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

Not impressed. I run a windows laptop for work. If I disconnect the device, I have to completely reboot the machine. Im unable to just plug the device back in. Zoom / Teams wont recognize the audio without a reboot.

Minor hastle to set up for the first time other than that it works great. The fact this thing uses a USB and not a pcie slot is amazing for saving space on the mother board.

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.

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!

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.

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.

I downloaded the Play 3 control panel and must say It sounds Awesome!!! hooked up to my Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers!!!! The dedicated equalizer is perfect!!! Sounds as good as my old Audigy 2 ZS card, which I cant use anymore. WTG Creative!!!

But for some reason on my machine it drops connectivity

Sound quality is what I have come to expect from Sound Blaster, having owned the SB16 back in 94, the AWE32 a couple years later, and eventually a SB Live! PCI card in the late nineties. I eventually took a hiatus from A/V and PC gaming until recently when I decided to pick one of these up to use for teleworking. It has a decent level of pre-amplification for minimal distortion playback of video and/or video games. Anything I play back sounds as good as the source permits (obviously, a 128Kbps MP3 cant be made to sound any better than it can; garbage in, garbage out). Its just that this overcomes limitations present in most inexpensive onboard sound chipsets included in the vast majority of PC systems and/or motherboards.

muy bueno