Creative’s Sound Blaster USB-C DAC Can Correct Your Coworker’s Annoying Zoom Audio – Review Geek

When you buy something that claims to have noise canceling features, it usually means isolating the audio you hear or isolate the audio that other people hear through your microphone. But PLAY! From Creative Sound Blaster! 4 DAC can go one step further: clean up others’ worthless microphone audio for your discerning ears.

Creative calls this “two-way noise cancellation.”

; It detects static noises from both your end and your audio source – say, a beeping ceiling fan or a washing machine in the next room – and clears them up, both when you come and when you go. It requires the SmartComms kit from Windows and Creative, but for as little as thirty dollars, it can save your sanity if you often meet online. Note that for now this only works on Windows, although the DAC will work with any device with a USB-C port.

The DAC outputs audio to standard 3.5mm headphones (or adapters). In addition to the two-way noise cancellation, the Play 4! DAC can automatically mute your end with speech detection, apply a dynamic equalizer and bass boost, and generally clean up audible speech everywhere. The package comes with a USB-C to A converter if your laptop or desktop doesn’t have a C port.