Raspberry Pi outputs audio from the on-board HDMI or 3.5mm audio jack but the sound quality is mediocre. Using an external USB audio device can give you a better sound quality as well as better volume control than the built-in audio. Moreover, USB audio device like this can add sound recording capability to your Pi.
This device has two 3.5mm audio jack. One is output for a headphone/speaker. The other one is input for a microphone. It also has volume control, mute buttons and two indicator LEDs.
It can be plugged directly to one of the USB port. Take note that this device is slightly bigger than other typical USB devices, blocking access to the surrounding USB ports on the Raspberry Pi. If you want to use other USB device at the same time, we would recommend you to get a USB extension cable.
This audio device uses C-Media audio chip and compatible with ALSAProject which is a widely used audio driver in Linux. For Raspbian, ALSA is already installed. This means, it is supported right out of the box. You do not need to compile any additional driver to make it work. It can also be used with other Linux boards such as BeagleBone Black and Odroid-C1. Take note that the volume control and mute buttons doesn't work in Linux.
This device can also be used under Windows and MacOS environment. So it could be a replacement if somehow the built-in audio for your PC or Laptop stops working.
Features:
USB2.0 compliant
USB bus-powered, no external power required
3.5mm stereo output jack for speaker/microphone
3.5mm mono microphone input jack
Funtional keys: microphone mute, speaker mute, volume up and volume down (Doesn't work in Linux)
