little earlier lol. I bought it back in December and ended up getting a refund because I couldn't get it exchanged on amazon. The chip info is pretty interesting though, I guess it was cheaper to switch.

Hello, thanks a lot for your work/job! Can you test another usb sound card "K-Mic KM720", i cant find it on amazon, only aliexpress.

thanks for keeping us updated. :)

just thanks. waiting for that investigation to show results

probably the reason that the name change may be that the sound card could record copyrighted content if it had toslink optical inputs it is possible that the original chipset was able to strip or ignore the scms copy protection used for spdif optical connections. the quickest and easiest way to prevent recording the audios of bluray movies or video games is for the titles to include embedded software to detect the product name and block it. so the maker changes the name to something generic that no one will dares block as it would ensnare innocent brands who just use generic names that dont have the ability to record from toslink.

@podcastage Remember that video you did about all of the USB sound cards? you should try buying a new one of those and see if THEY are the same and still work. Sure they may be more expensive this sabrent one, but its still cheaper then a mixer!

Crack it open to see the differences and to see if you got maybe a faulty one, it's quite easy to do.

Hi ! I recently bought one of these because I've always had background noise on my mics (gaming headset). But when i plug the microphone on the Sabrent, the volume is so low it's almost impossible to hear anything. I've tried boost programs but the sounds becomes terrible. What can I do to have a decent volume using the Sabrent with my HyperX Cloud Alpha ?

I just bought this on amazon right now. I'll update this to see if things have remained the same or if things changed for the better.

so a condenser microphone is the one he has because i just want the adapter to use for a headset but i need to know if the mic will work

Did you try 2017 november version ? :) @Podcastage ############

Podcastage - please help: What are the MODEL NUMBERS of the OLD 5V out adaptors - the AUGUST & OCTOBER versions??? Thanks

I got the Sabrent sound card and I could barely hear my voice in my videos, so thanks for keeping us updated on this. Do you remember the light blue one you have? That you can see through? I have that one too. Does that one still produce 4-5 Volts in recent production?

CONGRATS FOR 2000 SUBS MAN

congratulations by the next video you will have 2k subs nice to see you grow :)

Its pretty crazy how much information is in this one video.

When you got more USB Soundcards than friends.

Darn. I was hoping to find recommendations for regular headset mics like those on Gaming headsets.

Please give me you are the best audio adapter buy link

Hey! That's a ten Bucks adapter. What did you expect?

should always use a phantom supply and why go thru the trouble of making the video and not use a normal headset mic also to see if theres a difference there too and cover it all for everybody?

It’s a shame that there can’t be a 3.5mm to 3.5mm 5v-12v phantom power supply to give a cheapo 3.5mm electret condenser microphone (such as the sf-666a) a noise-free volume boost while feeding the sound through your motherboard’s microphone input. I know that the electret material should lower the overall bias voltage requirement for these microphones, but most onboard microphone inputs only supply up to 1.5v of bias voltage which is too low for even these electret condenser microphones to function properly. The supposed “microphone gain” audio setting in all operating systems is implemented as a software amplification (meaning both audio signal and unwanted noise will be boosted) rather than increasing the bias voltage of the microphone input jack (which would just allow the audio signal to be boosted and the noise would be left the same).

I got the Adapter for my modmic, seems to be working fine for me. Should I still be concerned? I'm not sure if the voltage would affect the mic's quality. My onboard motherboard kept on causing a hissing sound until these little guy came in. Everything seems to be working fine with the modmic.

I only use a microphone when gamming, but always wanted a better and hiss free mic sound. Something like this usb soundcards seemed like the best solution for me. What do you think about the Creative Sound Blaster Play 3? You should give that a try!

I contacted Sabrent support before and after watching this. First time they claimed people complaining and writing bad reviews on Amazon should have called support first. I'm guessing they'll ship them a good version so that the review gets changed. Then after I showed them your video they claim that the product is only intended to replace a broken sound card in a laptop and that you're not supposed to hook up a $300 mic to a $7 sound card. I told him that this is a $17 to $30 mic and that I get great performance out of a $3 to $12 lapel mic that sounds as good as a $300 or even $3000 microphone. Then I said was going to publish a review article on a major site.

Thanks! I was on the verge of ordering one of these off EBay - Saved by the bell huh?

Oh so that's why! mine wasn't giving me good or high enough audio for my sf920

Hi ... watched all your videos which were great help ... my question is have you found any difference in headphone volume output .. ie sound level .. I will be using mainly on output to a mixer running a karaoke program ... regards frank

if i only want it for audio (my macbooks headphone jack broke) then will there be any difference in quality

Quick question. You linked different adapter than what you have tested in the video. Is there a reason for it? Are you recommending to buy it instead? Also, thanks for all the great videos. It helped me a lot to learn about sound cards and microphones. :) edit1. Alright. Just watched the video that was in the link (I thought it was the same first video which compared 11 sound cards.) So now the question is Syba Stereo or Sabrent External Sound Box?

yo my mic doesnt work when plugged with the adapter can someone help

l actually bought one of these because of your recommendation. l guess l have to hope for the best.

I recieved my sabrent usb yesterday and I saw that it didn't work as well as yours. Now I know why lol. It's a pitty but at least was a cheap mistake. Waiting for your next recomendation! (I hope is as cheap as the usb adapter :P)

I was surprised when you said not to buy it.

Have you tried the Trond USB sound card? It says on Amazon that it uses a C-Media chip, but doesn't say which one.

just bought it for the modmic uni and the sabrent adapter from a video on this channel from 2020

Well this is interesting. Seems like mine is one of the older ones that still gives around 4 volts, looking forward to seeing about audio interfaces.

Just a question My Mics are the moving coil type. Which means that no power should feed back into the mic. I got the Techrise usb sound card. So what are you saying regarding the readings on your multimeter? Do you mean I should NOT plug my mic into the sound card? Would that be your recommendation?

thank you for this. was wondering why my mic was sounding cruddy compared to the audio tests on youtube and this seems to be the reason.

pls review camparison of noise b/w new sabrent stereo ,syba and MAKETECH Aluminum USB ( new sound card ,they say it got hs-100b,i think this will give voltage above 4v to mic)

+Podcastage I'm planning to buy either a Sabrent or a SYBA USB Sound card for my Dynamic microphone... do you still recommend this USB sound card for the Dynamic mic or should i get the SYBA one? because i have a really tight budget in terms of audio.

should i still just get one if i already have a phantom power supply? the current noise of just plugging the 3.5mm directly into my motherboard is horrendous.

Great service and effort on behalf of us newbie non-expert tyeps. Thanks again!

mine arrives today, so, now i'm worried

Well I've been chatting with you about these issues and my BM-800 was delivered about an hour ago. After installation and setup, still waiting for my Phantom PS and Audio Mixer to arrive. My mic came with the silly white usb audio adapter so directly into my computer with that adapter I have loads of power with mic volume set at 7%. I think I may have gotten a newer revision possibly...mine came in a box with a BM-700 pic on the black box and "NEW SERIES" is printed below "PROFESSIONAL LARGE DIAPHRAGM STUDIO RECORDING MICROPHONE". So I'm now unsure if phantom power is indeed required, although I will be installing it when it arrives. Have you had any reports of this? Out of the box working like a champ without phantom power? Weird but happy about it. I totally expected low to no volume here but I've got LOADS of room to increase volume. My computer is simply an HP 6000Pro AiO which utilizes laptop components including motherboard, 6 years old, not new technology so perhaps it's something to do with the dual PCB's in the mic. I haven't removed them to see if capacitors and wires are attached to both but perhaps I will when I get my Phantom PS and mixer. What's your thoughts on this?

Great video. Really helpful. You say they switched to the CM108 chipset... But what did they use before? In the UK on Amazon they have a Sabrent AU-EMCB which states it's the CM108 chipset. ...BUT they also have a Sabrent AU-MMSA model. Do you think one of these is the "good" 5V version you had??

Are you for real? I literally just bought it a few minutes ago... after watching another one of your videos!!! :( albeit is not this exact one. It's the one with the buttons (Mute Mic - Mute Headphones - volume up - volume down) I don't know if the results will be any different though! :-/ Suggestions? should I just cancel the purchase? before they send it??? or just wait and bleed...sorry wait and see...something else on my mind!!!

wow! I thought it was just me! Thanks Podcastage

I just want it for headphones lol

did they change the audio chip back to the original?

Hey! I kind of have a plan, and i want to ask you wether it would work. I am planning to do a podcast with 2 mics. I would like to use 2x Neewer NW 700s, both plugged into Rode TRS to TRRS adapters, both plugged into a Rode SC 6, plugged into my iPhone 6. Would that work? If it doesn't work, how could i create a basic podcast setup with 2 (eventually 3) mics, spending under 120 dollars? Thanks in advance :) Chris

Looking at your "What's the Best USB Sound Card / Audio Adapter?" video, and saw you also listed "DON'T BUY" for the Syba Stereo sound adapters? Was looking to invest in one for a Modmic 4.0, (if necessary?) and was wondering why you said don't buy for those as well.

Thanks you, the asus xonar U3 is a good choice?

have you tried the Neewer E-10 USB Sound Card? its about $26 I heard it works great... with lots of features for a USB Sound Card..

I can’t get my IMac internal microphone to work and I tried buying a 3.5 jack desktop microphone for the built in line but I didn’t work either, I just need a mic to do face time, will this help me?

Just bought this yesterday, my SF-920 WORKS using the sabrent USB but I agree that it sounds like complete ass. If you could please put like a little speech bubble or remove the link from the desc of your old videos because I didn't see this before I purchased.

I bought lavalier mic. (Maono) Which sound card to buy... I want to plug earphone and mic to my laptop. I want to make a voice over to one of my projects.

This may explain why my PC37x mic straight up doesn’t work. Any recommendations for a combo mic/audio USB DAC? Doesn’t need to be fancy

Thanks for the warning! Bc I didn't have the money to buy the sabrent adaptor, which I thought about getting it in the near future, thank god I've gone for another and thank you GOD BLESS YOU! I know you said not to ask for an adapter anymore, but I had one question: After the Sabrent adapter, which have you tested out and has the best quality in your eyes and you recommend?

im confused because i have a full 5 volts from my card

Thank's for the warning! So what would you recommend now to use with a Neewer NW-700 to use? Don't really wan't to pay more than 30$.

It’s great that you posted this video but why don’t you also pull your original recommendation video so people don’t continue to see it and purchase this device based on that recommendation. That seems it would be the responsible thing to do.

If anyone still needs a good usb soundcard for a low price(11$), I can really recommend the one that is from a brand named Techrise (there maybe are rebrands) i tested my Headset Mic and Lavalier Microphone on it and both sounded a ton better than the onboard soundcard (More Loud and they dont have like crazy amounts of noise when used in recording or talking) . The sound was also much louder on my headset and there was more bass and clearness in the sound(The Usb Soundcard also has a Volume Wheel). I can recommend that one if anyone is interested.

What if I want to use it with my gaming headset? Does that also require such high voltage?

holding the gadget up to the camera so it's SUPER BLURRY does not help one to identify it.

My laptop's headphone input got screwed. Do this work well for actually using my headphones again? Or would it be a much better option to just fix my input?

What sound card do you prefer for gaming headsets? I currently have a headset with a nice microphone but with audible background white noise and a low input volume even when it's maxed out. I'm looking for the best budget usb sound card and maybe you could lend me information on some of those. I'm sick and stuck of the usb sound card that comes with this headset that I have, it has a built-in noise cancelling feature which makes the microphone sound muffled. I tried doing EQs on the microphone but I can't get the right equalization to make it sound good like it did without the sound card.

I decided to pop open a Sabrent adapter I bought in January 2016, and the teeny tiny print on the chip identifies it as a C-Media HS-100B, which I believe is a newer chip than the CM108. Voltage coming out of the mic jack is right at 3.0 V. I also opened up another very cheap USB audio adapter I purchased to test, a Kingwin USB-3DSA, and the chip in that one is indeed a CM108. Voltage out is around 1.7 V. Unsurprisingly, this thing sounds awful. The Sabrent at least produces a decent voice reproduction with the gain bumped all the way up. Looking at the spec sheets for these C-Media chips, it looks to my untrained eye that the HS-100B is an update to the CM108. The pinouts are very similar. There's another C-Media chip, the CM119, which seems to be identical to the CM108. I don't have one of these to test, but I suppose there's an off chance the CM119 is the chip in the older Sabrent adapter. All of these chips list their mic bias voltage output as 4.5 V, which is obviously only accurate for the old Sabrent and Syba adapters. I'm not sure what explains the widely varying performance that exists between many of these cheap USB adapters. It could simply be that some are just higher quality but use the same chips. The Sabrent adapter did at least have a QC sticker stuck to the C-Media chip, so maybe.

What this adaptors used for ? I'm abou to buy a neewer mic kit for podcasting and amazon sugest me to buy one of this as well , why is it for ?

Will one of these still sound fine with a Zalman ZM-Mic 1? I'm only looking to remove the static from my recording, I'm not expecting studio-like quality.

I sadly got the Sabrent that comes up the the name "USB Audio Device" and not only does it have crappy low voltage with the microphone the headphone jack also has very low voltage output. It sounds horrible.

Im buying Bm800 for recording rap vocals or tracks. So should I buy a soundcard?

Nice Video Can you Make a review of The TechRise usb Soundcard Please!