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.

Does exactly what I need it to do perfectly. Good quality, good value, easy setup.

Used it with both my laptop and desktop. Other than occasional audio pops and distortions from time to time, it works good.

I was impressed by the sound quality, need to do some tweaking to get it where you want. For the price I found it to be really good.

Had issues with motherboard sound. Replaced with SB and I’m back on track with undistorted sound.

I have several sets of headsets for gaming, and a problem I had with all of them was that I could never get the microphones set at a good level. All of them had to be turned up to 100% in control panel with mic boost on just so you could hear your voice, and they tended to sound horrible with tons of background noise. After my 3rd set of headphones, I started thinking, maybe its not the headphones at all, but the built in sound card in my computer. I went searching for external sound cards, and came across the Sound Blaster Play 3. For 16 bucks, you cant go wrong, so I figured I would give it a shot. Im now hitting myself for waiting so long! First, it makes your microphone work so much better with no background noise. I have the mic level set to 75%, and it is so much louder and clearer! 2nd, the driver lets you use sidetone with your headphones. This was a feature that was not built into several of my headsets, but you can turn it on with the software. 3rd, the sound is night and day better with this Sound Blaster than my built in sound card. Really impressed with this product, and I recommend it highly! Worth every penny.

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.

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.

First, thanks to all the reviewers who took the time to explain setup. Yes, when I installed the Play!3 there was a low frequency hum. When I followed the suggestion to open the software, go to the Control Panel, go to the Mixer tab and mute the microphone the hum immediately stopped. I purchased this because the headphone jack on my 7 year old ASUS N550 laptop is intermittent and will suddenly stop playing audio and generate a loud buzzing noise. The Soundblaster Play! 3 is a $20 solution to the problem. I use the laptop almost exclusively in the garage, as a media center and to view helpful YouTube videos when I am working on a project. Sound quality is excellent, based upon my original setup, in my home office with a Pioneer Elite receiver connected to Martin Logan Motion 60s and a ML powered subwoofer. Test material was in FLAC format. In the garage the Play! 3 is connected to an Onkyo receiver, which feeds two Advent satellite speakers and a powered subwoofer, none of which are worthy of testing audio gear but nonetheless sound pretty good when I’m working in the garage. When I put the computer to sleep the speakers are silent. No hum. An excellent $20 solution to a very annoying problem.

Night and Day. Night and friggin day! I never fully grasped what an utter POC my onboard soundcard was until I plugged this baby in. The sound is so big and pure it makes my teeth hurt! (Who knew mouth pain was a good thing?) Under twenty bucks for this life-changer. Highly recommended.