Very Good, not Perfect.
Written: Nov 27 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: High quality consumer gear
Cons: No longer top model, sometimes annoying noise interference, missing some Win2k compatibility
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| alan_d's Full Review: Creative Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ |
I selected this sound card because Creative has a reputable name when selecting sound cards, and Sound Blaster is the benchmark standard for consumer sound cards. At the time I bought it, the LIVE! architecture wsa their high end hardware solution--since, it has been surpassed by the LIVE!5.1 Dolby Digital compatible hardware, making this card only technically out-of-date. It is still a top choice for anyone who does not have a Dolby Digital system. There are adapters available to add coaxial and/or optical digital output leads to this card if you get Digital later on.
As to be expected, this card performed the task of audio playback very well. It decompresses MP3 far sharper than the onboard PCI I upgraded from, and it had no background noise I could discern by naked ear. It's performance as an audio capture system performed just as well. There is no leakage I can detect between mixer channels excepting the CD channel, which bled when I played a particularly loudly encoded CD, even when muted. I will note however, it sometimes also bleeds noise during startup, and occasionally while running. I also know another person running this card, and their computer makes a disturbingly large "pop" noise at random intervals. This has been a problem with soundblasters in the past, ostensibly because it is (according to Creative) a "highly tuned and sensitive piece of audio equipment."
(rant)Well, I don't care. Fix it, I don't like it, and I am not screwing with IRQs or slot positions only to find out that it still does it.
The most notable feature of this card is its ability to apply audio DSP and distortion effects in realtime on any channels. There are several preset effects such as pitch modification, DSP environmental audio for simulating different environments, and some cool distortions. These require no CPU processing as they are all done on the card. Several games support this to add "environmental audio" effects to a particular region, such as adding echo to a cave, or muffling sound in a padded room.
Other cool features are the definable MIDI wavetable support. You can download "soundFonts" that modify your midi instruments to match real instruments or any other sounds that an author chooses. You can author these sounds yourself with some rudimentary included software. The included sounds are very good, and you can purchase additional libraries of sounds that can render your MIDIs into music that is almost indistinguishable from a recording.
The sofware and drivers were kind of disappointing to me. While Windows 2000 is supported, it is limited support at best. For example, the included MP3 encoding software only works with windows 98. As an aside, this software always defaults the environmental audio to an annoying echo effect, and reinstates it every time you use it to play an additional audio file. I NEVER WANT THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN. Also notably missing from the Windows 2000 installation is the option to return the card to initial install configuration.
There are addon comonents to add functionality to your LIVE! card. You can purchase a few options from Creative to add varying levels of digital support to the card, all overpriced in my opinion. Only their high-end addon gives you optical digital I/O, the standard if you want to shunt audio to and from minidisc. That will set you back $300US unless you buy a cheaper card from Hoontech, a Korean company, that sells this capability in a daughtercard for about $30US. I read the stats a little to quickly, and assumed that this capability was built into the card, as it plasters the word "digital" all over the box and manual. Don't make the same stupid mistake I did. I wasn't too happy until I found the _reasonably priced_ Hoontech addon. BTW, the output of the LIVE! chipset is 48khz, so if you plan on using an adapter dump a digital signal to some external equipment, make sure it can take this frequency, or at least downmix it to a more compatible CD-quality 44khz.
I shouldn't have to tell you this is a very good quality card for people interested in sound quality, like gamers and audiophiles. This is incentive enough to buy it. It has excellent features for gaming that greatly improve the immersive experience. If you are a casual user, you are probably better off with whatever system your computer came with. I use mine for recording LP's to MP3 and dumping MP3s to my portable minidisc player (with an extra adapter.) I would highly recommend it, but with a few slight reservations. I think you would be hard pressed to find better output on a consumer sound card.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 129.99
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Epinions.com ID:
alan_d
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 1 member
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