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

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.

Necesitaba tener una entrada adicional de sonido en mi macbook para poder evitar el loopback

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.

Not my fist S,B. and not my last. For short money you get a decent sound. Audiophile sound, a, maybe not. but decent. I use it on my desk-top when listening to my music files, easy plugplay Much better sound than the board in the computer gives you. One drawback is however, this IS NOT an Amp. It has no volume control of its own. You can control your volume on your computer control panel or on the video screen itself during play. But GEE folks ! for under twenty dollars, how can you go wrong? Give it a go.

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.

Its surprisingly good for its price, size, and ease of installation. The only hiccup was I had to disable my motherboard audio before it started working, but Im not sure if thats a device problem or a Windows problem. Im only knocking a star off because it doesnt drive a very clean signal. On headphones, I can hear some pretty strong white noise coming through at low volume levels, and my old Xonar definitely didnt have this problem. Its hardly noticeable, though, when Ive got speakers plugged in. My last sound device was an ASUS Xonar DS, which I loved, but after years of use it unfortunately succumbed. I chose this as a cheap replacement for an immediate fix while I read up on choosing a proper replacement for my dead Xonar, and this fit the bill. Overall, Im happy with the purchase given the price I paid for it.

If youre a musician with a love for analog gear like me, you might have a PA mixer that youd like to record with but no way to plug it into your computer without getting some crazy hum from the mic jack in your computer. I record on a Yamaha MG 10/2 and run a Red/White stereo out from the recording jack on the mixer into the mic input on the Sound Blaster. I also run an auxiliary cable back from the speaker jack on the Sound Blaster into one of the channels on the mixer so that I can use it to play beats and backing tracks from my laptop. The sound quality is far superior to any other recording set up Ive used so far. If your mixer has USB out you can probably skip the Sound Blaster, but if you like older analog equipment this thing is a lifesaver for recording. As other reviews have stated, you have to download the software from the companys website and then turn off all of the settings they add, but once you do that you get a very clean signal from whatever youre plugging into the Sound Blaster. This is a great external soundcard if you want to bring your analog mixing set up into the 21st century without spending a ton of money that you could be spending on 9 volt batteries and guitar strings. 5/5

I got this to replace one of those cheap dongles that Ive had forever, I had it on the end of a USB extension cord so I could have a headphone and mic jack right on top of my desk. This is just a way better version of that. I originally was looking for a bigger DAC, maybe even an audio interface, but unsurprisingly those are both WAY too expensive. Surprisingly though, for me, Im definitely able to tell that the sound quality is a lot better with this than the old dongle, even with this cheap headset I use. The high bit rate and bit depth definitely make a difference even with cheap headphones, even though its not at all ideal. Other reviews mention that theres a hiss when using this, specifically when monitoring the microphone, but Im able to use it just fine without any hint of hissing. And yes, definitely install the drivers so you can disable all of the enhancements.

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!!!

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.