Creative Labs Sound Blaster Play! 3 External USB Sound Adapter for Windows and Mac. Plug and Play (No Drivers Required). Upgrade to 24-Bit 96Khz Playback

I needed an audio interface to feed into a Rigblaster for Amateur Radio use. Any direct connection to the computer sound card was causing significant hum from a ground loop. Bought this given the price, figuring I had nothing to lose. Pleasantly surprised to find out that the audio from this device is very clean, and all traces of hum are gone on digital modes. Plus, I dont need to switch cables. Keep this permanently connected to a second Rigblaster and spare rig, and when I need it, plug it into a USB port, change my audio selections in MMTTY or WSJT, and off to the races.

Its surprisingly good for its price, size, and ease of installation. The only hiccup was I had to disable my motherboard audio before it started working, but Im not sure if thats a device problem or a Windows problem. Im only knocking a star off because it doesnt drive a very clean signal. On headphones, I can hear some pretty strong white noise coming through at low volume levels, and my old Xonar definitely didnt have this problem. Its hardly noticeable, though, when Ive got speakers plugged in. My last sound device was an ASUS Xonar DS, which I loved, but after years of use it unfortunately succumbed. I chose this as a cheap replacement for an immediate fix while I read up on choosing a proper replacement for my dead Xonar, and this fit the bill. Overall, Im happy with the purchase given the price I paid for it.

Originally I bought this tiny DAC to improve PS4 sound output and IT DID significantly!! **BEWARE**, you need PC (Windows 10/11 only, Mac is not supported) to install creative app and update its firmware to get full benefits it offers. Here is my story, when I received the product I immediately plug it into my PS4 to test it following instruction. The actual sound coming from my headset was REALLY LOW, actually lower than original. So I unplugged it and then went to my PC to update its firmware. I downloaded the firmware and installed it accordingly. I thought this should do the trick, NOOO it did not. When I plugged it back to PS4, it was acting weird by disconnecting itself and blinking. I surely thought I BRICKED it. I wend back to PC again and this time, I downloaded & installed Creative App for Windows. The creative app immediately recognized my device after unplugging/plugging and there was a setting for update its firmware. I did the update process again through app and I tested it on my PC for sounds and noise cancelling features. I did end up NOT using noise cancelling features since it seems these settings distort sound output on my headset, but overall sound quality was better than the original. Then finally I went back in to test with PS4, it WORKED!! New volume control, EQ, muting button, and everything worked well. The new volume control which comes with a new firmware is A MUST HAVE for making PS4s ouput as loud as possible. Im pretty sure it will work on PS5 as well when I finally get ONE!

This product is literally nothing. I suppose you get what you pay for and the price was low, but Soundblasters flowery and overly optimistic marketing is very, very misleading... This thing literally sounds like a bucket of mud. Its got nothing, It lacks detail and has very low gain, I used it with speakers but I cannot see how this little thing is supposed to push a set of high impedance, high quality headphones. The other more upsetting thing about this item is the way it portrays music. Basically its pacing is way off. I have no idea what type of chip theyre using for the DAC inside this dongle, but it doesnt sound good tonally & like I mentioned, it really messes up the timing and pace of the music...it literally speeds up and slows down the music at different points and I say this referring to music I regularly listen to, on a variety of equipment, so its music I know very well. Im sort of annoyed with Creatives Marketing people on this item. Its not a good idea to generalize and say that this piece is better than onboard sound because it isnt. The Realtek ALC4080 thats in my ASUS ROG Strix motherboard blows this thing out of the water in EVERY WAY!! On the good side, it does do the Plug & Play thing perfectly, so if you just want sound on a phone or laptop (it my not be better than the onboard laptop audio and the DAC is junk), then this could do that but thats about it. The sound quality overall, I found to be way below average. I was thinking of just keeping this as a spare audio device because its very convenient, but the way it sounds make me lean toward just returning it.

A lot less expensive than the $100 sound card. This works perfectly and attaches to my Logitech surround system

I was impressed by the sound quality, need to do some tweaking to get it where you want. For the price I found it to be really good.

This added extra volume and base to my system as compared to the stock unit in my laptop. I do get some occasional analog static, but have been able to make adjustments in the provided software to make some of that go away. You’ll have to tweak it to your liking, but otherwise, it’s a decent product for the money, and will add volume to your laptop speakers.

My onboard audio quit, I just wanted someting that sounded decent. This device sounds just as good as the onboard audio sounded, maybe better!

Since I started working remotely I have been using cheap USB-C to headset adapters. They last from as little as 3 days to a couple of weeks before just stopping working. I actually had a couple that were dead from the moment they arrived! I decided to buy this product because it has name-brand recognition and I am so glad that I did. It works reliably and I can use it either on my phone or laptop with a wired headset. I have had no complaints about the microphone sound quality and I really like the red light confirm that I am muted. The software that you can optionally use with the adapter is a little spotty. When I last tried it, there were too many quirks and bugs, but I really dont need it to use the adapter for my purposes. I travel a fair amount for work, and this adapter has already survived several trips. I much prefer wired headsets due to not needing a battery or charging with bluetooth headsets - wired headsets are often cheaper too. I frequently work 16+ hour days and dont want to deal with a headset going dead. Also wired boom microphones seem to work better than bluetooth ones for the same price-point.

The on-board headphone jack had gone flaky on my aging Lenovo Windows 10 laptop, and I was looking for a quick fix. This little device gave me an instant headphone jack that works perfectly, and even better sound quality than I ever got from the original. No drivers to download or futz with, total plug and play. There is a software package than can be downloaded to tweak the sound of this adapter, but so far Im just enjoying it as it is, right out of the box. It wasnt the cheapest USB headphone jack I saw, but I have used Creative products before and trust the brand, and I may eventually decide that I need the software. So it was a perfect solution for me. It even responds to the Lenovos volume control buttons on the keyboard. Seems to synchronize perfectly with the video when Im watching YouTube, etc. It does take the laptop a few seconds to recognize the device when plugged into the USB port, but that is a very small matter and doesnt affect my satisfaction with it.