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 researched budget external sound cards extensively before purchasing this one. This has better audio quality than cards 5 times the price. 2 caveats: I dont use the microphone input and have disabled it. Some users have reported a slight hissing at high volume when using the monitor function. You have to install the control panel to change settings, and youre going to want to to disable the default EQ settings (totally unnecessary IMHO). Crucially, this device doesnt store settings offline, so you HAVE to use the software (Windows/MacOS only) to load the correct profile onto the device. This could be an issue for Linux users. Wish I didnt have to have another piece of software that autoruns when I start my machine. This device would be perfect if those settings persisted across machines!

Like other reviewers, this is an excellent choice when picking a USB audio adapter after failure of on-motherboard audio on a Windows desktop PC. This Creative SB adapter delivers great sound at a nice price. Unlike cheaper USB audio units, this SB adapter is quiet during PC bootup and shutdown -- other inexpensive units can produce loud popping noises as the USB gets power, loads driver, etc. Recommended.

I mainly used to device for music. Sound quality is excellent and its very neutral. Pairs excellent with bright iems. Not sure why people dont mention this device. I had issues with driver but I somehow fixed it by uninstalling and installing the drivers again. But device was keep disconnecting for sometime. I decided to return the device. If creative make another portable dac in future I am certainly going to try it out.

The sound card is good, but it is not functional for me in particular, since it has both ports very close together and I need to use them both.

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

For what you pay, this works well. I bought them for my laptop, and it definitely improves the sound on it. The 2 onboard EQ are OK, but very basic. A vast improvement from onboard.

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 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.

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.

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!