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

Bought this stick for a cost effective way to have good recording quality and be able to use it on multiple devices. The quality definitely beats the other USB audio devices I own that were between the $10-$17 range. To me its definitely worth the extra cost. Its still really cheap nowdays because of the Play!4 that offers better quality and a wider compatibility. Pros: - the expected SB playback and recording quality that beats cheaper competition - very attractive pricing - plug and play on all our windows (10/11) PCs chromebook and mac - virtual surround works well in games and adds a lot to titles like War Thunder Cons: - could have a line input - recording limited to 24-bit / 48khz - playback is limited to 24-bit / 96 kHz - no physical mute button or volume control (doest bother me but worth nothing the Play!4 has mute and EQ buttons)

Plug & play worked great. But beware: Windows required user to explicitly allow Apps access the new audio interface. Yet another I really mean it button!

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!

I bought a new gaming PC ( prebuilt ) but had many problems with sound . The volume was at 100% with all settings maxed out and they couldn’t hear me and, In many of my games I couldn’t hear behind me , like call of duty, apex , and minecraft. Bullets flurring by me , grenades landing behind me but no audio. I put this bad boy in, and from 100% to 48 % volume , meaning this boosted my sound level ! And I have the extra 52% I can add for max volume . Also turned on sonic for headphones and it just made it better. On my old PC I used the creative labs sound blaster Z . But now this proves to me I want a sound card in every PC . Internal or external . Planning to upgrade to a bigger external sound card that they sell. THABK YOU CREATIVE ! <3

The price is right on this one. The sound quality is better than your average motherboard. Its super easy to use. It supposedly can drive a 600 Ohm set of cans, but I dont have any to test with. It does sound better if you put it at that setting, but youre likely to damage your headphones permanently if they cant handle that.

This card helped me to solve microphone issues on the motherboard, so it works well as an external sound card. I am still on the fence about the sound effects (Surround, Crystalizer, Bass, Smart volume, Dialog plus). Crystalizer and Bass seem to be the most useful to quickly compensate for headphones weak spots, but they appear to do similar stuff what Equalizer does otherwise. However, this card seems to lack power compared to a computers usual analog output - everything sounds quieter through it (my headphones are 32 Ohms), lacking that last bit of volume at the max level which makes a difference in some voice calls and music scenarios. Maybe thats by design, due to the limited power supplied via USB... The software is a bit glitchy, because Smart Volume seem to mess with regular volume settings, resulting in quieter than usual sound when the sound card is unplugged. Overall, I dont regret that I bought it ($22), the lower volume is a bit of a bummer but you are getting a great quality sound for a low price.

Item works really well and I like it

Funciona al 100%

Night and Day. Night and friggin day! I never fully grasped what an utter POC my onboard soundcard was until I plugged this baby in. The sound is so big and pure it makes my teeth hurt! (Who knew mouth pain was a good thing?) Under twenty bucks for this life-changer. Highly recommended.

I purchased this because the native sound output on my Raspberry Pi was mediocre at best. I needed a better quality sound output to send to my FM transmitter and was recommended to try this and wow what a difference.