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Mark Muschett and Mikael Hagén put Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! to the test |
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Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Mark Muschett and Mikael Hagén - Last updated January 9, 2001
Technical Overview: Digital in/out When it comes to digital in/outputs you will find several differences between the various Live boards. However, the differences basically come down to how many SPDIF streams they offer (1=2-speaker mode/AC3, 2=4-speaker mode, 3=5.1 speaker mode) and of what type (optical or coaxial SPDIF). The functionality and quality of the outputs are very similar. We will note where the functionality differs but in case of quality you have to wait until next year when we intend to include objective testing of the digital as well as the analog in/out quality. For now you can check out PCAVTech for objective testing of some of the Live cards. It’s worth noting that the quality depends on the base board and drivers used and not the daughtercard/Live drive. The original Live (CT4620) released the fall 98 offered SPDIF in/out of coaxial type and a Digital DIN connection on a separate daughter card, an i2s internal input and a digital CD input. The Digital DIN is designed to be used with Cambridge SoundWorks speakers that offers a DIN input which includes the FPS2000, DTT2500 and DTT35000. The difference between the DIN input and a normal SPDIF input other than the form of the connection is that the DIN input consists of 2 stereo PCM SPDIF streams so it can be used for 4-speaker gaming. In case of the DTT3500 it can even be used for 5.1 speaker gaming when used with the new Live 5.1 cards. The i2s input is not really useful since almost no card support this type of input in the PC market and it’s also the reason no other Live card offer this input. The Digital CD input have turned out to be more popular and is featured on all Live cards sold in the retail market (CT4620, CT4760, CT4760 and the new SB0060) despite there being plenty of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives that doesn’t support it. When it comes to OEM Live cards (CT483x) boards most doesn’t have a CD-Digital input. The Live!Value that was released a couple months after the original Live offers no SPDIF in/out beyond the internal Digital CD input. Moving on to the cards released in the fall of 1998 (CT4760 in the retail market and CT483x in the OEM market) Creative Labs introduced a new digital output jack on the bracket of 1/8” mini-jack type. This output sends out 2 SPDIF streams and can be connected to the DIN input of the DTT2500, FPS2000 and DTT3500 speaker system for 4-speaker gaming with a mini-jack to DIN cable that should be included with the speaker system. If it’s not you should try to contact Creative Labs to see if they can send it to you one for free. It’s worth noting here that Logitech’s new Xtrusio system set to be released early this year will be the first system not made by Creative/Cambridge SoundWorks to support the 4 channel digital output of the Live cards. The Xtrusio DSR-100 will ship with all the connections necessary to use with both the original DIN connection and the 1/8” mini-jack that all newer Live’s use. The digital output jack can also work as standard coaxial SPDIF output if you use a mini-jack to RCA converter or a stereo mini-jack to dual RCA cable. In the latter example you end up with SPDIF output for both the front and rear speaker in case you happen to have two 2.1 speaker systems with SPDIF inputs or a 4.1 system with dual inputs. You may also be able to order some of these cables/adapters directly from Creative Labs customer service but except for the mini-jack to DIN cable that should have been included with your FPS2000/DTT2500/DTT3500 speaker system you can find the mentioned cables and adapters elsewhere. It’s worth noting that in the case of the CT483x boards being targeted for the OEM market some of the boards may lack the digital output. It’s worth noting that the 1/8" mini-jack on the Live CT4760 cards (Platinum, X-Gamer, Live!Player 1024 and MP3+) outputs 5.0 volts DC and the COAX SPDIF out spec calls for 0.5 volts DC. However Creative Labs has confirmed that there is no risk of damage with this connection their decoders and some other sources have given similar responses for use with the decoder they market (e.g. VideoLogic Digitheatre decider and MidiLand ADS-2000). Having said that, if you are at all concerned with the higher power output you should consider other options. In terms of the Live, those options range from using one of the digital I/O options described above to opting for another sound card that uses a standard SPDIF out voltage (all other 3D sound cards as far as we are aware). Mark and I have also used this mini-jack connection successfully with the Cambridge Soundworks DTT2500, Videologic's DigiTheatre 5.1 system, VideoLogic's DigiTheatre DTS, Altec Lansing's ADA880 and ACS56 with no issues. The CT483x boards (that should only be bundled with PCs, but often also show up in some on-line stores) Digital output jack follows the 0.5 V standard which is the reason they can’t be used with the now discontinued Digital output module (see review for more details) that requires 5.0 V output. The new Live 5.1 cards still offer the Digital output of 1/8” mini-jack type but with 2 additions. First, it can now do double duty as the analog subwoofer and center output and when in Digital mode it now offers 3 SPDIF streams instead of 2. When it’s used with the FPS2000, DTT2500 or a stereo mini-jack to dual RCA cable it will still send out the front and rear output as the previous Live cards. When used with the new digital DIN input on the DTT3500 system it will offer also support 5.1 for games. The output is above 0.5V standard but below 5.0V and will not work with the Digital Output Module. To offer more digital connectivity than what can fit on the base board all Live cards offers an expansion connection. It’s this expansion connection that the original Live used to connect to its Daughtercard and the Live!Platinum and Live!Platinum 5.1 uses to connect to the Live!Drive I/II and Live!Drive IR respectively. The expansion connection can also be used to connect to Creative’s Optical Digital i/o 2 daughtercard. All Live cards except for the original Live!Value (CT4670) released fall 98 will be able to connect to the LiveDrives and in case of Optical Digital i/o 2 daughtercard even the Live!Value (CT4670) will be able to connect but with reduced feature set. The daughtercard that shipped with the original Live can also be connected to all the Live cards except maybe the original Live!Value. I say maybe since I’ve never tried to connect it to the original Live!Value. Here’s a short summary of what digital features each of these Daughter cards and Live!Drives offers.
For more details about each of these you should check out the review of the specific card. It's also worth noting that Hoontech offer some boards that work with this expansion connection, for more details check out Hoontech’s website. Digital in/out functionality The Digital out that's fixed at 48 kHz can be used for stereo, 2-speaker 3D sound, Live!Surround (like Dolby Prologic but for all games using 3D sound) and AC-3 pass-thru. Creative's official answer is it cannot be used for DTS pass-thru with current drivers but it works just fine which makes sense since its just passing a digital stream. We think its simply a matter that until something has been testing and tested by Creative, "not supported" is a way of avoiding having to answer questions on this feature. One other thing that’s worth noting about the digital out is all cards supporting the AC-97 specification (which includes all Live cards) have the internal sample rate fixed a 48kHz as noted above. This cannot be changed as a change would mean that the card would not be compatible with Microsoft's driver interface for it or with the PC98 / PC99 specifications. For a card with digital input (such as the CD-Digital in), this means that all incoming signals are transferred to 48kHz. Even if you feed the SPDIF input with a 48 kHz signal, it still wouldn't be synchronized with the SB Live's internal 48 kHz, so it has to be re-sampled. For this reason when using a digital I/O of AC-97 certified cards the signal cannot be bit-identical (since it is resampled to 48kHz) but the result is typically more than enough for any home and even for semi-professional users. When it comes to 4-speaker 3D sound the digital output on all Live cards except the new Live 5.1 cards digital output jack of mini-jack type can be used to send the front channel for 3D sound and then use the analog for just the rear channels. The reason this will not work with the new Live 5.1 cards is that it mutes both the front and rear output when you select Digital output only, which is required for the digital output jack to work as Digital output rather than as an analog subwoofer/center output. If you have a Live 5.1 card with a Live!Drive you can still use the Live!Drives Digital output without enabling "Digital output only". The only way to get 4-speaker sound with just the digital connection are if you have a speaker system with a separate SPDIF input for the front and rear speakers. or when using the digital out-jack with the DIN connection of the FPS2000, DTT25000, DTT3500 or Logitech Xtrusio DSR-100 systems. We will talk more about Live!Surround and AC-3 pass-thru later in the review. It's worth noting that in the default mode, the Digital out will only send out the digital sound like DirectSound, wave files (e.g. MP3) and not analog CD-audio (again, in the case of the Live 5.1 the mini-jack “digital” out does not function at all as a digital output unless the “digital output only” mode is selected). To be able to play the analog audio you need to choose Digital out only by clicking the little red cross above the master volume control in the mixer. The front channels will then be silent but with all cards upto, but not including, the new Live 5.1 cards the rear out jack will still send out sound as usual. Choosing Digital out only is also the only way you can record multiple analog sources. It will also allow you to apply effects for several analog sources (all those that you choose to record) when in 2-speaker or headphone mode and with the new Live 5.1 cards it will also work when in 4 and 5.1-speaker mode. The reason applying effects to several analog sources works even when in 4 and 5.1 output mode with the new Live cards is most likely because they also mute the rear analog output. We are not sure if this change is just a driver change or hardware one. |
Sound Card Reviews Hurricane Extreme Initial Review SoundBlaster Live! reference review SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1 European Edition SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1 America's Edition Sound Blaster Live! Player 5.1 Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 Hoontech SoundTrack Digital-XG Boostaroo Headphone Amplifier / Splitter Sound Blaster Live!Drive I and II Sound Blaster Creative Digital I/O 2 |
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