🚀 go-pugleaf

[Note to Krooger : you can f-off in advance with your PCABX crap!]

Roj <rojramsey@hotmail.com> wrote:

>And above all, I'm still going to say that the sound of the **entire**
>CL line is decidedly substandard to that of the Turtle Beach and
>Hercules offerings (not hard - the Live! is essentially a technical
>piece of junk with the exception of the MIDI portion of it).

Piece of junk?  Roj.. this does not seem to equate to a balanced
opinion :-)

Here's something to consider, volume of complaints DO relate to volume
of sales.. and the Live is possibly the best selling soundcard of all
time.

>Pointe finale: if you value decent sound for anything outside of MIDI,
>be it analog or digital, DO NOT BUY A LIVE!

Not strictly bad advice, my conclusion pretty much concurs with yours.
The Live excels in one respect, it is an excellent value MIDI
interface/sampler (**also note : low latency ASIO/cubase compatible
card with APS drivers**).  In most other respects there are better
alternatives for slightly more outlay.

However, the Live is not as crippled as you make out.  Considering
it's low cost it has an extremely impressive spec on the outputs (at
least in the case of my sample), even beating the Santa Cruz in
several important areas (analog and digital - cf pcavtech data).

For example :

87dB signal to noise ratio, analog output @ 44Khz 
http://home.clara.net/media/sblive/1KHZ-DA.gif
97dB signal to noise ratio, digital output @ 48Khz
http://home.clara.net/media/sblive/1KHZ-DO.gif

Distortion and background noise are very low, and the dynamic range is
excellent see:

93dB dynamic range, analog output @ 44Khz
http://home.clara.net/media/sblive/DYN-DA.gif


There seems to me to be two real issues with the Live! audio output

1) The current driver employs an audible roll off (I've had response
from "Trevor" who gets a flat response.  Depends on driver revision?).
This is not unintentional.. it's very smooth and very deliberate.
Some people may have a preference for this response, and/or it may
suit certain monitoring equipment better.  It can also to a large
extent be corrected by using the freely available hacked APSLive
drivers.  Perhaps someday even Creative will see fit to making the
roll-off optional - petition anybody? :-)

2) Artifacts with signals >=18Khz.  This seems to be an unavoidable
codec issue as it occurs in all modes of output.  Let me show you what
I'm talking about, here's a digital sweep tone being transferred
(loopback) from the Echo Gina's SPDIF output to it's input.

http://home.clara.net/media/sblive/GINA-DD-SWEEP-SG.gif

Cool huh?  Should be.. it's bit perfect.  Now check the same signal
coming from the Live! SPDIF out to the Gina.

http://home.clara.net/media/sblive/SB-GINA-DD-SWEEP-SG.gif

Before you cream yourself Roj, notice the volume and frequency of
those artifacts.  Are they likely to be audible?  To a consumer using
PC speakers?  Also notice how clean the signal is below 18Khz?

>It doesn't and never will cut it.

The general consensus seems to be "must try harder" particularly with
respect to drivers and compatibility.  Yet for many people the card
will work to their benefit, without hitch, and provide many hours of
entertainment and pleasure with great sound and features at low cost.
End of the world stuff.. huh?


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