[Kryogen]

I've got a SB Live! and I just go a good pair of grado headphones, so I plugged em in...

HORRIBLE rattle... Okay... I plugged my SB Live! to an amp, and I plugged my phones in the amp. Better, but still, the sound rattles a bit, I mean, something is wrong...

What's wrong? Why does my sb live sound like **** on good phones ?

Any suggestions? Any soundcards that have really good sound quality and that can drive good headphones ? (and that don't cost 200$...)

 

[Kryogen]

.....

 

[radrd]

Do your headphones sound good with a different source? If they don't rattle with other sources, then it is in fact your sound card, and this is not surprising because Creative's sound cards leave a lot to be desired in the sound quality department.

On the consumer level, the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz is the best card for headphone usage and sound quality in general. I really like mine. It has a versajack that you can plug your headphones into without having to unplug your speakers (unless you have 5.1 speakers like I do).

If you want to do better than the TBSC, you will sacrifice performance in gaming, and you will have to spend a lot more on a pro-level sound card.

 

[sTaTIx]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kryogen I've got a SB Live! and I just go a good pair of grado headphones, so I plugged em in... HORRIBLE rattle... Okay... I plugged my SB Live! to an amp, and I plugged my phones in the amp. Better, but still, the sound rattles a bit, I mean, something is wrong... What's wrong? Why does my sb live sound like **** on good phones ? Any suggestions? Any soundcards that have really good sound quality and that can drive good headphones ? (and that don't cost 200$...)

What do you mean by rattle? Do you mean there's a lot of noise? I have an SB Live! card and I get pretty horrible noise from it when I plug in my headphones.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

You heard me right - the Sound Blaster Live! (and the Sound Blaster Audigy, as well) are infamous for their crappy output quality and their incompatibility with many popular PCs and Windows operating systems. I'm just glad I ditched my SB Live! for a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

The following is off-topic, but Windows 98 SE/TBSC users who had been pissed off at the still-buggy and no-longer-updated VxD drivers now have a beta WDM driver version available for download (version 4164). But be aware that this beta WDM driver is only for Windows 98 Second Edition, not for the first edition of Windows 98 or any version of Windows Me, 2000 or XP; Windows 98 non-SE users with the TBSC are stuck with the horrid VxD drivers, while Windows 2000, Me and XP users who use the TBSC already have the WHQL-certified WDM driver version 4161 available for download.

 

[Kryogen]

So I should have gotten a TBSC ?

Yeah, the sound with the Live! Is really infamous, I mean, when I plus my phones, no matter what, the sound sucks.....

I tried em on the 10000$ audiophile-level sound system of my dad, and GOD that'S the best thing I have ever heard.

Then plus in my comp, What is that crap! ;P

Yeah, I get rattles, buzzs, distant sound. WAYYYY better since I use an amp, but still.

Can you guys plug the grado's right into the TBSC with no problems ?

How good is the sound ?

How much compared to live! ?
Why the **** did no one tell me about that. I did research for my comp like a month before, to get every damn comp that I needed separately, for optimal performance. What'S the only part I didn'T care about ? Sound, of course.

....

 

[Kryogen]

I'll clarify.

When I plug my phones right into the card, the sound is HORRIBLE TO DIE.

When I use my 500$ amp, the sound is good, but not comparable to a real cd/amp combo..

 

[KentWang]

Damn. I have 2 Audigies. I wish I had heard of Head-Fi before I bought them. I can't identify any crappiness, but imagine it'd be like going from streetstyles to real phones. Well, maybe not that dramatic.

How much of an improvement would it be for my speakers (Logitech Z560)?

 

[Kryogen]

Yeah, how much of a difference is it to go from Live to TBSC ?????

 

[radrd]

Quote:

Yeah, how much of a difference is it to go from Live to TBSC ?????

Everything about the TBSC is better, especially the sound quality.

 

[Kryogen]

I read that the sound is more "pure", but they say that the sound is flat, un-alive, and metallic.

True?

 

[Hamsterball_Z]

Any chance your motherboard uses a VIA chipset? VIA chipsets have a known problem with Soundblasters.

(HBZ)

 

[radrd]

Quote:

I read that the sound is more "pure", but they say that the sound is flat, un-alive, and metallic.

It doesn't seem that way to me, but I'm not exactly sure how you make music "alive". I generally prefer a cold analytical presenatation to a warm one, so maybe I'm not the best judge of the sound for you.

 

[nerdynerdnerd]

hey there,

I'm also using SBLIVE and GRADOS SR80 for my PC,,,so far I dont encounter flaws like that on my system.

Perhaps if you can give me some specs of your PC (eg MOBO, RAM, HD, CPU, etc), I'll try to advice you on that.

Anyway, on the PC side you need to have the updated drivers for it. For me I always update my drivers on the FF.

-Directx
-NVIDIA Drivers (GFX card)
-Motherboard drivers
-Sound Card drivers

these four are the only drivers you need to maintain and upgrade for your PC.

you can try visiting the following sites for driver upgrades

www.warp2search.com
tweak3d.net

 

[Kryogen]

Huuhh, yeah that might be it, my board is an EpoX 8k7A that has... via drivers , yay! =)

[Edit] Huh wait I'm dump, it's got the amd 761 chipset, but anyways, I'll flash it all and see. That rattling is killing me.

I'll try flashing my bios. I didn't do it before cause my diskette reader wasn't working really good, but I'll give it a try, I guess.