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

Awesome, wicked good product. My sound card went out. This works perfectly. The hardest part of this installation was walking back from the mailbox. :) All I did was plug it into an available USB-A port, and Windows auto-installed the device.

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 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.

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.

And the sound quality is, uh, really surprisingly good considering the price! I use a buffered preamp rig with my guitar so its easy to get the levels within a range that the device loves, and within that range as long as I set up to avoid clipping (an important part of using any sound card, not just one youve MacGuyvered into some weird stuff) it delivers ASIO-low latency and allows me to record my guitar simultaneously with other audio sources as configured in my DAWs per track input settings. I honestly didnt expect this to work and Im delighted. OH! Also! It has great sound quality with high impedance headphones. I love this about it. No hiss, no issues at all, and more volume than youd expect too. For a bit over $20 Im blown away, its awesome. Dont be afraid to treat it weird.

But for some reason on my machine it drops connectivity

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.

I needed an audio interface to feed into a Rigblaster for Amateur Radio use. Any direct connection to the computer sound card was causing significant hum from a ground loop. Bought this given the price, figuring I had nothing to lose. Pleasantly surprised to find out that the audio from this device is very clean, and all traces of hum are gone on digital modes. Plus, I dont need to switch cables. Keep this permanently connected to a second Rigblaster and spare rig, and when I need it, plug it into a USB port, change my audio selections in MMTTY or WSJT, and off to the races.

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.