The 8 Best Optical Audio PCIE Cards (2023 reviews)

The asus optical audio pcie card should be able to handle its purpose and duties with ease. The sound card comes with two drivers. It has an optical output, adding a $20 dac would complete the high end specs. The volume output is extremely low on this card even when set to 100% when compared to onboard sound and other sound cards. It is made from either stereo. The sound quality is top-notch. The operating system recognizes the device automatically.

It increases your input quality, and the quality of other people talking. The output is cd quality or better. The sound card has to offer in speaker control, even over optical into a good home receiver.

Why We Like This:

Installed on windows 10 (64-bit) without any issues
Fit perfectly with low profile braket on hp vostro 220s
Best budget sound card for online meetings and games

Best For Music: Creative Optical Audio PCIE Card

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate card. The creative optical audio pcie card is exactly that - it's a simple card that hits all the right notes. Coupled with audio stream input / output (asio) support, sound blaster z se delivers low-latency and high-fidelity audio, even for your recordings. It comes with up to 116 db snr at an amazing bit rate of up to. It features designed for effortless audio enjoyment. It has great functions and eq settings gamers will like.

It comes with one optical, one coax digital and four stereo inputs, so there's plenty of room to connect your gear. It is easy to install and set up, once the drivers are downloaded. The sound quality is just miles better than onboard audio. It is good enough with the stock windows drivers, but a lot of features are nerfed. There's no need to enter any activation key and no expiry date for the DDL encoder.

Why We Like This:

Makes a legitimate difference with good speakers
600 mb of free hard disk space
Multiple presets for different scenarios and games

Best For basic Sound: Padarsey Optical Audio PCIE Card

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The padarsey optical audio pcie card is the best reliable card on the market today. This is perfect for basic sound for an office computer. The sound is clean and crisp through a set of Amazon Basics speakers. This simply offers input/output connections to the front for convenience rather than having to access connections at the rear of the computer each time they want to connect something or change some connection. This is a very easy to install card.

Why We Like This:

Works like charm and even has eax 3d stereo on it
Easy to install and works great
Inexpensive option for non-functioning system mb sound
Easy to install & update drivers

Best With Windows: optimal shop Optical Audio PCIE Card

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Compared with other card in this category, the optimal shop optical audio pcie card has a convenient design. It works flawlessly out of the box with Ubuntu linux. It comes with a low profile bracket for 2u case, your best choice of sound card for PC desktop. This fits into a PCIE slot and it works just fine.

Why We Like This:

Supports direct sound, a3d and eax, hrtf 3d tone
Bit multimedia digital signal editing decoder inside, supports
Good investment for long term

Best With both desktop Stereo Speakers: Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster Xtreme Audio Sound Card

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Next on the list, we've got yet another card that manages to win our hearts. It's the creative pci express sound blaster xtreme audio sound card and it's widely considered as one of the best convenient card you can buy. There are Mb's with excellent on-board sound-cards, even creative on some. It works with both desktop stereo speakers and full surround speaker systems. When used with a pair of headphones, the technology creates nine virtual speakers for exceptional surround effects, letting you feel like you're sitting in the best seat of a movie theater. It is included (via free download) and supports dts and dolby digital-ex decoding for an unmatched dvd movie-watching experience.

This card is small widthwise, height wise and lengthwise. It is great for music listening, gaming and hd videos and even some music creation. It's really the combination that makes the sound so good. It's easy to install and audio is deliciously crisp and clear now.

Why We Like This:

Editing of music files yields tremendous results when creating movie tracks or audio cds
Good low cost basic sound card
Has its own sound-output via hdmi,/it provides a earphone style jack
Uncheckboxthose 2-setting about allowing applications to take control

Best Quality Product: ASHATA Optical Audio PCIE Card

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Best part: ashata optical audio pcie card costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. It is compatible with 2.1/5.1 stereo surround sound system equipment. The built-in audio chip supports 24bit, 192kHz sampling rate, achieving powerful and clear sound effect.

Why We Like This:

Low latency audio system input output
Lot of satisfied buyers

Best For Home theater: Zyyini Optical Audio PCIE Card

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The zyyini optical audio pcie card's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. It has the function of eliminating noise balance when turning off or turning on the computer. It is suitable for home theater, large-scale 3d games, enjoy music and other entertainment.

Why We Like This:

Supports pc computer systems with pci‑express slots such as for win7/vista/xp 32/64‑bit
Good investment for long term

Best Volume Control: Startech Optical Audio PCIE Card

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If you often find yourself scrambling for appropriate and satisfactory card, startech optical audio pcie card is your end point. It comes with this 7.1-channel pcie sound card, you can create a high-quality home theatre sound system. It is configured with standard profile brackets and includes low-profile (half-height) brackets. The sound card will continue to output sound through the 8 audio channels. The Analog 3.5 jacks have no buzzing or humming, very clear audio. It is great for music, videos, and games that support 7. The sound quality is quite excellent, at least for music. All ports fit in standard or small form-factor computers (low-profile brackets included), using the main card plus header bracket. It comes with similar software and is truly plug and play.

Why We Like This:

You will be able to switch the playback device via windows sound settings
Worked and loaded without prompts on windows
Super easy interface, and sounds great
Provide additional inputs and outputs for multiple audio sources or destinations