What is best USB Soundcard for Win98/XP/Win7 x64 setup?

[ruthan]

Hello,
im looking for ultimate Unraid retro gaming usb soundcard with Win98 support. Would be nice, if such card would be available in some EU store, US shipping price are usualy mad and i dont have any friend in USA/Canada for passthrough.

[NoNameNeeded]

To my knowledge, at the time when Win98 was around USB soundcards didn't really exist.

What makes it even more problematic is that you're looking for a usb soundcard with 64bit drivers.It is even less likely to find one that is new enough to come with 64bit drivers and old enough to come with Win98 drivers.

If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me.

Edited July 12, 2017 by NoNameNeeded

[loblo]

Plenty of good to excellent Windows 98 compatible USB Audio devices listed here: http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/USB_Audio.htm

98 supports USB Audio 1.0 (UAC1) which is PCM up to 24bit and 96khz without need for third party drivers.

USB Audio 2.0 (UAC2) is supported by Windows without third party drivers only in recent iterations of Windows 10, all lower Windows versions will need third party drivers to use those interfaces. I am not aware of any 9x compatible third party drivers for those.

Some USB Audio 2.0 compliant devices can also work without third party drivers in legacy USB Audio 1.0 mode.

Edited July 13, 2017 by loblo

[ruthan]

Quote

To my knowledge, at the time when Win98 was around USB soundcards didn't really exist.

Months ago i bough 1 USB soundcard on eBay for 3$  because my new soundcard cant be passthrough to old OSes no driver and its working, yeah sound quality is not great, but for some games on old OS is enough for my ears..

  Its working from Win98 to Win 7 64bit with some universal USB audio driver - its probably something like SB16 or AC97 compatible soundcard.

   Have USB plug and play and small soundcard as device is practical and pass through of old card is problematic (new hardware works, older PCI cards not working often and you need lots of slots - i have 3 GPU with big coolers,
so slots are problem). Present days MB even dont have PCI slots and PCI-E to PCI adapters is other possible source of problems.

@loblo : Thanks, its great that USB Audio standard exist, on posted page is lots of devices, could you recommend me just something simple and UAC1 compatible? I would be ok with just 2 jacks out + mic, optimal is 4+ jacks for - directional audio and price <100 bucks, 150$ (for directional audio).

Edited July 16, 2017 by ruthan

[loblo]

Sorry, I am afraid I can't recommend anything as I only have a cheap Behringer UCA202 whose headphone out sounds like crap and a cheap Zishan Z1 which sounds very good but has latency issues, in addition none have the feature set you're looking for.

[ruthan]

Good start would be something better than $3 piece with Windows 98 support..

[loblo]

I recently bought an Audiotrack Prodigy Cube and an Audinst HUD-mx1, they both run great under Windows ME. 
 

[Methanoid]

On 7/17/2017 at 12:24 AM, ruthan said:

Months ago i bough 1 USB soundcard on eBay for 3$  because my new soundcard cant be passthrough to old OSes no driver and its working, yeah sound quality is not great, but for some games on old OS is enough for my ears..

  Its working from Win98 to Win 7 64bit with some universal USB audio driver - its probably something like SB16 or AC97 compatible soundcard.

   Have USB plug and play and small soundcard as device is practical and pass through of old card is problematic (new hardware works, older PCI cards not working often and you need lots of slots - i have 3 GPU with big coolers,
so slots are problem). Present days MB even dont have PCI slots and PCI-E to PCI adapters is other possible source of problems.

@loblo : Thanks, its great that USB Audio standard exist, on posted page is lots of devices, could you recommend me just something simple and UAC1 compatible? I would be ok with just 2 jacks out + mic, optimal is 4+ jacks for - directional audio and price <100 bucks, 150$ (for directional audio).

@ruthan do you still have this or a link or a pic of it? I'd like one!