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features Sound Blaster Live! Platinum Written by Clarence Song Installation Installing sound cards in the old days used to be very difficult. Users had to check the DMAs, IRQs and the addresses used by the card and set them such that they do not conflict with other peripherals in the PC. All this has been simplified with Plug and Play. Sound Blaster Live! Card The Sound Blaster Live! card is PCI 2.1 compliant and fits into a standard PCI slot. Once installed, Windows should be able to detect it and install the necessary drivers from the installation CD. Live!Drive A free 5.25" drive bay is needed for the Live!Drive. All you need to do is to free up a drive bay, slot the Live!Drive in, use the provided screws to secure it, and hook it up to the SBLive! card using a ribbon cable. This ribbon cable looks similar to an IDE cable. Creative was very generous with the length of the cable. Power users with full tower casings should have no problems. Another long ribbon cable is provided for users who have a digital I/O card. Previous owners would want to connect these I/O cards to the Live!Drive for additional digital outputs and MIDI connections. Especially since the Live!Drive is missing optical inputs and outputs (except for the European version that includes the Live!Drive II which comes with optical inputs and outputs). The Live!Drive uses the small half-size power connectors, similar to those used by 3.5" floppy drives. A power splitter cable is included, since many PC casings have only one of these smaller power connectors for a floppy drive. However, similar to many other products in the market, I found the power connector on the Live!Drive a little too flimsy. It seemed like it could break off if I was heavy-handed. Remember when installing the Live!Drive, put it below any other drive that has to "come out". Most common would be CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and removable hard drives. You wouldn't want the cables dangling from the Live!Drive to block them. Connecting Speakers Most users would definitely want to exploit the SBLive!'s capability by connecting two pairs of stereo (2-channel) speaker systems, or a 4-channel speaker system to the card for surround sound and 3D positioning. Unless the room layout prohibits the placement of rear speakers. Alternatively, the Sound Blaster Live! can also emulate sound coming from behind with 2 speakers, although I must say this isn't anywhere near the realism provided by real rear speakers.   The Mini-DIN Bracket For the lucky people who own Cambridge SoundWorks speakers, like the FPS2000 and the DTT2500, that support the proprietary Mini-DIN connection, you can further reduce the potential of hiss and distortion by using this digital connection to connect the sound card to the speakers. [Read Our FPS2000 Review] Newer shipments of the FPS2000 and DTT2500 speakers include a cable to connect the speakers to the yellow digital minijack socket at the back of the SBLive! card. Compatibility with older shipments are also maintained with a Mini-DIN bracket that connects to the Live!Drive. The bracket takes up a slot behind the PC. Dolby Digital and Dolby Surround ProLogic home theater systems also allow the SBLive! to produce surround output from the card, though in amplifiers which don't accept discrete 5.1 (6 channel inputs) the Live!Surround option will encode the rear channels into a mono surround channel that is compatible with Dolby ProLogic. Installing the Software The good thing is that Creative has stuffed the Platinum full of software, which makes it a really good deal. But the bad part comes when we have to sit through installation after installation. Don't we all hate that? <g> The bundled software can easily hit 500MB if you choose to install everything, including the games. Fortunately custom installation is available, so that you can choose to install only the software that you need. The software installation was improved, compared to the first SBLive! product that I tested. The installation provided more options, and did not continuously load installation programs one after another without bothering to ask if I actually wanted to install that particular software. Overall, the installating was smooth, and everything worked without a hitch once I rebooted my system. Creative provided all the necessary stuff so that you won't need to run down to your local hardware store to get any screws or cables, unless you're telling me you lost the screwdriver!

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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