Article: ICUSBAUDIO7D - Surround Configuration

Cards, Drive Accessories, Tools
1

Greetings all!

Here is a quick guide on how to setup our device for Surround Sound. With this method, you’ll be able to use our adapter in 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound on your Windows computer.

The first step is to determine if you’re using analogue (3 or 4 x 3.5mm cables, typically green, orange, black and grey) or if you are using optical (one single SPDIF cable).

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Analogue Surround (5.1 or 7.1)

  1. You’ll first want to make sure that your surround system is physically connected to the right ports. This means ensuring that the proper colors are connected to the proper ports in accordance to your sound system’s instruction manual.

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  2. Make sure that the Xear Software is installed and running the latest version from our web site ( Drivers & Downloads ).

  3. In Xear Software, make sure “Speakers” is selected ( How to change selection ) and then select either 5.1 or 7.1 depending on your Surround type.

    ICUSBAUDIO7D_Xear_Surround_5.1
    ICUSBAUDIO7D_Xear_Surround_5.1809×610 70.6 KB

To test, you can use the small play icon in the center of the diagram. If you can hear all of the proper sounds from their respective speakers, you are well setup and ready to use Surround.

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Digital Optical (SPDIF)

  1. You’ll first want to make sure that your surround system is physically connected to the right port (the SPDIF Out in the back of the unit).

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  2. Make sure that the Xear Software is installed and running the latest version from our web site ( Drivers & Downloads ).

  3. In Xear Software, make sure “S/PDIF-Out” is selected ( How to change selection ).

    ICUSBAUDIO7D_Xear_Surround_SPDIF
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Unlike with Analogue, Digital output is encoded and cannot be tested with the software. To test digital output, we recommend playing a local file that is encoded in digital surround through a player which supports digital surround or try a surround-capable media from a Windows Store application such as the Netflix or the Disney app in Windows (not in a browser).

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Important notes

→ When testing on analogue, Surround is always configured as surround and will show in Windows as a surround configuration even if you are not playing anything. On digital, Surround is only active when playing a media which has been encoded in Surround and is compatible with the Surround standard and type used on your sound system. For example, your sound system needs to support DTS in order to decode digital DTS surround, and etc.

→ It is important to note that Surround won’t work from a browser source such as Netflix or YouTube on a browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc.). For Surround support on these media services, you will need to use one of their Windows Applications from the Windows App Store.

Spif Out only stereo
ICUSBAUDIO7D optical out does not power on
2

Hi! I’ve been testing the ICUSBAUDIO7D , and SPDIF only works with two audio channels. How can I activate 5.1 passthrough using the SPDIF port?

3

Hello @ekisolid ,

You’ve mentioned “passthrough”, are you trying to connect an SPDIF surround input and let it passthrough to the output?

If you are playing audio from your computer, you’ll want to make sure that 1) you are playing from a source which supports Digital Surround, has it enabled and 2) that your sound system supports the specific Digital Surround selected.

I hope this helps.

Emmanuel B.

4

Hi

I have bought this sound card to pair with an old AV receiver that only has SPDIF in for 5.1 (Dolby Pro Logic and DTS) audio. Still, even after setting up the Xear software as you explained here, I only get stereo sound from the optical out port.

In fact, when SPDIF Out is checked, I only see the Stereo option

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Same in the Windows audio card settings, only shows as 2 channel. I have installed the latest drivers from your website.

What am I missing here?
Thanks in advance for your help!

5

Hello @zeroaspe,

I would recommend making sure that the source file you are trying to play has audio that is encoded in Dolby Digital or DTS and that the software you are using to play the audio supports surround sound. For example if you are trying to watch Netflix through a Chrome browser, surround sound won’t work as browsers do not support surround sound, however if you try the Netflix app from the Windows Store surround sound is supported.

If you continue to have trouble with ICUSBAUDIO7D, I would suggest reaching out to our team support team directly using the options at StarTech.com Support. Live interactions through phone or live chat can often have a quicker turnaround to a resolution and then we can update the community post with the resolution. Please note that after today support will be closed for the holidays and be available again beginning December 27th.

Lukas T

6

We have this unit, we are trying to get 7.1 working. With all the speakers setup and trying the tool in the app to identify each speaker. When we test back, sound comes out the side speakers port. When we hit back the sound only comes out of the side speakers port but only one channel. Front left and right, center and sub work fine. Is this unit compatible with Windows 11? We downloaded the latest driver from the website.

7

Hello @jwinfeld and thank you for your interest in our Community.

Yes, this device is compatible with Windows 11. Since you are able to use the test function, I assume this is an analogue setup: please make sure that you are using all 4 cables required for 7.1. If you are certain that you have properly configured it in 7.1 and the test results are not matching the speakers displayed: then this can only be a hardware problem with either the sound system, the wires or our box.

I would recommend double-checking each wire by testing them in the stereo port 1 by 1. You’ll also want to make sure that your sound system is properly setup for 7.1 analogue surround (any other mode would spread or disable the sound to some of the channels).

If you are still experiencing issues, feel free to contact our Support. We can help you isolate the source of the issue in order to find a solution.

I hope this helps! Have a great day.

Emmanuel B.
StarTech.com Support