Question Need help connecting Old USB Harmon/Kardon SoundSticks and new 2021 Dell XPS laptop

[jordanthompson]

I have some old USB Harmon Kardon SoundSticks that work fine; they were tested with other Windows and Mac laptops, a Windows PC, and even my Android phone (with a USB adapter)!

I have a new Dell XPS laptop running Windows 10 with all of the current patches as well as Dell's firmware updates.

I am unable to get the XPS and the SoundSticks to play together.

FWIW, I have an HDMI monitor with speakers which work fine.

The laptop plays the confirmation sound when I plug the SoundSticks into a USB port (using the adapter that comes with the laptop that was used when testing with my Android phone).

I can see the sound sticks under Sound, video and game controllers in the device manager.

When I run speccy (hardware monitor tool) I can see the Harmon/Kardon Soundsticks listed under Audio->Sound Cards

The SoundSticks do not appear in available playback devices under the speaker icon in the windows taskbar so I am unable to select them.

Any help would be most welcome!

 

[jordanthompson]

They sounded fine as I recall. You can plug a lot of things into an Androids USB port (ethernet always cracks me up)...

 

[Crybaby5150]

They sounded fine as I recall. You can plug a lot of things into an Androids USB port (ethernet always cracks me up)...

were they really loud? so when you plugged it in you don't have to choose the speakers on the Android phone like you do on the computers right where you choose what speakers you want the sound to come out of that doesn't apply to Androids? forgive me for my ignorance I appreciate your knowledge and time and the reason why I'm asking this question is because I have somebody who is selling some Harman Kardon soundsticks but the first ones the ones that are made for computer that connect via USB but they live about a little over 30 minutes away from me and I don't want to take the drive down there to test it out and have them not work I'd rather know from somebody who's done it before if they sound normal and loud or if they're going to sound really low because they're not made for phones strictly made for computers .. again I appreciate the time that you've given me by replying to me

 

[Crybaby5150]

They sounded fine as I recall. You can plug a lot of things into an Androids USB port (ethernet always cracks me up)...

and the only reason why I even have this idea in my head that they're going to sound low or possibly sound low is because I came across some Logitech computer speakers not that long ago they were clearly for computer and they would connect via USB as well and I tried them out on my phone with my USB adapter and they sounded ridiculously low like super super low that whatever it was connected to would be better off with no speaker then connected to those that's how low it sounded so I got the idea or impression in my head that they sounded low because they weren't made for phones they were made for computers so that's why I have this idea in my head that maybe computer speakers are only meant to be used on computers I honestly never even knew that you could connect speakers through USB I always thought it was through audio jack

 

[jordanthompson]

R

were they really loud? so when you plugged it in you don't have to choose the speakers on the Android phone like you do on the computers right where you choose what speakers you want the sound to come out of that doesn't apply to Androids? forgive me for my ignorance I appreciate your knowledge and time and the reason why I'm asking this question is because I have somebody who is selling some Harman Kardon soundsticks but the first ones the ones that are made for computer that connect via USB but they live about a little over 30 minutes away from me and I don't want to take the drive down there to test it out and have them not work I'd rather know from somebody who's done it before if they sound normal and loud or if they're going to sound really low because they're not made for phones strictly made for computers .. again I appreciate the time that you've given me by replying to me

Well, "really loud" is very subjective. They are powered, so they get their power from an outlet and their signal from the device.