Pros: Live! Drive is very cool and handy, excellent sound quality, some good bundled titles. Cons: Some of the software is irritating and useless, and it's a fairly pricey item.
Now, I will most certainly admit that I know little about sound systems, and I'm still pretty baffled by the extent of how far they've come in the way of personal computers. I remember when, in the not too distant past, I was mystified by desktop...
Pros: loaded with features, good drivers, easy to install Cons: comes with too much garbage demos on the install cd
The Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1, a card not designed for the casual gamer, or the one that listens only to MP3s wishing they could actually record, master, and then play back themselves. Sure there is another card in the line for that......the...
Pros: On board hardware AC3 decoder. Live Drive 2 w/remote. Hardware full-Duplex. Super software bundle. Cons: Some chipset problems are known. The price is not worth it for a general gamer.
Being that I have always been an owner of the Sound Blaster series of cards, I decided that I would add their latest and greatest model to the new computer I have been building for myself. I decided to purchase the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Platinum with...
Pros: The sound is phenomenal, the remote is a great toy, good response from tech support Cons: Can be finicky during setup, Sblive.com's site not much help
I bought this Sound Blaster Platinum 5.1 card on 4/30/01 for $168.95. This sound card is literally the Ferrari of sound cards. The Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1 is a high performance engine that needs to be fine-tuned just like a Ferrari. If you...
Pros: Surround Sound, fairly good sound, high compatibility with games, front access to plugs, remote control. Cons: Front access to plugs sometimes hard to route AC-3 cable to stereo receiver.
Background
Due to the PC’99 spec, when I replaced all my motherboards, I no longer had any ISA slots, so I had to part with my AWE gold soundcards :( . My first attempt was with a soundblaster 128, but due to compatibility issues with DOS games, it...
Ever since I have owned a computer, I have always had Creative Soundblaster cards. I recently built myself a new system and decided to go all out on the sound card and bought the Soundblaster Live! Platinum. What a mistake.
Pros: Easy install, great functionality, digital optical out! Cons: Spendy, you must have an open bay for the Live! drive
This sound card is amazing. The best thing about it is the digital optical out. I have my computer hooked up via an optical cable and it sounds incredible! Other people have 100+ CD jukeboxes; to that I say HA! I have 10 gigs worth of music on my...
Pros: Wonderful sound, 4 speaker support, live drive panel, industry standard for games Cons: Widely discussed incompatibilities with VIA chipset motherboards, Live Drive not supported by most software
The good:
The Live works in a PCI slot and provides backwards compatibility for older games that run in dos mode (even though I don't know too many people that own any games anymore than run in dos. Maybe the kids would find this an attractive...
Pros: Affordable 16-bit 48kHz sound. Live Drive. Cons: can't sample properly at any rate other than 48kHz. SPDIF ports dont work properly.
The intent of this product is to offer "studio" or "Professional" sound to a home setting. In this aspect, the card truely shines. However, the addition of SPDIF ports, MIDI interfaces, two analog inputs and the 16-bit 48kHz sound, implies that...
Pros: 5.1 surround sound, front panel inputs, bundles of software. Cons: IRQ hog, some compatibility issues
Since Epinions hasn't made room for the 5.1 card, I'll sneak it in here. Being a film and video editor, I'm always looking for the next cool thing. I've always loved mixing my audio into Surround Sound when time and money permitted. The long process...
Pros: Front panel headphone jack, front panel line in, custom sound FX! Cons: sometimes the livedrive poops out and i have to disconnect and reconnect power
Definently worth the price!
For what this gadget does, and the amount and quallity of the software it comes with, this baby is worth every penny!
Why I bought this:
I bought the Sound Blaster Live! with Live Drive...
Pros: Sounds Incredible! Easy access to any input or output. Remote control Cons: Requires alot of resorces and is very processor intensive
_I hate to be completely one sided on my opinions, but it will be hard to be anything less in this opinion. I am a serious gamer but have always used the "on board" sound for my games hooked to a decent speaker system. When I did decide to upgrade my...
Pros: great sound quality, amazing software bundle Cons: expensive
The SB Live! Platinum is an amazing sound card package. The sound card itself is worth a lot. The EMU10K1 chipset and EAX extensions make this a very powerful sound card. With every game I've played with my Sound Blaster card, sound quality has been...
Pros: Great sound and a lot of software comes with it. Cons: Need a 5.1 decoder card for true 5.1 sounds and the price.
This is the ultimate in great sound for the home PC computer. Not only do you get a great sound, you also get a lot of software to keep you busy for a long time.
This card can be set up for two speakers, four speakers and with the optional...
Pros: Excellent sound, great software package Cons: Live Drive is a little useless for most people
The SoundBlaster Live! Platinum is an excellent sound card for most any computer user. The sound quality of the card is superb. I had a little bit of trouble setting it up and getting it to work at first. Tech support stayed on the line with me for...
E-Mu 1212M PCI Digital Audio System v2 The E-MU 1212M PCI Digital Audio System is a set of two PCI audio cards configured with premium-class converters, high-quality I/O, and versatile DSP ...
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