With home DVD players so inexpensive these days, it's hard to imagine anyone buying the Audio Advantage Micro solely for the purpose of using a laptop to play DVDs through a 5.1-channel home-theater system. That said, when we connected the Audio Advantage Micro's optical digital-audio jack to our A/V receiver, the Audio Advantage Micro flawlessly passed both 5.1-channel Dolby Digital and DTS sound as well as stereo tracks from our laptop to the receiver. You could also use the Audio Advantage Micro to connect a PC to a self-powered, digital, 5.1-channel multimedia speaker set, such as Logitech's Z-5500 Digital, letting you watch DVD movies from your desk in full digital 5.1 glory.
The Audio Advantage Micro really shines when it's used with headphones. For starters, the unit adds extra gain to the signal, which is useful if your laptop's built-in headphone jack won't play loud enough to drive a favorite set of headphones. When we put on a pair of AKG's K 55 headphones and fired up Unreal Tournament 2004, the sound was surprisingly crisp and clear. Although we're not usually impressed by surround simulations, the Audio Advantage Micro's algorithms really did make the game sound considerably vaster and more enveloping without making the sound too diffuse. Its audio quality can't, however, compete with a full-fledged audio adapter such as the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook.
