Soundblaster Live Question..

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I\'m gonna be buying a new Soundcard, Now i\'m looking at getting the SB live platinum 5.1 I don\'t have much experince with Soundcards. I\'ve had like 2 in my life, and sold mainly SBlive5.1 cards or SB live Value.

But,
I can\'t see any difference between the SB Gamer 5.1, SB Platinum 5.1, SB DE 5.1,SB MP3 5.1 etc

As from what i can tell, They are all Powered by the EMU10K1 Digital Signal Processor. The only thing i can tell different is the software included in the packages. I will probably get the soundcard OEM anyway, so if they are all the same card, but just different software bundles. I\'ll just get the Sb Live 5.1

So what\'s the difference between the cards?

I think the only difference between MP3 and Gamer is the software that comes with them.  The Platinum is kinda cool b/c it comes with an "equalizer-kindof-thing" that you can mount in a 5-1/4 drive bay that controls volume and such and has a remote control.

[nO-One]

There\'s no real difference in the cards, just the drivers that come with them. All powered by the same chip etc..

But as always Creative\'s drivers are sh!t but people live with them because they\'ve become the standard.

The Audigy would probly be a better buy, a newer card etc, still they sh!t drivers but a new card and you\'ll get a FireWire port.

Also the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz has gotten good reviews

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nar, i\'m not after any of the Audigy cards.. don\'t need them..
I can get a Sblive 5.1 for 89AUD. So i\'ll probably get that.. If the Platinum isn\'t much more expensive, i\'ll get that.

I agreee with no-one, their drivers are ok.....and I would go with the audigy line of cards...I still use the Soudblaster Live! Value card that came with my pc and it works fine......I dont do much PC gaming anymore so sound doesnt make a differnce to me.......



:hat:ScottyJ:hat:

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the price difference from SBlive too Audigy is pretty big. 89 dollers for the 5.1 card too 260 for the Audigy card.  I don\'t see any point in getting the Audigy series, Unless you have a very good surround system etc. I don\'t have a surround system anyway. But i can get the 5.1 series which is cheap, and when i do decide to buy a new reciever. I can hook it up to it. I have the speakers, just not the reciever...   All i want to know is, are there any differences between the 5.1 series cards.. HARDWARE wise. If not, i\'ll get the Sb live 5.1 OEM. The 5.1 series cards use EAX anywayz. So the sound in gaming will still be good.

I also don\'t care much for surround in gaming..  If i was to buy a surround sound system. It wouldn\'t be for my pc. i just want a good soundcard.

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well, i bothed to get of my lazy arse and check out the hardware specs myself.. There is NO difference between the SBlive5.1 (cheapests) and the Sblive platinum 5.1 (expensive) cards..
The only difference is the Software bundles,and the platinum card has Live!Drive with Live!Drive IR. Which is a remote. I don\'t need a bloody remote.  I have one for my TV/Capture card that alters volume, anyway. I think i\'ll get the Sb live 5.1  If the platinum card is around 100. I\'ll get that.. Either way i\'ll be getting a SBlive5.1

soully, there is a HUGE difference between the live cards and the audigy cards aside from software.  i would never go back to a live card after buying my audigy

beg yer parents for a few more dollars and get the audigy

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my parents arn\'t paying for it... maybe 5 years ago they would have.. but 5 years ago is when i started paying for my own stuff.

Can u REALLY tell teh difference between Audigy and Live on a standard 2 speaker system.. I doubt it.

mm\'s got a point soully. Audigy cards rule, at the moment i\'m in the process of saving up for audigy sound card and the creative inspire 5700 5.1 speakers. its gonna cost me but it gonna be worth it, and the best part is i can even hook up my ps2 to the speakers .

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I\'ll find out the price for it OEM. If i can get it for around $150. No problems, but otherwise i\'ll get the SBlive.. It doesn\'t really bother me. I\'m half deaf anyway. (can\'t hear out of my right ear) Maybe i should have said that before.. ohh well.

But really, I have a 2 speaker system. 2 10watt rms speakers and a 50watt RMS supwoofer.. I did have 2 120rms speakers with 8inch subs. But my stereo kinda died. I\'m gonna get a reciever sometime with more speakers etc. But for now, the SBlive5.1 will do fine. When i upgrade my speaker system. I\'ll go audigy or whatever card is out then.. will be cheaper too.

but like i said. if i can get a audigy card for around $100 to $150. Then i\'ll get that.  A SBlive 5.1 costs around 89. but that\'s retail. I\'m getting wholesale prices on BOTH cards.

Argh, guys don\'t do this too me.. Now i\'m gonna be hating a SBLIVE if i get one.. dammit.

Where are you getting your prices from and where are you going to order from?

Don\'t forget newegg.

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i get my prices from my brothers wholesaler.. Cypher or something like that.. We used to get prices from http://www.archtech.com.au but they have closed down.  They no longer sell pc stuff, there site is still up though.. The price list password is "Dealer" without the " if u wanna see it. but the prices are very much out of date. I got my Althon XP 1.8ghz processer for around 200 dollers. There wholesale price is about 250. So that\'s how out dated it is.

Well I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and it\'s a wonderful card at a wonderful price.  It\'s 6 channel and produces excellent sound on mp3 and is very good with games.  I love the Virtual 5.1 feature it has in games and mp3\'s it\'s cool cuz when I click the mouse or someone IM\'s me I can hear it from behind me if I have the rear speakers on..in short I love the Santa Cruz I\'ve never had much experience with Sounblasters but I\'ve heard many good things about them too.  Just a note if you ever want a really over the top card there\'s that GTXP card I think that\'s what it\'s called by supports up to 7.1 which I think is rediculous.

Nah..there isn\'t much of a difference between Audigy and SBLive card.

The Audigy don\'t even have "24-bit sound processing" as claimed, it\'s basically a 16-bit card in a 24-bit disguise. U\'ll probably get slightly better MIDI sound with the new EMU chip..then again, if your primary concern isn\'t about MIDI, don\'t bother.

For price/performance, the SBLive edge out Audigy anyday.

Oh, and did u guys know that the Audigy card has some built in protocol for future version of MS O/S to "protect" it from playing illegal music?? That means you might not be able to play MP3 songs etc downloaded from the net if they do not have the authorised signature when they implement the check into the O/S.

Gimme SBLive 5.1 anyday.