[Duncan]

Hiya....

Whilst you guys are going on about how great RME cards are, or even the plucky little Chaintech (I won't tell you the kind of facial expression I was given when I asked a salesman in London if he sold that brand

), I'm still here with the Audigy 2...

Anyway. Yesterday I was kindly given a Live! platinum, with the live drive IR... now what I want overall from my system is the live drive for digital input / output - also also because it has a (seperate) headphone output at the front of the PC, rather than at the back, I could arguably attach the drive onto the Audigy2 but there was some talk about the pin connections not being the same, so you lose your digital input/output on the old style live... that isn't good for me.

So, the question is... the Au2 is currently on IRQ channel 16, so I don't think that this will interfere with the older card (which so far as I understand it will default to #5) - but, how easy will it be to run two cards from the same manufacturer on the same machine?

If its going to be more hassle than its worth (if for no other reason, than most of the files being dumped into the system32 folder will probably be the same name for both, yet incompatible with each other) then I probably won't bother, and pass on the Live/Drive to someone more needy, but - if you guys think it'll work... then, please - let me know

Thanks

 

[Edwood]

How about putting a female RCA jack on a blank 5.25" bay faceplate, and then route the 1/8" SPDIF back into the case via a blank card slot in the back and then to the female RCA jack on the blank 5.25" bay faceplate. This way you can use standard RCA based digital cables from the front. You could also put the RCA jack anywhere you want.

This is very much like how some USB, Firewire, and LCD's are put in the front of the case, but re-routing the rear connectors to them without resoldering the rear connectors.

-Ed

 

[Duncan]

Hi Edwood.

Basically, what I want is all the functions of the live drive (IR, optical in / out, headphone output yada yada) but with the improved sound quality (hehe) of the Au2... I guess if thats not possible then I will just have to buy the livedrive 2 (or whatever it is called for the Au2) and do it the 'proper' way.

Thanks

 

[Mr.Radar]

Creative cards are still bad for digital output because they resample everything (even the digital outs). If you can find any Via Envy HT-S based card (it doesn't need to be the Chaintech) you can flash it into an Audiotrack Prodigy and get bit perfect digital output from any Windows application.

 

[Damage]

While it is technicially possible (I've had Audigy and Live in my PC at one point, and used both Audigy and SoundStorm simultaneously), the LiveWare/Audigy drivers will go ape, complain a whole bunch, throw some cryptic warnings and what not, and will not generally cooperate with you on the matter. I'm uncertain if the third party drivers (Kz or something along the line) for Audigy will allow your Live and Audigy to coexist, but it's definately worth a shot.

Hardware wise, however, there is nothing to stop you from plugging in both the Live and Audigy. However, the addition of LiveDrive is rather questionable. Perhaps using the Creative Driver for the Live and the third party Audigy drivers for Audigy could allow you to solve your problem?

Finally, the LiveDrive does not work with Audigy, the pin headers are definately incompatible, IIRC. The Audigy Drive has more pins in its headers than LiveDrive does.

That's all that I can think of at the moment. Again, I'm very unsure whether or not the drivers are willing to cooperate. Windows won't complain, Creative's software will though.

 

[kalzone]

I can definately say that the live drive DOES work with the first audigy (i had this setup for a while), but i don't know if it work with the audigy 2. like damage said, there might not be an equal number of pins to allow connectivity.

as for the livedrive's headphone jack, i wouldn't depend on it. it has weak amplification and won't drive more stubborn headphones such as HD580 which have an impendance of 300 or more.

 

[Duncan]

Okie doke.

Thanks all

 

[Damage]

Any luck in getting your setup to work? I'm curious as to how it turned out.