Customer Reviews

SOUND BLASTER LIVE! EXTERNAL USB 24BIT 5.1 CMSS

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

When I ordered this external sound card, I was skeptical, but when I received this card,hooked it up,it sounded fantastic. I had realtek onboard sound. I disabled it in the device manager tab, before i downloaded the drivers for the sound blaster live card, and without any problems. I'm running windows XP, with service pack 2. There is a big difference, no hiss, or distortion,and you can turn the speakers up louder, without sacraficing clarity. I would not hesitate to buy this card, even though you can't get updated drivers, the ones that come with the CD is just fine, and they are certified by Microsoft. Thank You for reading this. And remember, you can always switch from one sound card to the other.

An outstanding and innovative product. What's cool about this product is that you can place it anywhere near your computer, allowing you to have all your sound ports/jacks and volume controls within quick and easy reach: With its microphone port, in/out line ports, speaker ports, and multiple other ports, you can connect just about any type of audio device directly to the SoundBlaster External Card.

The multiple media software applications that are included free (on one CD) is alone worth the price you pay for the sound card. With the SoundBlaster External hardware and the included recording software, you can record anything (CDs, casettes, old vinyl records, your own live voice and music) and easily convert it to a digital audio file. From there you can use the editing software to clean-up and enhance your recording. Once you have saved your sound file, here are some ideas for you: email the sound file, or convert the file to an mp3 for use on a portable music player, or burn the file onto a CD: All of these you can do with the SoundBlaster External Sound Card. And, oh yes, the SoundBlaster External will make your computer sound absolutely great!

For the very best functionality, be certain to get the updated driver to the SoundBlaster Live External Card at the Creative.com website:

http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/

This is a handy device to have if you are unsatisfied with your stock soundcard (or have no soundcard at all). Its handy USB plug-and-play connection and variety of inputs/outputs can expand or enhance your multimedia options. Sound is adequate to good and fidelity was noticeably better than the stock card in my Dell Inspiron 9100.

Like many other musicians, I have been exploring the possibilities of home recording, taking advantage of the huge leaps in technology (hardware, software, editing/mixing) and the accompanying huge drops in recording-related expenses, i.e., studio time. My main PC is the aforementioned Dell. It's a heavy beast with plenty of hardware guts and speed...definitely in the desktop replacement category. As such, outboard USB or PCMCIA are the only options for add-on devices.

Unfortunately, this SoundBlaster product didn't make the grade in the recording arena, at least using Adobe Audition.

The first hurdle was constant 'out of USB bandwidth' error messages. This may not entirely be the fault of the SoundBlaster but it did become a deal-breaker.

The second hurdle was latency. USB 2.0 features respectable transfer rates but doing any overdubbing/multitracking was impossible. The click track lagged behind the guide track, which lagged behind the other existing track(s). In short, it was impossible to synchronize anything and I didn't fancy nudging tracks back and forth in an attempt to synch them up.

To be fair, Creative aims this product at a certain market segment and recommends the Audigy line for recording and more intricate functionality. So...I took their advice and exchanged for the SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS which has worked like a champ in all departments: sound quality, speed and of course no USB bother!

Contrary to what many opinions on the net, this USB audio device will work with OS X Tiger WITHOUT additional drivers. To use the device just plug it in and go to System Preferences/Sound and select Sound Blaster Live! External for the input/output devices. That's all that you need to do to get stereo sound and an amplified mic jack to work. If you want to use the 5.1 capability you'll need to configure additional speakers. Open Applications/Utility/Audio MIDI Setup. Select SB Live! for Input and Output. Select SB Live! under the Properties For menu. Under Audio Output, Select 6-16bit or 6-24bit for Format. (note: it is not recommended to connect this device to a USB hub-- if you have to connect it to a hub it may limit your output options) Click Configure Speakers. Click MultiChannel and select 5.1 Surround. You should be able to click on the buttons for the various speakers and hear static tests.

I have played back a DVD with 5.1 using VLC without any problems. I was not able to get WoW to work with 5.1 yet though.

Problems: The volume/mute controller on the box itself will not work. The mute button will mute the audio but not unmute it (you can still unmute from the keyboard though). Also, if you plug headphones in it will mute the sound (which you can unmute from the keyboard).

I have a Yamaha YMF 753 built into my laptop and it doesn't compare to the SoundBlaster Live! card. I was a little skeptical about the card using USB 1.1 since I figured playing audio required more bandwidth, but I was wrong. Listening to music and watching movies on my laptop is awesome, however, I've yet to test how the 3D positioning sounds in videogames. Once you listen to your music with this card, you'll never want to go back to your laptop's soundcard again! I haven't been able to max out the card's bandwidth with music and videos so I haven't encountered any weird distortions or sounds. Make sure you install the latest drivers from creative's website so you reduce your chances of running into any bugs or errors.

Installing the card is a snap. Connect the USB cable from the soundcard to your computer, install the drivers/software, and you're in business (you have to also plug your speaker cable into the new card).
***Update***
You can get the audio to start skipping and clicking if you listen to music and watch a movie at the same time (who does that?).

This device, about the size of a small paperback book, is an excellent audiophile-on-a-budget investment. The sound quality is near flawless; don't let the USB 1.1 specification scare you off unless you require simaltaneous monitoring and recording for your notebook. The included toolbars are intuitive and easy to access (most of them have links to the others when you open one, i.e. you can access the device settings through a button on the equalizer) It has all the outputs you need for connecting to a reciever or up to a 5.1 speaker system. Best of all, there is no power adapter, which makes it eminently transportable. Just grab it and a USB cable and go. If you are tired of the low quality sound that your chipset soundcard delivers, I highly recommend this nifty little gadget.

I would have given it 5 stars, had it worked with Windows Vista as it did with Windows XP. I've two computers, one with XP on it and another with Vista. This sound card is amazing with XP. Crisp clear sound from all 5 speakers. I feel like I am in a theater really. But with Vista, it does not work. Sound quality is like a 2 channel sound card. I downloaded latest driver from Creative's site for Vista but it didn't change anything. Then I called Creative customer support and an irresponsible and rude customer service representative told me he cannot help me as surround sound feature is not supported in Vista as of today. I asked him how long before creative can come up with the solution. He had no idea and said Creative would not tell him that information. Isn't that ridiculous? All he asked me to keep waiting and keep checking Creative site for updated driver and software. So here is my review in a nutshell:

Got VISTA ---> DONT BUY IT YET !!
Got XP ------> GO, GET IT TODAY !!

Overall I am very pleased with the product. The sound is awesome! Definitely a high-quality product. Install went perfectly under Windows XP Home.
24-bit sound is an immense step up from my old 16-bit card. Crystal clear at very demanding levels, quitest passages, and everything in betwen.
If you want awesome sound at an owesome price, buy this. Know in advance the equalizer is SEVEN bands wide, not the TEN promised on the box.

PROS
1) Price-At under $50, it is similarly priced to other products but is of way better quality.
2) Quality-DVD sound through my 4.1 PC speaker system is great; no distortion, crackles, etc.
3) Connections-All the inputs and outputs you'll need and the volume dial is nice.
4) Software-Sound configuration software is intuitive and works seamlessly with the hardware.

CON
1) Installation-The installation did hang at the very end when trying to update DirectX. May have to do with the fact that it was trying to update with a version older than I had. However, once I ctrl-alt-deleted the non responding window, the installation finished fine.

OVERALL
This is a great product that finally gives purpose to the 4.1 speaker system I bought to use at home on my laptop. Even though my speakers are pretty low end (only 45 watts--see my other reviews for specific CA model), overall sound in movies is awesome and the surround speakers are distinct.

This is the second USB external 5.1 sound box I have bought in as many weeks. The last one from PPA, which was only a few dollars cheaper than this, had terrible connections to the speaker system--creating a crackle when the cords were moved. What made it unbearable was that after watching about a half-hour of a movie, the sound got really bad with pops and distortion and could only be remedied by dis- and re-connecting the USB connection. (This is a problem I've read from other lower-end external sound cards). The Creative SB Live! External has none of these problems. It's a great value for seriously upgrading a laptop's audio for 4/5.1 surround--especially if you don't want to shell out the $80-$100 for the Audigy PCMCIA card.

I've been portable audio fan for quite awhile now and I've gathered a number of decent headphones to match with my minidisc and portable amps. For some reason, ive settled with the poor quality sound that comes out of modern motherboards with built-in sound cards. I knew they stunk, but never really got around to putting the time into looking into a decent sound card.

After some time I did some research on external USB sound cards, since i usually use headphones you tend to notice every single flaw in the music, such as a constant hum, pops, static, electrical noise even when rolling the scroll wheel on my mouse on a webpage! By going externally, you lose most of those flaws off the bat because it goes around all the electrical junk and the cheap power supply in my computer.

What's most important though is the output of the sound on the USB SB Live! There is a surround sound button called CMSS that i tend to leave it on for speaker use only; sounds much better than having it off. The bass is quick and crisp, the sound is much clearer than my old setup, and there are numerous options to manipulate the sound. Also a bass boost for those who require it. Ive used the sound deck for a few days now with a few different headphones, such as the Koss KTXPro1, Koss Portapro, Sennheiser PX200, and Grado SR60. They all sound wonderfully with this source and i find myself stuck to my computer more than before! The bass on the Koss headphones with this sound card is as quick and cut as a knife.

Other options include a nice, easy to setup 5.1 channel speaker setup, an optical out, DIN port, RCA port & some other stuff that i haven't bothered using yet.

All in all, a quality product from creative, a great buy for 40 bucks.