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.

Makes loading the Fire Stick way easier and the movies play non stop with wired internet

I got this to facilitate using my Sony XM5 headphones on PC/WIN through 3.5mm cable. It worked immedately after plugging it in, and the available software on their website allowed me to tweak the equalizer and other options. Im extremely pleased to use my favorite headphones on PC without the headaches of bluetooth on Windows. Listening to my music library (FLAC) and game sound is great. Excellent value.

This added extra volume and base to my system as compared to the stock unit in my laptop. I do get some occasional analog static, but have been able to make adjustments in the provided software to make some of that go away. You’ll have to tweak it to your liking, but otherwise, it’s a decent product for the money, and will add volume to your laptop speakers.

UPDATE 6/20 I decided to plug this back on my computer to see if I was being too rough with the Play!3. $20 with an equalizer, surround, expander, and ability to add high gain cant be as bad as I wrote. It is that bad. Im using a HD tracks and a Status Audio CB-1 and a Fluance power speaker. I did buy a CLIPTHAT HiFi DAC/Headphone Amp for $14 bucks and it sounds approximately 25% better. The Creative has more power, but it is really garbage. Im only disappointed that my review are a few pages back. I wanted to use the CLIPTHAT on my phone and use the Creative on the computer. Nope, it is going back to the drawer. Dont buy this DAC/Amp. It is tempting to get a super bargain, its hot garbage. I dont know why anyone would write a positive review. On the positive note, it works. Its a DAC and the music files sounded better than a 7-year-old GeForce NVIDIA soundcard. The amp section isnt up to snuff for use for powered studio monitors. However, everyone should realize that a USB dongle doesnt have an effective headphone amp (maybe for earbuds, it would work). It was my mistake or temporary brain cramp. The SBX Pro Studio software sounds hollow and glitchy when you use higher levels. It has a surround, Crystalizer (expander), and Bass effects. Again, its a tiny USB dongle and only temporarily insanity would believe that it is anything other than poo. Its better to not use them, in my opinion. But, for $20, it works. Are they awesome like the other reviews? Maybe, but probably not. The reason I changed my review was Creatives Customer Service. They sent me an email to see if I was satisfied. I sent a no and said that I didnt like the SBX Pro Studio. I didnt make demands or for a refund; I just wanted them to know that it isnt great. The CS agent told me that it was an entry-level product and if I wanted pristine sound audio, (the ad said, Studio Quality Listening) I should have purchased a $120 DAC from Creative. What!?!? After 2 more emails, I am done with Creative. I assume that customer satisfaction is to buy (for 6X the price of the product I just bought!!!) more from them and continue sending emails until you get tired of writing. I could continue with their blather, but its not worth it for a $20. I would suggest that its not OK to buy this DAC, but its would be better to do more research for a less glitchy product (XTrem Pro X1 has a DAC/Amp with a Sabre chip for $30) and avoid customer service, except to return it. However, since Amazon has buried my 1-star review and has purchased this DAC, turn the volume to 65% in the Control Panel and turn off the SBX Crap-filled Studio. Be aware that Creative is going to change the soundcard during installing the DAC and, if (when) you update to a better DAC, it will have issues. It will need updates on your soundcard. Please, dont buy Creative stuff. The marketing is great and there are so many 4.5 star reviews that they are from fake reviewers. There are bad reviews, but I am a general trusting man and figured that the reviewers were expecting a $5,000 audiophile DAC. However, they are spot on and should have listened to them. I join with them to tell you to get from another company. I am grateful that I only lost $20 and learned the lesson that free stuff for Amazon reviews and YouTube reviewers are what theyre in the Creative world. I, certainly, will never buy any Creative product from this time forward. I hope you do the same, they suck.

Going from an older computer with a top end ASUS sound card, I was disappointed with the sound quality on my new computer. My audio listening habits have changed, and a real expensive sound card didnt seem worthwhile, so after a couple of hours researching on-line and reading Amazon reviews, decided to give the Play 4 a try, mostly because of the amazing specs and low price (I should know better, but...). At first, the sound improvement over the 5.1/7.1 outputs and built in sound on the new computer was dramatic - the Play 4 DAC really brought the speakers to life. But then it died - lost connection with the usb C port. Unplugged and tried again, and after as longer period, did the same thing. Used a different C port, with the same failures. Researched some more, checked all my computer sound settings, switched the Play 4 between mode 2 to mode 1 and back, installed the creative software which supposedly wasnt needed - nothing made a difference. Strike one. While all this was happening, the computer kept displaying a message from Creative that firmware and software needed updating. This was annoying, because that was the first thing tried after loading the Creative software and getting the message . Annoying, because the firmware uploaded OK, but the software kept popping up cant upload at this time, try later. This message would pop up every time I started or re-started the computer. Strike two. So I decided this was a defective device, and I would exchange it for another Play 4. Having read the instructions, I knew that the Play 4 would need to be in the computer to uninstall the software, so I followed the manufacturers instructions. A 3 step process for Windows 11, unlike most software packages: First, with the Play 4 plugged into the computer, right click start, go to device manager>sound, and click on Attempt to uninstall software. After that was done, go to Control panel>Creative, and click on uninstall software. Then, with the Play 4 still plugged in, turn off the computer, and unplug the Play 4 after the computer shuts down and before starting again. Strike three. Instead of an exchange, I am returning the Play 4, just too needy for a long term relationship, and my time is worth more than the Play 4 is worth. The one good thing out of this 6 hour struggle is that the device confirmed what my ears suspected - I need a decent (but reliable) DAC.

They advertised it for noise cancelling/voice calls but also for its dynamic eq and bass boost. The former is fine, the latter is lacking. Using with Sennheiser ie80s and there is no audio improvement over $10 generic DAC. I also compared it to Creatives own ifx DAC and that had better soundstage and volume (but costs $50-79 depending on sales). Obviously something like an Audiology dragonfly blows this out of the water (for $150). Not worth the $25 or so if youre after better audio quality, just get a generic USB C DAC.

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.

muy bueno

So my ASRock motherboard was defective. No back panel or front side panel sound no matter what. This fixed everything. Just plugged it in. And plugged in my mic and headset. Then I changed all my sound settings and app permissions to this in their respective drop down boxes. I have windows 11 64 bit. Now everything works great. $20 fix. Oh and the sound is way better than factory on board sound when the onboard sound did work.