Sound Blaster Live! XGamer unleashed
Written: Nov 14 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent MIDI, expandable, great software bundle; digital audio out
Cons: It naturally doesn't support A3D or Sensaura
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| amrya's Full Review: Creative Sound Blaster Live! Platinum |
Choosing between the original Sound Blaster Live! And the very difficult as Sound Blaster Live! Value Edition has nearly same performance for gamers. The main reason seems to be the lack of a digital audio output on the Value Edition. Now, while Pt. 5.1 was/is a costly option
The XGamer is a redesigned card that offers a blend of value and the full Sound Blaster Live!. The XGamer has the same four ports as the value edition does: microphone in, line in, and two lineouts for four-speaker positional audio support. There's also a fifth port supporting a coax-style S/PDIF (just like Pt.) digital output connection. And through the Creative Labs web site, the XGamer can be upgradeable to the full Platinum version, by adding Live! Drive.
This card comes with lot of goodies like ( full versions of) Descent 3, Need for Speed: High Stakes, and Thief. All of them make extensive use of positional audio, so they are great showcases for the EMU10K1 audio processor also makes your head go whirl. As I ran several 3D-audio capable games through the card, including Need for Speed 4, Rogue Spear, and Quake 3 Arena. All of them sounded Mind blowing
The entire Sound Blaster Live! series comes with one of the most extensive - and complex - set of software controls ever seen in a consumer sound card. And updates it’s driver quite frequently. I wonder will they keep doing it as if you ask me I had a creative graphix blaster Exxtreme (permedia 2 chipset) which had its latest update in 5/1999 there can be more reasons for that (stopped production of permedia 2 by 3Dlab’s). Anyway the XGamer seems to have cured a problem that existed with the original Sound Blaster Live!: noise. I still have that first SB Live! Installed, and if you pump up the mixer volume, there's noticeable hiss apparent. That's not true with the XGamer. As expected, CPU utilization - as measured by Audio Winbench 99 - is quite low.
So Moral of this whole review is XGamer is a solid update of the Sound Blaster Live! It now offers a cool bundle, expandability, and good-quality sound.
Sound Blaster Live! Value << Sound Blaster Live! XGamer << Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1
want to buy it check at <a href=http://www.pricewatch.com> Pricewatch </a>
Last seen lowest was $ 76 +$12 fedex 2ed day
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
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Epinions.com ID:
amrya
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Member: Amrut Barde
Location: pune Maha.
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
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