Creative Sound Blaster Live! Platinum

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: 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: Onboard 32 bit digital processing with Fiber optic inputs. Plug and Play compatible and easy installation. Great support from Creative Labs
Cons: .............................

I had been in the market for a sound card for about 2 months. Review after review. I must have read over 20 articles on different manufactures. I was about to give up. But then, I heard about the Sound Blaster Live. I remember all the talk about...

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: 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: 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: 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...

Pros: Flexibility, features, front digital input, incredible sound quality
Cons: Some of the bundled software is useless

WOW!!! What else can you say? Never in my whole 10+ years with computers have I been this excited about a $170 part before.
Two weeks ago, I installed the SoundBlaster Live! Platinum card, which comes with what Creative Labs calls a ‘Live!...

Pros: Live Drive Looks Cool
Cons: Doesn't work

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.

First, this card...

Pros: Good sound quality, cool breakout box.
Cons: Expensive.

The Live Platinum certainly comes in a very impressive box, doesn't it? It's big and the contents are equally impressive. The Live drive really stands out and there's a excrement load of software bundled with it. But is the Platinum for everyone?...

Pros: DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1 DECODER, awesome EAX, Remote control, front panel connections, EMU10K1 upgradable sound accelerator
Cons: Won't go get the paper, not a cup holder, won't go to prom with you

Oh man, where do I start? This sound card is the best on the market, and will be for a long time. I bought this card to take advantage of my four point surround speakers, and to get the best quality while doing so. It does that and so much more.
...

Pros: Superb sound, good software bundle
Cons: no optical output

Last year Creative Labs took a quantum leap in the quality of sounds cards. No, I am not talking about the first generation Aureal PCI soundcards that Alan reviews when he recommends against the Sound Blaster Live Platinum, I am talking about a line of...

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: awesome sonuds and package!
Cons: liveware (read the review)

I was shopping around for a good soundcard. It was either between the SoundBlaster Live series or Aureal. Since Creative Labs has much better driver support and has a wider range of products in the market, I decided to go with the SoundBlaster Live...

Pros: The best end user card, loads of software.
Cons: More then you can use, expensive.

Want to be the at the top of the game, get this card. There are 2 versions of this card, 5.1 and normal. I have the 5.1. I don't know if it is really worth it for most users, but I have a BOSE lifestyle home theater which is 5.1, so I like it....

Pros: Advanced chip set, 256 voices, multiple speaker support
Cons: Takes up 2 slots on motherboard

Soundblaster undeniably produces quality sound cards, but with their large selection, a new buyer may find difficulty in selecting the one that suits them best. Soundblaster's newest series, the LIVE cards, are of the most cost-efficient and capable...

Pros: Excellent Soundcard plus lots of nice features
Cons: A bit pricey for a soundcard

After more than a year since the first Sound Blaster Live! Card appeared in the market, Creative is now bringing us three new cards as an addition to the Live! Family, each one aimed to different type of users in order to full fill the needs of everyone...

Pros: Features, Live Drive jacks, software, name brand, pretty good support
Cons: First versions of drivers were buggy, no other complaints found

I have to say that after getting the latest drivers and sticking with the Platinum since Jan 2000 , I have finally debugged and got this card operating well. Once of the early problems was resource conflicts with Logitech Mouse Drivers and Real Player 7....

Pros: Best Sound Card Available
Cons: Expensive

For Years the company Creative Labs have brought the top of the line sound cards to the home computer business. As the years went on new companies arose and Creative Labs was challenged to out due their opponents. In 1999 they did just 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: Digital out, Live! Drive, great 3D sound
Cons: None

This sound card tops the list of peripherals for any gaming computer. The 3D surround and digital capabilities of this card are astounding. Recording, gaming, playing CD's, whatever you want to do is no challenge for this card. With a 48 KHz recording...

Pros: The best card on the market right now.
Cons: Software with the remote could be more intuitive.

Yes, I bought a brand new, retail version of the Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1 for ninety dollars. I enjoy finding the best possible price on products, but I don't stop there. After I find the best possible price, I take the add to a different local...

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...

Pros: Tons of inputs, good value,loads of software
Cons: Need an open drive bay

I purchased this card to replace my soundblaster value. I really wantede this card to compliment my new set of klipsch pro medias. The value of this card is just great. You get so much software that I think that will pay itself off. Mine came with 4 full...

Pros: Excellent MIDI, Environmental Audio is awesome
Cons: ... Yeah, right!

Common sense says that a computer should be equipped with a soundcard. I searched multiple cards and finally got to this soundcard. This soundcard has excellent sound output, and it comes with a Live! Drive and a microphone that works great for voice...

Pros: LiveDrive, GREAT software bundle, SBLIVE standard and compatiblity
Cons: Price, need 5.25 drive bay open

Having come from a long line of buying only the very best, or at the very least THE standard bearer of sound cards for nearly every computer I've owned, and built for others. Professionally and personally. I've never gone wrong with buying a sound card...

Pros: great sound, Live Drive is very convenient, bundled software top-notch
Cons: no CD-ROM connectors on Live Drive, Lava and creative players unnecessary

The Sound Blaster Live! Platinum is perhaps the second coolest piece of hardware I now own (second only to my Geforce GTS 2 64MB DDR video card). The sound produced from this card is absolutely amazing. Before I purchased this, I was using an AWE64,...

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: Great quality, tons of software, ultimate sound studio for most anyone's needs
Cons: Software requires a lot of hard disk space

I build my own computers, mostly from cheap, refurbished, or hand-me-down parts from when friends upgrade their computers. My computer was using an ancient Sound Blaster 16 ISA AWE32 with Wave Table synthesis and two memory slots for 30-pin SIMMs. I...

Pros: Excellent MIDI, expandable, great software bundle; digital audio out
Cons: It naturally doesn't support A3D or Sensaura

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...

Pros: Best sound, Easy to manipulate setting of existing sounds
Cons: Does not support positional audio

The Sound Blaster Live is one of the most advanced sound cards available for the home user. This card supports everything you could think of and then some. The Sound Blaster Live could actually be used by professional in the music industry; for...

Pros: Features features features!
Cons: Not for those who JUST need a simple PC audio solution.

I will review this product as I would rate the Platinum 5.1 model. I will start with saying Creative has created a monopoly for themselves in the consumer sound card market. This is not necessarily a BAD thing, as I believe if a company makes a good...

Pros: Loud!, Many Options, Great Bundle
Cons: None

This thing is sweet! If you are into having the highest quality parts for your computer, then this sound card is for you. Included with the Platinum version is what's called a Live! Drive. This fits into a 5.25 bay and has easy front access to SPDIF,...

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: Makes all sorts of audio come alive.
Cons: Worthless if your speakers aren't any good.

There are a lot of precious metals in society today. The Olympics are finishing up, you've got gold, silver, and bronze there. People make lots of money selling precious metals on the stock market. But, some precious metals are better than others....

Pros: plays multiple sounds at once, environmental audio, 3d sound, sound fonts
Cons: none

The soundblaster live is a great addition to your home pc for those who enjoy gaming as well as musicians.

As far as gaming, 3d games that support eax audio come to life! The soundblaster live supports quad speaker settings, so that you can...

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: See Above
Cons: See Above

Being a gamer, You just have to have top of the line products. Being an audiophile, you have to have good sound. Solution? Get a Sound Blaster Live! Platinum Sound Card. This sound card takes a step past ordinary devices, and I must say, it is well worth...

Pros: great sound editing, great sound processing (mp3 and games)
Cons: Live! Drive takes up a drive bay that you may need, price

I recently recieved a SoundBlaster Live! Platinum for Christmas because I needed a new soundcard that could play games well and do fantastic sound editing. The SoundBlaster Live! Platinum more than met that demand.

First of all, the...

Pros: Open source drivers, front panel connectors
Cons: None

I once owned a Turtle Beach Montego A3D. This was a very nice sound card with one of the best analog sections (headphone and line outputs) that i have ever heard. It had one problem: it didn't work in Linux, my preferred operating system. Since I no...

Pros: Live Drive with Dolby Digital Inputs and Outputs, great tech support, and midi inputs and outputs on the front of the computer
Cons: Can slow down older computers with several programs that run in the background

I purchased the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live Platinum Package ($200) when I built my new computer in Dec. 99. I looked at all three versions of the Live family of soundcards because I wanted the guaranteed SoundBlaster compatibility with all of my...

Pros: 1024 voices and Midi interface
Cons: Lava is buggy, but new release fixes that

Visiting my mother for Thanksgiving I was bombarded with "look at this look at this" calls from her, she eventually showed me her SB Live Value. After listening to it for awhile, I said, "I gotta have it" So I went up to the store to...

Pros: Great 4 channel sound, accessibility.
Cons: price.

I decided on getting the Platinum because I was building my own Athlon 850 machine, and I got a bit overzealous with the budget. Instead of taking a more thoughtful approach and purchasing the excellent SB Live Value for about 45 bucks, I went ahead and...

Pros: Good sound, Good software
Cons: Hardware DOA, Very poor tech. support

I purchased the SB Live to give me better sound quality for DVD playback. The Live Drive feature (front panel cable connections and remote control sensor) looked neat and easy to use. The Live drive arrived Dead On Arrival. The internal sb card digital...

Pros: front access to headphone jack
Cons: takes a 3.25" drive power connector; need an 3/4" to 1/8" adapter for headphones

I was leary of spending the $200+ for a sound card but still wanted the functionality of the Live! franchise. I read about the "Gold" version with the daughter card and was leaning in that direction. when I got to the store ready to buy said...

Pros: Easy set up. Works very well.
Cons: Eats a 5 1/4" drive bay

I have been using this Soundblaster card for over a month using NT 4.0 workstation. Installation was easy and I've had no problems at all. The included Sound Forge XP software also works well with NT. I used it to convert a voice mail greeting that...

Pros: Excellent audio quality, Price, Good Software Bundle
Cons: None

Adding a new dimension to sound, the SoundBlaster Live! Platinum offers high-quality digital entertainment, supplemented by a superb software bundle.

Featuring the EMU10K processor, 32-bit, 48 kHz digital signal processing and patented 8-point...

Pros: EVERYTHING
Cons: Price

Ok, If you ever want a sound card, this is the one. I am a sound editor for 31st century fox and i use this to edit music, record music, and play music from them. I switched to this sound card recently and must say that I am very pleased with it's...

Pros: great sound
Cons: alot of money

There isn't a sound card out there that comes close to this
thing. I've hooked it up and played Quake, diablo, and half life and used my regular computer
speakers to play my
MP3's. It does both with great sound and a wide range of
...

Pros: very good sound quality
Cons: none that i found

I have tried many sound cards and have tried many onboard sound motherboards and to me the soundblaster live platinum is the best sounding and most versatile sound cards i have ever had the honor of owning and using. I have 5 computers in my home and 2...

Pros: easy installation, multiple audio streams
Cons: newer drivers sometimes cause problems

After having used my old SoundBlaster 16 for so many years, I thought it was about time I got a new sound card, and what better time than with a new PC. I hadn't been keeping up with technology, so when I first installed the card, which went flawlessly...

Pros: Good Price, A good deal of sound formats supported by the hardware interface (RCA, SPDIF)
Cons: No midi port, just a little bit too gamer oriented.

As an electronica composer, I would definitely say that the Sound Blaster Live is quite a competent, useful card. As a below poverty line individual, I would say that the SBL is an Awesome deal for the money. The one thing that, IMHO it is missing, Is...

Pros: Good Sound quality, Live Drive easy to connect to
Cons: Hardware Quality, Poor tech. support

I purchased the SB Live to give me better sound quality for DVD playback. The Live Drive feature (front panel cable connections and remote control sensor) looked neat and easy to use. The Live drive arrived Dead On Arrival. The internal sb card digital...

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: Versatile, high quality sound
Cons: pricier than most other cards on the market

I bought this card to use in audio editing and creation applications. I have not been disappointed at all!!! This card has the best features and versatility of any card I have ever seen at any price. The only thing that it is lacking is any multitrack...

Pros: Crisp and Clear Sound
Cons: Expensive

Im very happy with my Sound Blaster Live! Platinum soundcard right now. It is definately one of the best on the market currently. The sound is very clear and very crisp. To my opinion it is better than my current $500 stereo. There is a pretty large...

Pros: great quality, nice software included
Cons: doesnt work good with cheap speakers, price

i purchased this with all new components on my new computer, i ran out of money however before i got to buy speakers. I have a pair of $5 speakers and a $150 sound card. For the sound card to work at its fullest(as with any nice quality card) you need...