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 ... MoreFirst, 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.

I bought this for a very specific purpose - To interface with an aviation headset, itself connected via a battery powered interface box to provide enough power for the headset to work at all. For laptop use, I almost always use headphones, for films, internet documentaries etc. This latest purchase was a direct comparison to a passive splitter cable, to connect the separate headset and mic plugs into one 3.5mm socket on the laptop. In direct comparison, there was very little between the 2 methods - I was speaking quietly and then listening at high volume to check for background hiss and other effects. Unadjusted, there was not much between the Creative soundcard and the cable. Downloading the Creative interface software changes everything, full controllability is ... MoreI bought this for a very specific purpose - To interface with an aviation headset, itself connected via a battery powered interface box to provide enough power for the headset to work at all. For laptop use, I almost always use headphones, for films, internet documentaries etc. This latest purchase was a direct comparison to a passive splitter cable, to connect the separate headset and mic plugs into one 3.5mm socket on the laptop. In direct comparison, there was very little between the 2 methods - I was speaking quietly and then listening at high volume to check for background hiss and other effects. Unadjusted, there was not much between the Creative soundcard and the cable. Downloading the Creative interface software changes everything, full controllability is now possible. For a comms headset, a feedback from the mic to the headset is useful (UI allows that to be activated)…. Aviation headsets tend to have high impedance, again the software has an option for this. Listening to music through an aviation headset is not the best option, I will acknowledge, but the Creative interface allows enough tweaks to make it much better than plain plug and play. I will be keeping the Creative USB soundcard, for the money it is a good performer.

I have 2 of these on 2 different Windows 10 PC's to improve the build in audio (Realtek 887) on 4 year old motherboards. They work okay out of the box without the software as the driver in Windows 10 is quite new from January this year. However once you install the Sound Blaster software it allows a lot more control and functionality. The main issue I resolved with this soundcard vs the built in motherboard audio is to remove the crosstalk which was causing bleed from the headset output back into the mic input. I also like that the mic input is much clearer sounding and you can set to feed a bit of the mic input back to the person speaking so that they can hear themselves and not speak so loud. I am using these with 32 ohm headset's and have not observed any hissing ... MoreI have 2 of these on 2 different Windows 10 PC's to improve the build in audio (Realtek 887) on 4 year old motherboards. They work okay out of the box without the software as the driver in Windows 10 is quite new from January this year. However once you install the Sound Blaster software it allows a lot more control and functionality. The main issue I resolved with this soundcard vs the built in motherboard audio is to remove the crosstalk which was causing bleed from the headset output back into the mic input. I also like that the mic input is much clearer sounding and you can set to feed a bit of the mic input back to the person speaking so that they can hear themselves and not speak so loud. I am using these with 32 ohm headset's and have not observed any hissing or noise that other reviewers have complained about. However I do see that the most recent changelog for the software says they fixed this issue.