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

The sound is great if your audio and mic are separate. However, if you use the TRRS (audio+mic) jack, there is a constant static noise. I verified this with 3 pairs of headphones. So you need to use an audio splitter to split TRRS into TRS (audio) and TS (mic) to avoid the static.

Im not using this the way most people are, so take that into account. Basically, I have several systems. All but one: Realtek audio. When CPU usage gets too high (I dont mean like 99%. I mean 40% maybe) or I do just shy of anything involving multiple windows playing audio in Firefox it goes robotic and choppy to the level that theres more chop than actual sound. Basically unusable even after doing all the fixes you can find and this is a budget gaming laptop with a Core i5 8th gen so theres no excuse for that. On the other hand, my $150 from over a year ago potato laptop has perfect sound. Therefore I bought this to replace Realtek. Short version: it doesnt do any of those things. Plug it in, wait a few minutes while things get set up, and audio problems are fixed. The sound quality is great, yes, but thats also a function of changing my headphones along with getting this. In short, if youre having problems with your onboard audio that just dont want to go away give up and get this.

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.

This is a great usb sound card. I’m using it with an external microphone to stream online using OBS. It sounds great.

Very please just perfect plug and play no drivers no software thanks Creative

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.

Ive been a believer in Soundblaster stuff for a VERY long time, but the last time I got/used one was an Audigy notebook card that had to be inserted in a PCMCIA slot, and tended to be very glitchy interacting with the OE audio card/drivers. Once it was working though ... fabulous. Now Ive moved on to a laptop with a PCIe/NVMe-based SSD boot drive running Windows 10, and as always, quickly realized its onboard sound card (Realtek) is junk for driving anything other than the teeny onboard speakers, so I went back to the Creative well to see what theyve been up to these days. I was very happy to find this inexpensive, USB-based, plug and play Soundblaster card that seemed like it had all the same basic functionality I needed/used in my old card, so I bought it. I primarily use this device for listening to music from my MP3 collection at my workstation, which is equipped with a pair of bookshelf Infinitys, an Infinity powered subwoofer, dedicated rack amp and 15-band stereo equalizer. The Realtek output from the laptop headphone jack is ok, but just doesnt deliver a signal with the gain/quality Im used to hearing from MY rig … like putting kerosene into the gas tank of a Ferrari. So I plugged this thing in; it really is plug and play easy; overrode the Realtek audio card with no trouble of any kind, and, without doing anything more than that, I noticed a big improvement in both sound quality and signal gain. However, I still wasnt totally blown away like I was with my original Soundblaster card, and just figured, e.g., oh well, whaddya expect for $20? Then I remembered Creative has its own, custom drivers and software for this device, and figured Id try that and see if it made any difference. The answer to that question is a RESOUNDING yes. Another boost in gain, but more importantly, I now heard the same crystalline frequency separation/response that I loved about my old Soundblaster card. All that 24-bit Soundblaster mojo is still in this little gizmo, but you cant stop/settle at just plug and play on generic audio drivers ... you really have to download and install Creatives custom drivers/software to get the best performance out of their device. Anyway, hope the review helps ... I feel that, when used with Creatives drivers/software, this device delivers everything its supposed to, and is WELL worth the cost.

Solid all around and produces great sound as soon as you plug it into anything, Im very happy with this. Its a cheap fix (and upgrade!) for my mostly broken built-in headphone jack and I would buy it again in an instant. Unfortunately it comes with a few enhancements enabled by default, all of which sound terrible if you are picky about audio at all, and you of course have to install the custom drivers to change this. The drivers/UI are fine (heavily custom UI of course (why???), but its easily enough understood), but it is a bit of an annoyance. It seems like this setting might stick once changed, from other reviews, but I havent yet tested that.

My iMac cant get updates past 10.13, so it was time to breath new life into it by loaded Windows 8.1, which is the latest version of Windows it can run effectively. After loading Windows 8.1, I was unable to get the built in sound to work. Ive run various versions of Windows on a lot of different Macs and never ran into this. After trying a number of different solutions I decided to just go ahead and get an external USB sound card. The reviews on this were great, so I got it and its done what it needs to do. And as an added bonus, I can tell it provides slightly better sound than with the built in output to the same headset I was using. I would recommend purchasing this device to anyone.

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.