Creative Labs 70SB049000000 USB SoundBlaster Live 24-Bit External Sound Card
This ultra-affordable upgrade allows you to start enjoying an audio experience and quality that's not possible with basic on-board audio thanks to 24-Bit ADVANCED HD and EAX ADVANCED HD technologies. Your music will never have sounded better and you'll even be able to convert your old tapes or vinyl to digital audio. Finally your games will come alive while you're also immersed in 5.1 surround sound. All this in a simple USB solution that installs in a snap!
Billed as the easiest way to upgrade from basic built-in PC sound to home-theater audio, Creative's USB SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit external sound card is an affordable stand-alone audio interface for your PC that hooks up to your computer via a single, simple USB 1.1 connection (cable supplied). The card offers analog inputs for a microphone and an audio component (CD player, DVD player, etc.) and outputs including optical and coaxial digital-audio jacks and a trio of minijack analog audio outs that you can use with 5.1-channel surround-sound speaker systems. Your music and games will never be the same. Now you can create MP3s from your CDs easier than ever and digitize your old cassettes and LP records, cleaning up the sound as you do so using Creative's supplied software. (Be aware, however, that LP record playback requires, in addition to a turntable and cartridge, an outboard phono stage or an integrated amplifier equipped with a phono preamplifier; the USB SoundBlaster Live! accepts only line-level analog inputs.) The unit's onboard 24-bit Advanced HD and EAX Advanced HD technologies encode and decode (record and play back) audio at up to 24-bit, 96 kHz resolution, though you must disable realtime audio monitoring at the highest settings due to limitations in the USB 1.1 data-throughput spec. Creative Multi Speaker Surround (CMSS) multispeaker technology lets you "upmix" stereo sources to 5.1-channel surround sound. The software includes a professional-quality panning and mixing algorithm, front and rear balance controls, muting, and panning control for mixer sources. Realistic EAX reverb, panning, and elevation effects bring your music and games to life. The kit also includes advanced time-scaling (which allows variable playback duration without altering the pitch of your original content), an audio clean-up feature (which removes noise and clicks from playback of vinyl disk or cassette recordings), bass boost, smart volume management, and a multi-band graphic equalizer. Use of the sound card is as simple as plugging it into any available USB port: there's no power adapter required. The card has an infrared receiver for use with an optional Creative remote control, which will let you operate your computer from the comfort of your sofa or bed, at a distance of up to 13 feet. What's in the Box
USB SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit external sound card, a USB cable, a quick-start guide, and an Installation CD (containing drivers for Windows XP, SP1, and 2000, SP4; Creative Software Applications Suite; and a user's guide).
Creative Labs 70SB049000000 USB SoundBlaster Live 24-Bit External Sound Card Accessories
 Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX Certified Computer Speaker System (Black)
Logitech Z-5500 THX-Certified 505-Watt 5.1 Digital Surround Sound Speaker System
Logitech X-530 5.1 Speaker System
D-Link DUB-H7 High Speed USB 2.0 7-Port Hub
Logitech Z-5300e THX-Certified 280-Watt 5.1 Surround Sound PC and Gaming Speaker System
Cables To Go 7 Port USB 2.0 Hub
Fiber Optical Toslink Digital Audio Optic Interface 6 Foot Cable
Cables Unlimited PCM-2296-06 HDMI to DVI D Single Link Cable (6 Feet, Black)
Tripp Lite A102-02M Digital Optical Audio Cable, 2x Toslink - 2M (6ft)
Kensington DomeHub USB 2.0 (7 ports) Weighted Hub 33118
Creative Labs 70SB049000000 USB SoundBlaster Live 24-Bit External Sound Card Reviews
It's now about six months that I am using it, and I really like it.
It's especially economical if you have a low-end notebook and get annoyed with the tinny sound they tend to produce. I was straining to understand the words. It's a great upgrade of sound from the usual notebook cards, especially with the digital outputs. My main use of our laptop is watching online movies through Netflix hooked up to our big screen HDTV, and the included sound card has an analog out jack that also comes with some low-level noise (yuck).
No more hum. Luckily, this box has not one, but TWO SPDIF out jacks, optical or coaxial which I can hook into our stereo and get some very nice surround sound. There has been much griping about the lack of Vista drivers for this product and deservedly so. It is a little bit more simplified, but most of the software is there and it serves the job quite nicely.
Being quite familiar with Creative Labs products, I was happy to see the basic same interface included that comes with my X-Fi Platinum card. But the line-in jack is not the reason I got this box. The line-in jack works decently enough, but be warned that you need to pre-amp some things to get any decent kind of sound. Keep in mind, this is an older product from Creative Labs, but they have finally provided updated drivers for Vista that lets you take full advantage of what this little box has to offer.
But if you have any intention of using the line-in, please save yourself a terrible headache and avoid this card.
After much frustration from trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, and installing, uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers found both on the CD and from the support site, a quick search online revealed a common issue with the USB Soundblaster Live.: the line-in requires the use of a pre-amp.
(My laptop, needless to say, doesn't have a line-in, which was the whole point of my purchasing the USB Soundblaster Live).
My synth was plugged into the line-in of the sound card, but guess what.
Admittedly, most people will want this card for better sound for their games and music, so this issue probably won't matter to them.
I had a very specific use for this card, and it failed miserably.
I am a musician and I wanted to be able to record music from my synth to my laptop.
No sound.
Personally, I'm returning mine tomorrow.
I bought this product to process sound for my laptop (desktop replacement). However, I have an old audiophile amp and speakers and wanted to use it as a media ampliphier for the main side channels, but I couldn't find a dolby processor. If testing works as well as I anticipate, I will be using another one for the media processor. This little box fills that need too. It does the job admirably. So I am now working on integrating it into my home media plans.
It can create 'crackling and popping' noise when used with some nVidia boards. That is a known problem extensively discussed on Creative website, but I didn't know until I bought this.
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