API Support :DirectSound, DS3D, EAX
1.0, EAX 2.0 and A3D 1.0 (by translating to DS3D calls, works with most but not all
titles)
Minimum System Requirements:
Genuine Intel® Pentium® class 166MHz or faster processor
Intel or 100% compatible motherboard chipset
32MB system RAM (64MB recommended)
Windows® 95, Windows® 98, Windows® NT 4.0, Windows® 2000
or Windows® Millennium Edition
Open half-length PCI 2.1 compliant slot
Headphones or amplified speakers (available separately)
CD-ROM drive required for software installation
Additional System Requirements for Game Titles:
Pentium 200MHz
64MB RAM
3D accelerator with a least 4MB of texture RAM
4X CD-ROM drive
DirectX 6 or later
60-300MB HD space
Reviewers PC:
Mark - Win98
- Celeron
333a o/c 416
-
128MB PC100 ram
- Creative TNT
- Creative Voodoo Blaster 12 M
- 6.1 and 13 GIG EIDE HD
- For four speaker testing purpose I hooked the card up to Videologic's
Sirocco Crossfire speaker system using the analog inputs as well as MidiLand S4-7100.
For 6-speaker testing I used the MidiLand S4-7100, the Abit SP-50 and the Creative
DTT3500. For two speaker testing purposes I used the same speaker systems but only
connecting to the front channels as well as the Diamond Audio Technology HPM-4100 and for
headphones testing I used a set of Sennheiser HD525s. Digital output was tested with
the MidiLand
ADS-2000 as well as the Cambridge
SoundWorks DTT2500 and Creative
DTT3500.
Specifications
Playback and
Recording Sources
Sound Blaster 16 Emulation in DOS box and real mode DOS.
Playback of 64 audio channels each at an arbitrary sample
rate. Each audio channel can function as a WaveTable Synthesizer voice.
Each audio channel can playback either 8 bit or 16 bit data
from host memory.
Pairs of audio channel can be programmed to play 8 or 16 bit
interleaved data from host memory.
48kHz recording from AC97 sample rate converted to 8 common
rates to host memory.
Playback Recording Sources: CD_IN, AUX_IN, LINE_IN, MIC_IN,
TAD, MIDI and Wave, CD-SPDIF IN.
Full duplex recording and playback.
Wave Table Synthesis
E-mu Systems EMU10K1 music synthesis engine.
64-voice hardware polyphony with E-mu’s patented
8-point interpolation algorithm for excellent fidelity
Uses SoundFont technology for user-definable wave-table
sample sets; includes 2MB, 4MB and 8MB sets.
Up to 32MB of samples into host memory for professional
music reproduction.
Effects Engine
E-mu Systems EMU10K1 patented effects processor.
Supports real-time digital effects like reverb, chorus,
echo, flanger, pitch shifting, vocal morpher, ring modulator, auto-wah or distortion
across any audio source.
Capable of processing, mixing and positioning audio streams
using up to 131 available hardware channels.
Customizable effects architecture allows audio effects and
channel control.
Full digital mixer maintains all sound mixing in the digital
domain, eliminating noise from the signal.
Full bass, treble, and effects controls available for all
audio.
Bass management functionality for centre & subwoofer
channels in 5.1 mode.
Only Bass Management Configuration 0 with Bass (LFE)
redirection implemented.
Environmental Audio and 3D Audio Technology
User-selectable settings are optimized for headphones and
two or four speakers.,5.1 speakers.
Accelerates Microsoft® DirectSound® and DirectSound3D,
EAX.
Creative Multi-Speaker Surround™ (CMSS™)
technology allows real time panning and mixing of multiple sound sources using two or more
speakers
Creative Environments – user-selectable DSP modes that
simulate acoustic environments like concert hall, cave, underwater, and many more
environments to any audio source.
Hollywood-Quality, 32 bit Digital Audio Engine
User-selectable bit rates from 8-bit to 16-bit.
User-selectable sample rates from 8kHz to 48kHz.
All sound sources are handled with 32-bit precision for
highest quality output.
Analog and Digital I/O modes supported.
Hardware full-duplex support enables simultaneous record and
playback at 8 standard sample rates.
Utilizes AC97 audio codec.
MIDI Interface and Joystick Port
Supports MPU-401 UART mode.
IBM® compatible 15-pin joystick port with analog support.
Support for digital and DirectInput™ game devices.
Microphone Full Scale Input 0.2 Vrms (without 20dB boost)
CD Audio Full Scale Input 2.0 Vrms
Microphone Input Impedance 5.0Kohms
Line In Impedance 10k ohms
CD Audio Input Impedance 10k ohms
LINE_IN / LINE_OUT @ 2Vrms, 1kHz (Measured with band limited
filter from 22Hz to 22kHz)
Signal To Noise Ratio (SNR) 94 dB. (A-Wtg)
Total Harmonic Distortion 0.006% +Noise (THD+N)
LINE_IN / LINE_OUT Record & Playback @2Vrms, 1kHz
(Measured with band limited filter from 22Hz to 22kHz)
Signal To Noise Ratio (SNR) 82 dB (A Wtg)
Total Harmonic Distortion 0.02 %+ Noise (THD+N)
Power Consumption
Vcc, nominal current 400 mA
+12V, nominal current 160 mA
-12V, nominal current 50 mA
Resolution
AC97 Codec 16 bits
Temperature Range
Operating 10 °C to 50 °C
Non-Operating -40 °C to 125 °C
Introduction:
For
the third year in a row Creative Labs has decided to release new soundcard based on the
emu10k1 chip, a chip that thanks to driver updates still manage to remain competitive
against more recent chips. Just like the fall of 1999 Creative Labs decided to not only
refresh the software bundle but also enhance the connectivity of the boards to be
competitive with the new slew of boards. In the Fall of 1999 Digital Output started to be
more common and Creative Labs addressed this by introducing a Digital output jack as
standard rather than exclusive for the top of the line Live board as the previous year.
During the last year we started to see more boards offering not only 4-speaker output but
also 5.1 analog outputs and this fall almost every new $50-100 soundcard offers that
functionality. To address the new competition Creative Labs refined the Digital Output
jack so it could do doubly duty as Digital Output and analog subwoofer/center channel. To
do one better than their competitors Creative Labs also included the ability to do Dolby
Digital Decoding as part of the Live 5.1’s drivers rather than to having to rely on
the Software DVD player.
To
reflect the change in connectivity the names for the retail cards changed to X-Gamer 5.1,
MP3+ and Platinum 5.1 in North America while Europe uses the Player 5.1 and Platinum 5.1
names. As the previous edition of the retail Live cards all the boards are identical with
the only hardware difference being that the Platinum cards include the Live!Drive IR.
Compared to last year’s Live!Drive II that was bundled with Europe edition of the
Platinum the only major change is the addition of an IR allowing simple navigation of
audio playback using the bundled wireless remote control. Compared to the LiveDrive I that
was bundled with the americas Platinum cards there is the addtion of the extra line input
and the optical I/O capability.
In
this review we will offer an overview of how the Live!X-Gamer 5.1 and Live!MP3+ 5.1
performs for playing music, games, DVD movies and only going into more detail where it
offers features not common for all other Live 5.1 boards, that is the different software
bundle. For a more detailed look at the Live we suggest you check out our Live reference review. If you Live outside
North America
we suggest you instead check out our Live!Player
5.1 review.
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