Vantec is known for ingenious cooling solutions for cases, CPUs and graphics cards - but they have now branched out into the world of audio by creating the NBA-100U USB 5.1 channel audio adapter. It is an audio accessory that serves as a 5.1 channel surround upgrade that will work on any PC with a USB port. The NBA-100U audio adapter replaces the existing soundcard or built-in audio in your PC or laptop that is often lacking 5.1 channel surround sound capability.The device is small, easy to transport and does not require any external power to operate. It provides one of the easiest ways available today to upgrade your PC or laptop computer to 5.1 surround sound capability.

Design

The NBA-100U is quite small - two inches round by about ¾ inches thick - and can be easily carried along with a laptop computer in a typical laptop bag. A nice design feature is that the USB cable is built directly into the adapter, and so it is not something that you can lose. The adapter has relatively large volume controls on the top face for easy access. It also features red LED light that emits a solid red glow when powered on, and flashes on and off when audio is passing through the device. The USB cable extends from the top edge and the speaker inputs are along the bottom edge. There are five “plugs” on the bottom edge for front speakers, rear speakers, center/subwoofer, mic-in and line-in. The device can be used for stereo or surround sound output and can also be used to record from microphone or line-in.

Features

• LED indicator
• USB Plug-and-play Simplicity
• 5.1 Ch. stereo and surround sound
• Dramatically improve your PC audio quality
• Supports suspend/resume and remote wake-up
• Full-duplex playback/recording audio stream without sound card in PC.
  

Software

There's not a whole lot to say about the software - the program accompanying the NBA-100U provides a few basic functionalities. The CD that comes with the device contains a PDF file of the owner’s manual and a folder with the driver & software installation file (it is a single EXE file). The software gives you a volume control program which works with the Windows volume control. You also can adjust each channel’s volume individually for left or right front, left or right rear, center, and subwoofer with the software.

The program also contains a WAV converter and a quick interface to the Sound Recorder in Windows. You can choose between 5.1 speakers and 2.1 speaker settings.