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 purchased one of these to improve the sound of music from my Dell Laptop that drives my home audio system. The highs are very crisp and the lows are much better. The EQ is very responsive ( 10 bands +/- 24 db ) allowing you to taylor the music to your liking. A very cheap way to get high quality sound from an ordinary PC.

I love the sound of a well played bass guitar. Dont you? I think all the great bands had great bass guitarists. McCartney. Greenwood. Novoselic. The list goes on and on. Many of todays indie bands have great bass playing/composition. I think too many DACs these days are aiming for vocal clarity, detail digging and things that focus on the mid and higher frequencies of music. I like DACs like this one that can really make the beginning of Come Together by the Beatles sound fun and engaging, cuz that has to be one of the greatest opening bass riffs of all time, right? In fact, I use that song to test my audio equipment. This DAC delivers beautiful well-placed bass tones. Not the thump, thump part. The deep Dmmmm part.. That part of the song is placed more prominently and accurately than even the sacred, Dragonfly Black, which I also tested. The Black has better soundstage, but again, only if youre just not that into bass guitars. The sound might be a little distorted, but what do you expect from a DAC powered by device USB hosting? Even the Black is distorted (on the low end). Its not plugged into the wall, so... And at least this one doesnt have some stupid LED light wasting your battery or hurting performance or both. Considering all this, I LOVE THIS DAC!! It improved the sound of my Samsung Galaxy Tab A Android tablet that I have connected to a Tivoli Audio One by AUX Cable and and OTG cable (necessary or it wont work). The volume comes out a little low, but I can boost the volume on the Tivoli enough to a fun or even slightly obnoxious level. WIthout a powered amp/speaker situation like this, though, you might find this disappointing. The company does, however, make it clear that this item is NOT INTENDED FOR ANDROID/iOS. So that it works at all this way and this well makes me appreciate it and not be too picky about its flaws. Hope that was helpful. Oh. AND IT ONLY COSTS LIKE TWENTY BUCKS! You can get five of these for one Black. Im gonna get a second one just in case something happens to this one. Why not? So cheap!

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.

My laptop headphone jack had been broken for some time now and I could only use Bluetooth headphones But the issue with blue tooth headphones is that when I would go to record video there was always a delay. No matter how many times I tried and researched and updated the drivers, I needed headphones to plug in directly into the laptop for what I was doing. Finally I thought to myself what if they made external headphone connections that plug in via usb. Eventually I came across these and low and behold this was EXACTLY what I needed! Thank you!

I got the Creative Sound Blaster PLAY! 4. It is very buggy. It has a mind of its own. Sometimes it just disconnects itself. Have to unplug it and move it to a different port. Was running it at the max 24-Bit 192KHz for a while, but now, anything beyond 48Khz sounds garbled and just unbearable. It is good for a bit of a nice boost to sound but do not expect this to give you a leg up in gaming or anything. The sound quality is just a bit better than the stock Realtek HD Audio. And yes I have tried disabling the inputs. Tried modifying everything else. But cannot get the max sound I am supposed to. Of course this is not a replacement for a real sound card or an actual DAC. I would honestly skip it, save more money and maybe consider the FiiO K3 Type-C USB DAC. The FiiO has optical out and my desktop speakers have optical in so it should provide better quality sound. I will be purchasing that and keeping this for maybe using it on my iPad Pro or maybe give it to my nephews so he can use it on his PS4. ** Update 13 August, 2022 ** I think I finally managed to get it work the way it should. For whatever reason, Mode 2 is the mode that is required for Windows and Mac devices. Even though it states it in the manual that Mode 2 is the default, mine was not working as it should. For mobile devices and gaming consoles, Mode 1 is required. If you try to use Mode 2 on your gaming console or mobile device it may not be detected or might not work as expected.. These are my settings on a Windows 10 machine and iMac 5K in order to get the popping and random disconnections to stop. 1. Install the Creative App software. That is what it is called. Honestly. 2. Update the firmware and drivers. 3. Enter Mode 2 on your device. You do this by holding down the Volume Down (has a CIRCLE) button for about 2-3 seconds. Once it is enabled, you will see a blinking white light. It will blink 5 times in white. 4. Mute the microphone on the device by pressing the mute button one time. A red light will appear above the button. 5. In Windows 10, go to Control Panel > Sound > Recording tab > Right click on Microphone - Sound Blaster Play! 4 and select Disable. 6. In Windows 10, go to Control Panel > Device Manager > Expand Sound, video and game controllers > Disable the following if you have it and will not be using it: Intel Smart Sound Technology for USB Audio; <--- Thunderbolt Dock Audio. I think. Intel Smart Sound Technology for Bluetooth Audio; <--- Thunderbolt Dock Audio. I think. HD Audio Driver for Display Audio. <--- Audio Speakers on my Phillips monitor. Not required. 7. In the Creative App and make sure that you lower down the microphone volume for the Play! 4 device. 8. In the Creative App > Select Playback > Audio Quality > Headphones > Select 24 bit, 192000 Hz.

Elegí adquirir este dispositivo de audio USB como reemplazo al audio integrado en un mini PC ZOTAC, al cual se le dañó el conector combinado de salida para audio analógico/ digital. A causa de que mi sistema de mezcla y amplificación de audio es puramente analógico, opté por una salida de audio analógico como opción más costo efectiva. Este adaptador de sonido externo SBPlay 3 con conectores de entrada/salida separados me resulta muy apropiado. El software controlador de dispositivo genérico que se instala automaticamente en Microsoft Windows 10 no ofrece los extras funcionales que si integra el software controlador SoundBLASTER Play 3 para PC. El software de Creative Labs ofrece un panel de control organizado mediante las categorías funcionles: SBX Pro Studio, Altavoces/Auriculares, Mezclador y Ecualizador, así como un ecualizador mediante perfiles paramétricos de audio. En mi caso no utilizo el adaptador SBPlay 3 como solución para conferencias de audio via pc. Un aspecto que me agrada, a parte del precio, es su posibilidad de reproducir audio en 24-bits. Utilizo el adaptador de audio USB permanentemente conectado a una entrada de audio esteréo en mi consola mezcladora YAMAHA. Una nota final a tener en cuenta es que al utilizar el controlador SBP3 de CREATIVE para Microsoft Windows se nota que el nivel de audio de reproduccion es mucho más bajo. Rebuscando entre las opciones del sofware encontré que en el apartado de salida de Altavoces/Auriculares mediante la opción llamada Auriculares se permite ajustar la ganancia de los auriculares conectados entre 2 opciones: Ganancia normal, Ganancia alta. En mi caso, mover el ajuste a Ganancia alta resolvió el comportamiento de sonido débil en la etapa de premezcla.

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.

I bought this to bypass my laptops bad headphone jack. Works great without extra software (in windows 11 that is.) The adapter sometimes stops works for no obvious reason; could be from being plugged into an unpowered usb hub. The software (Sound Blaster PLAY! 3 Control Panel) is functionally just an equalizer with some effects and has nothing that justified keeping it installed.

My gaming headphones were being a pain, so I bought this product. It works exactly as it states and required no fiddling around and messing with settings to work. Outstanding.

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.