Great Sound for Most People
Written: Aug 07 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great sound, good application support, expandable.
Cons: Double IRQ device with issues (and solution!)
The Bottom Line: Great sound, the value version is exceptionally good value. Power users should get one of the newer versions, however!
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| pcummins's Full Review: IBM Creative SoundBlaster Live! |
I bought my SoundBlaster Live when it first came out a while ago now, and haven't regretted it since! Previously, I was using a SoundBlaster 16 ISA card and when the next generation SB Live was released, I jumped at the chance to get one to switch to all PCI (who uses ISA these days?) devices.
I took advantage of Creative's combo offer which meant you got a Cambridge SoundWorks 4 Point Surround speaker system and the full SoundBlaster Live! which was a great deal, considering Creative was throwing in the speakers for free. (NB, price reflects the discounted cost).
Anyhow, got back, set up the speakers and then installed the card after removing the SB16 and drivers. Install program starts up, installs, then detects the new devices...... then dies, locking the computer up.
After many attempts at getting it to install, it would always fail. Eventually, I realized it is to do with the SB16 emulation IRQ assignment. There's a bug in the SB16 emulation that means it always likes to use IRQ 5 despite Creative claiming it can skip around, I've never gotten it to work.
However, most motherboards like to allocate IRQs to PCI devices randomly. Therefore, the SB16 drivers load, snag IRQ 5, which happens to be used by some other PCI device, instant spectacular crash!
To fix this, you must allocate IRQ 5 to legacy ISA devices in your BIOS. Once this critical step is done, you are guaranteed trouble free installations and operation of the SoundBlaster Live! ever after. Even now, years after the release, I still hear about this problem which still hits people.
After installing the bundled software I found that the software included is average, though I am fond of SoundForge XP for editing and recording, this is a great piece of bundled software. However, this is pretty much the only piece of software I use from the bundle.
With the Creative daughter card for MIDI and SP/DIF I removed it in favour of a Hoontech SB I/O III which provides SP/DIF in coaxial and optical formats (great for portable MiniDisc recorders, which I use). I may reinstall the card if I need the multi-digital out for the new Cambridge speakers, but I doubt it.
The only thing Creative should have added is a CD Digital cable, this enables your CD/DVD drive to output in digital to your SBLive for better quality playback, and in addition you free up your CD Audio input for any extra devices like DVD decoders or capture cards that use such an input.
Aside from that I've had no problems with my SoundBlaster Live! and I'm looking forward to getting an external digital amplifier for headphones/speakers made to get even better quality outputs - my computer simply adds too much noise onto the outputs, but for most people this isn't noticeable, or one of the newer SoundBlasters with 5.1 decoding and a LiveDrive.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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Epinions.com ID:
pcummins
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Location: Perth, WA, Australia
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Systems Administrator and Programmer, and heavy MacOS user.
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