[Baines93]

Hi Guys!

I just fitted my on-loan-from-my-dad Creative Sound Blaster Live! I havnt tried earphones yet, but teh only thing i notice with speakers, is that volume is noticabley lower than i normally have it, but it is just as loud, if not louder

I have my speakers plugged in, and could plug my earphones in on the back too, but my pc has 2 3.5mm jacks on the front which i would like to use for earphones.

On the front (opposite to the backplate) there are tons of pins and the cables coming from the 2x 3.55mm jacks are one-pin connectors:
mic power,
mic in,
Left RET,
Right RET,
Right out,
Left out,
Ground x2.

I know i dont connect them onto the side, where the DVD drive and the rest can plug in, but possibly some of the AUDIO_EXT pins are used at the back of the card? I cant find anything in the PDF manual, or on the internet, if anyone can help i would appreciate it!!

Its a few years old, and just on, loan to try, but i imagine i will buy a £25ish Creative soundcard for myself. And if i learn how to wire these jacks up, i wont have a problem next time!

So far i dont have to have the volume set as high, but it sounds just as loud as it did previous to the soundcard, so thats a plus!

I will try it with earphones when i have connected the two front jacks, and hope there is no crackle and hiss, like there was with AC'97 (ASUS) on-board sound!

Savoring the temporary upgrade! Although i doubt there will be much difference between my Zen Vision M and the Soundblaster?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Baines93]

Whoops. Forget to press enter on new thread page...

Anyway, i read this isnt possible about an hour ago!

But hey its only on loan from my dad, so i think will buy an Audidgy 2 as i have read it supports a few analouge outputs on the card.

Actually i may still get a gaming card, as i have read the music cards are not very good for gaming, and the gaming card should be reasonably good for music anyway, and thats un-Dac'd!

but then again i use the C-media chipset in a headset for gaming, which is USB, so maybe i will get the Music card?!

Descisions descisions!!

Thanks Anyway!

-= Matt =-

 

[arterius2]

dont worry about those pins, they dont serve anything important. i imagine the pins for front panel connector should be labed something like FP or something, and they should be color coded blue with 2 rows of pins, and the cable to connect to the pins should be attached to the case itself(not the motherboard). other than that, other pins are pretty useless.

 

[Baines93]

OK, I thought that in the end. I have the cable, but i dont think my MB supported them, otherwise they would have been hooked up in the build.

Also my PC crashed when i forgot to disable onboard sound whilst using the SBL!

I wont worry about them!

Thnks Alot.

-= Matt =-

 

[Logistics]

If you're running XP, time to jump on the ASIO wagon. Get rid of the Creative drivers and download the kX Project drivers. Then use the software to swap the FRONT and REAR output jacks so you can use the superior Phillips IC on the REAR output. Then get an ASIO plugin for Winamp or Foobar, whatever you use and set it to 48kHz and GO GO GO!

 

[Baines93]

Ok.....Could you explain that a bit more, in more depth please!

This is on loan, but i should be able to pick on up on eBay for a fiver. And i like its clarity with my ER6i's. I wonder what it will be like with my Livewires when i finally get impressions done!

Thanks in advance

-= Matt =-

 

[arterius2]

SB live isnt really worth anything thesedays, for just a bit more you could get urself an audigy 2. and I wouldnt mind selling u my audigy 2 for 10 pounds. i just took it out of my rig since i switched to digital out->external DAC+amp. i guess what logistics is trying to say is(btw i dont use ASIO right now), ASIO-a technology developed by Creative Labs provide bit-perfect output. and you can enable ASIO on creative cards by using the KX project drivers. and then use foobar2000 to play ur music with the ASIO plugin. sample to 48khz, should improve your sound quality.

 

[Logistics]

If you're using XP, go here: http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/down.php?language=en

Follow the install guide!

Make sure you uninstall any of creatives software before doing all this. After it's all installed, you can bring up the kX Software, which will be sitting in the tray and swap the FRONT and REAR output jacks on the card using software so that it outputs the FRONT channel on the REAR jack, which uses a better chip than the front, which is what you want. Then get the ASIO plugin for Winamp or Foobar, whichever you use. It will have to be set to 48kHz in whichever program you use because the SbLive! upsamples everything to 48kHz automatically.

 

[Baines93]

Does the A2 support analouge off the card without this software?

If so, i really want this function, i like everything to be perfect, ans its an update to what i have on loan, and its cheap, Im in!

 

[Baines93]

oh is that £10 shipped to the uk?

 

[Logistics]

You'll have to ask someone else about using an Audigy2. The point of using the kX software is mostly to get ASIO from the SbLive! and to use it's rear channel. I don't know if Creative made ASIO easily accessible on the A2, but defenitely get an ASIO or Kernel Streaming plugin for Winamp or Foobar, with either card, if you're using XP.

Yes, of course it has Analog output.

 

[Jo6Pak]

Visit the Creative Forums. They have pros and cons, from actual users of most of their products, some people are happy, some aren't. Perhaps some useful, unbiased (and entertaining) info there...