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features Sound Blaster Live! Platinum Written by Clarence Song The CT4760 Card The Platinum comes with the CT4760 Sound Blaster Live! card. The 2nd generation Sound Blaster Live! products use the CT4760 card, including the X-Gamer, MP3+ and Player. It is great that Creative has decided to offer the same high quality SBLive! card in a higher-end product (Platinum), as well as the budget (X-Gamer, MP3+, Player) product line. The most outstanding addition to the card is a built-in minijack S/PDIF coaxial digital output. Users with the Cambridge SoundWorks FPS2000 (check out our review) or the DTT2500 5.1 speaker system can connect the SBLive! to these speakers digitally to lower the occurence of interference, compared to using analog cables. With a simple minijack-to-RCA cable that can be bought in most electronic stores, you can obtain digital output from the card and connect it to a Dolby Digital amplifier or digital speakers that have S/PDIF inputs. However, by adding the digital minijack output, the rest of the minijack sockets are squeezed closer together than the previous generation of SBLive! cards, which did not have the digital output. If you are using cables with very large plugs, it may be difficult to connect cables to the neighboring sockets. Differences from Earlier Cards Compared to the 1st generation cards (those without the yellow digital out socket), there is a rearrangement of the components on the circuit board. With an improved manufacturing process, it would also be cheaper to produce. Previously, the SBLive! Value and OEM cards had less internal audio connectors as compared full SBLive! package. Also gone are those colorful audio connectors. They are now replaced by gold plated connectors that were also used in the original full SBLive! product. The build quality of the card is excellent. The irritaiting hiss that has always plagued sound cards are barely audible here. It is much lower than previous Sound Blaster products, as well as other cheaply manufactured sound cards. S/N (signal-to-noise) ratio is also better with a good quality card. Sound Quality Creative has continued the tradition of excellent sound quality as seen in the 1st generation Sound Blaster Live! products. There is minimal hiss even from the analog outputs, and sound quality, especially when playing low sample rate wave audio, is improved with 8-point interpolation of the EMU10K1. In Q4 1998, Creative literally left other sound cards in the dust when they introduced the capability to add effects (ie. Environmental Audio) to any sound that comes out from the sound card. Previously, effects processors were only available in high-end equipment for musicians and sound engineers who could afford them. It was only recently in the later half of 1999 that other sound cards started to include this capability. We all love the Concert Hall effect, don't we! Internal Connectors TAD (telephone answering device) AUX_IN CD_IN (MPC-3 analog input from CD-ROM drive) CD_S/PDIF (digital input from CD-ROM drive) AUD_EXT Expansion Header (to Live!Drive or Digital I/O cards - similar to 1st generation SBLive! model with digital I/O card) External Connectors Yellow Minijack S/PDIF Digital Out Line Out 1 (Front L & R) Line Out 2 (Rear L & R) Mic In Line In IBM compatible 15-pin analog joystick port (supports DirectInput) Click to see an enlarged picture

contents Introduction The CT4760 Card Live!Drive Other Stuff Package contents, digital output options, digital CD audio connection, and other nice touches. Software Bundle Applications Games Creative Apps Installation Existing Owners What about those of us who already own a SBLive! product? Should you upgrade? Conclusion Review Links Find out what other reviewers think of the Platinum. Early Information recent stuff Audigy 2 Information on Creative's latest sound card! The Audigy Forum is open! Extigy Review Audigy Review Contribute information & news Talk in the ALive! Forum Our Sponsor:

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