Question 1

I presume this will work plugged into a USB3 port?

Accepted Answer

I have an old HP laptop (win 7, upgraded to win 10) and this card works on any of its USB 2 or 3 ports. I also have a cheep windows tablet from Wal... (RCA brand) with a single USB3 port. With it I use one of these cards along with a backup drive and a Logitech track ball, all through a USB3 hub (Orico brand) in my home Hi-Fi system and it works great. The reason for this is that the RCA tablet has  very crappy sound output from its headphone jack.

Question 2

Is this what I need to allow my Phone headphones to use the sound + Microphone for Conference calls on my PC?

Accepted Answer

It depends on what kind of headphones you have. If your headphones have a green and pink jacks plug it into the back of your PC green and pink female jacks. If your headphones have one jack on them your going to need an adapter from one jack female to the green and pink male jacks. all this is is a sound card to boost the sound

Question 3

will this have the proper output impedance  to drive amplified speakers (Cambridge sound works) ??

Accepted Answer

Sounds like an excellent question for the manufacturer. I have no idea.

Question 4

My computer has no mic jack.  I would like to record from a tape deck to my computer (Like I used to do with an earlier computer using the mic jack on the computer end, and RCA plugs on the tape deck end.  Will this USB audio jack allow recording into the computer, or is it just for audio out?  I realize I'll still need to use the mic to RCA cord as well.  Thanks!

Accepted Answer

In the past, PC microphone inputs tend to have an EQ and pre-amp in-line, and it's often single channel (mono).  I wouldn't recommend using this as a recording input from something with a line level output.

Question 5

If you plug in two or more of these into the same computer, will they appear as separate devices in the Win10 Audio routing interface?

Accepted Answer

I cannot say about more then one of these, but I did have the computer internal sound card, an additional Sound Blaster card and this USB sound card all installed in a Windows 10 machine and it was able to see all three devices and I could select and use any one of them.  So I don't think Windows 10 would have a problem with a couple of these USB sound cards.

Question 6

How many channels on the mic input? Stereo or mono?

Accepted Answer

Stereo.

Question 7

Does this support 7.1/5.1 surround sound?

Accepted Answer

Not according to what the drivers say.  Stereo output only.

Question 8

Does this work with speakers and headphones with the older 1/8 mini-plug with only 3 conductors ( analog )?

Accepted Answer

Yes it does. Older SoundBlaster cards have a separate plug for mic input. the newer ones have just one plug (takes either a 3 band or 4 band mini plug). these new cards come with an adapter that separates out the mic plug.

Question 9

If I were to plug in more than one of these, will my PC (Win10Pro) be able to recognize them as separate In/Out channels? I ask because I could use two of these, and the internal Win10 router to determine what apps use which one.

Accepted Answer

If you mean can one be used for the input and the other used for the output, I believe that would work. I have never done it though. Good luck!

Brand	Creative
Series	Sound Blaster
Model	PLAY! 3
Part	70SB173000000

Sample Rate	96KHz
Digital Audio	24-bit
SNR	93dB

Line In	1 x 3.5 mm jack
Line Out	4-pole Headphone-out with Mic: 1 x 3.5 mm jack

Interface	USB
Operating Systems Supported	Mac OS X v10.9 and above, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7
System Requirements	For Windows OS Intel Core2 Duo or AMD equivalent processor (2.8 GHz or faster recommended) Intel, AMD or 100% compatible motherboard Microsoft Windows 10 32 / 64 bit, Windows 8.1 / 8.0 32 / 64 bit, Windows 7 32 / 64 bit 1 GB RAM 600 MB of free hard disk space USB 2.0 / USB 3.0 port (High Speed recommended with driver) For Mac OS Mac OS X 10.9 or higher 1 GB RAM > 600 MB of free hard disk space

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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

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Item#: N82E16829102100