You probably have faced situations where your home or office is so noisy that your caller said was distracting. Similarly you would have encountered callers whose background noise is distracting you from the needed attention. Well, Creative has launched the Sound Blaster PLAY! 4 that will address your pains. It’s a USB-C dongle with a pro-grade DAC that delivers up to 24-bit 192kHz playback, and up to 24-bit 48kHz mono recording. And as I uncovered, it has quite a handful of audio features that gamers might like too. It retails in Singapore for S$49.
Unboxing and Operations
PLAY! 4 is upgraded from PLAY! 3, which was positioned as an external audio interface to upgrade your audio experience. PLAY! 4 is improved to cater for telecommuting needs while also delivering better game experience through audio and mic processing.
The small package comes with the dongle, a USB Type-A adapter, and manuals. On the dongle there are 2 hardware buttons: a mute button and an EQ button. To make use of all the advanced features, you need to install the Creative App on your Windows PC, which means all non-Windows devices cannot enable all the noise-cancelling capabilities. When using on smartphones, the PLAY! 4 is like an external DAC, but I find that the volume level was very low compared to even the generic USB-audio adapters. So basically I would not recommend the PLAY! 4 to use on non-Windows devices. My review will be focused on my experience in using with my Windows laptop.
Note that Windows admin rights is required to install the software. If you are using a computer with limited access, you will not be able to install successfully and use all the features.
After installing the Creative App, it will auto-detect when PLAY! 4 is plugged into the USB port, and load up all the options designed for the product. On the dashboard, there are 5 feature available for PLAY! 4.
- Sound Mode
- Acoustic Engine
- SmartComms Kit
- CrystalVoice
- Mixer
The Acoustic Engine is basically a expanded version of the Sound Mode controls where you customise 5 parameters. They work rather well if you do not care for source authenticity, which most audiophiles do, but PLAY! 4 is made for regular consumers. I tried the various settings and I would tune up the Surround and Crystalizer settings to improve the spatial and details.
Under the Sound Mode, there are dozens of presets which you can select either from the dashboard or in the detailed settings. With each mode, you can tweak the 5 parameters to get your desired outcomes.
The SmartComms Kit contains three main settings which will only be visible when you check the “Advanced” box.
- VoiceDetect
- NoiseClean-out
- NoiseClean-in
Setting to “On” will let the app do the magic, but if you prefer to tweak the parameters, you can do that too, though I find it difficult to determine the efficacy since the results could not be immediately verified unless you do a test call and get the other party to feedback instantly. Even for my review purpose, I had to record the microphone input with an audio recording app like Audacity and then playback to hear the results. Furthermore, the background noise varies so it is difficult to determine a constant.
But what’s clear is the the SmartComms Kit processes background noise effectively and I find that it retains sufficient clarity without too aggressive in eliminating background noise. I find the PLAY! 4 better than the ASUS AI Noise Cancelling Mic Adapter.
The other feature that works great is the CrystalVoice. There are three settings:
- Smart Volume
- Voice Morph
- Acoustic Echo Cancellation
Smart Volume amplifies the mic to improve loudness and get your message heard without raising your voice. Voice Morph is a gimmick that processes your voice real-time to other interesting voice. I didn’t find any benefits in the Acoustic Echo Cancellation, but if your headset is open-back design that leaks audio, this feature should eliminated the feedback.
User Experience
I did a video test and tried some of the mic processing features. Watch and listen to get an idea of what some of the PLAY! 4 features can do.
Like most audio-processing products, noise-cancelling of background noise will inevitably reduce the clarity of the microphone voice quality. If you are in a quiet environment, obviously the PLAY! 4 makes the voice sound less articulated. But the benefits of masking a noisy environment is worth it. I do like the hardware mute button which makes it easier to mute the mic without fumbling the settings.
I am glad that the PLAY! 4 features work with any audio product with a mic input. Clearly the features are hardware-driven. It would be good if some of the features can be enabled directly from the dongle instead of relying on a software to control. Also, you should disable the audio processing option in the telecommuting software (like Zoom) to avoid excessive degradation of mic quality due to duplicate processing.
Verdict
Creative always delights me with new products that are multi-functional yet affordable. The Sound Blaster PLAY! 4 is an USB DAC supporting hi-res 24-bit 192kHz audio playback, improves mic performance with Smart Volume, SmartComms Kit, enhances audio experience with Acoustic Engine. For less than S$50, it is a useful addition to your tech arsenal for music listening, gaming, and communications.
Visit the official product website for more info and purchase.
Likes
- Hardware button to mute mic conveniently
- Multi-functional and value for money
Dislikes
- Full features only work with Windows computers
- Computer owners with limited user rights would not be able to install the software
- Low amplification when using with smartphone compared to regular DAC Audio adapter
2 comments
upgrading the firmware improves volume on android
Will you open it up and see what the dac is?