High Quality, Low Price
Written: Dec 20 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great Sound Quality, EAX, MIDI, Inexpensive
Cons: No software bundle
|
|
|
| samhorowitz's Full Review: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value Sound Card |
For the longest time, I never bought a Creative Labs Sound Card. They were expensive, and I honestly didn't think there was that much of a difference. I mean, sound is sound, right?
My last non-Creative sound card was an Aureal Vortex SQ1500. It was nice, but the midi table was so bad I had to put my old Yamaha DS-XG card back in. Then I happened upon the SB PCI 128 4-speaker surround sound card. Now I understand why Creative Labs has always been ranked as the leader in consumer audio for PCs. The midi was excellent, my MP3s sounded crisp & clear, and my 3d gaming experience was forever changed. When I switched to Win2K, however, I ran into a lot of problems with no help whatsoever from CL.
Enter the SB Live Value. 4-Speaker surround sound via 2 stereo line out ports, digital audio out, game port, line in, and mic. Fully EAX-compatible. Creative Labs quality. I had it installed in less than 5 minutes and once again my PC Audio experience was changed. Even in Windows 2000, playback was flawless. No weird system hang-ups. MP3 playback very closely rivals stereo playback of CDs. MIDI tables are awesome. EAX works flawlessly in Half-Life, Diablo 2 and other EAX compatible games. What more could you ask for $45!?
There are better packages out there from Creative Labs, but I honestly don't think they're worth the extra $55, unless you go to the very high-end bundles which include LiveDrive!, etc.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 45
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
samhorowitz
|
|
Member: Sam Horowitz
Location: Jacksonville, FL, USA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.