The Creative Sound Blaster X3 is a great USB sound card. Don't let its unassuming aesthetics deceive you—what it lacks in looks and luxurious build materials, it generously gives back where it matters the most: features and raw performance. It's primarily intended for PC usage, but connecting it to a PS4 or Nintendo Switch (in docked mode) makes sense as well. You won't have to give up on all of its capabilities when pairing it with a console because it can be controlled through a mobile app (Android, iOS).

Aside from the app and the powerful Sound Blaster Command software, another way to control the sound card is by using its large multipurpose volume dial and the three buttons below it. Creative devised an intuitive control scheme that lets you adjust the sound and microphone volume, mix volume between two software sources, quickly switch between outputs (headphones or speakers), activate Super X-Fi virtual surround processing, cycle through equalizer presets, and activate Direct Mode without touching a single piece of software. No other external sound card I have tested comes close to being as intuitive to use without fiddling with the driver.

The Creative Sound Blaster supports gaming headsets, "regular" headphones, and active speakers (2.0, 2.1, 5.1, 7.1). It can also be connected to any device with an optical input (AV receiver, integrated stereo amplifier, higher-quality powered speakers, etc.), in which case it will happily work as an audio transport. The optical interface can be utilized for a Dolby Digital Live audio signal too.

For a $120 USB sound card, the Creative Sound Blaster X3 sounds great. Its built-in headphone amplifier is surprisingly powerful and has no trouble driving even more demanding hi-fi headphones. The overall sound signature is very lively and full of energy, which makes the Sound Blaster X3 a pleasure to use for music, movies, and games alike. While I'm not completely sold on the Super X-Fi virtual surround sound technology, I have to admit that it is yet another aspect of this sound card that's worth exploring.

The microphone input is clean and natural. You definitely want to boost it to be loud enough, but turning the boost on allows you to lower the gain, so finding a good balance of loudness and low background noise is easily done. Microphone monitoring works great as well—it has no perceivable delay, which makes it perfectly usable on a regular basis.

If you're looking for a modern, feature-packed USB sound card with great performance and a price that's not going to make you want to curl up and cry, the Creative Sound Blaster X3 is the one.