Product Reviews

A dedicated sound card can hugely improve audio quality compared to the integrated audio chipsets found on most motherboards. The Aureon Dual USB is a USB dongle with two 3.5mm sockets. One is a line-out but, with the accompanying adaptor, doubles as an optical S/PDIF output. The other is a microphone input. Space is tight, but most PC speaker sets and headsets fit nicely.

No configuration is required on most computers; the Aureon uses standard USB audio device drivers under Windows, and kernel USB audio support on Mac OS X and Linux systems.

Audio output is 16-bit stereo and was clear, vibrant and loud. It produced more volume than most USB audio devices but doesn't sound as warm and detailed as more expensive sound cards such as M-Audio's Fast Track Pro. It outstripped our onboard sound, though.

This is a great way of improving audio performance on music and games with the minimum cost and inconvenience.