Anyone Know of Audio Interface like Audigy?

[chrislong]

Hi all
Does anyone out there know of an audio interface that would fit the front bay of my computer, so that I could have the Line Out and Mic jacks, headphones, etc right there in front of me? I know that the Audigy comes with one--but I'm wondering if there is a product that would fit what I already have--my Live! Value card. I suppose I could build one myself, but I'd rather not...

Thanks in advance!
Chris

 

[chizow]

Live! had a Live! drive that was essentially the same thing that came with the Live! Platinum. I'm sure the connection types have changed quite a bit as technology has advanced since then. If you have one of the really old Live! values, you might not even have 5.1 support. You can try Ebay, running a google search and hoping some random OEM reseller carries them, or even try Creative's website.

Chiz

 

[Sinek]

i think the live! value doesn't have the connector to hook up a live drive to, its been a while since i used a live card but i remeber looking into buying a live drive a few years ago and my card did not have the required connector (i'm not exactly sure which card it was, creative had a few different models of those cards , oem , value, gamer , platinium and a few more - i had either a OEM version or a Value one)

just something to double check before spending cash on a live drive , they where quite expensive to buy from creative, you might be able to find a used one somewhere if your card does have the connector.

 

[Egrimm]

Yeah, at least the first generation of Live! Value didn't have connectors for the Live! drive. Some manufacturers make such bays for their mobos, but then it's obviously limited to the soundcard on the mobo. The easiest but also most costly way would be to buy a new card that comes with such a bay, the Audigy2 Platinum would be a good coice (if you want to stay with Creative) as it sounds much better than any previous Creative card (sorry, just got the card and couldn't help recommending it)

 

[chrislong]

Thanks, people. I appreciate the answers--I think you're all right, though--I doubt that my card has a dedicated connector for the Live!Drive. I had forgotten about that thing--I remember looking into it myself a few years ago, and it WAS too expensive.

I may just make a breakout box with the jacks I want in it--cheap way to go. I can just run cables from the out on the back of the card to the box, then hook up through it. The reason I ask is that I use my computer to record some music demos and little projects (using Cakewalk's Sonar), and the connectors would be a LOT more handy to have right in front of me.

Egrimm: Is the quality of the Audigy really THAT much better, especially for pure musical applications? I am fairly happy with this card for now--you know how you can get used to things--but it might be the next step up for me, short of going to an "audiophile" type card, which might not be the best thing for my gaming. Looking for the best of all worlds, as always!!

Thanks m8s

 

[Davegod]

i've seen a place here in uk sell the audigy drive bay seperately, for like £45 though :s and i gather it connects onto audigy pins so probs wouldnt work with a live?

there are a couple of others though, but mostly consist of just a couple of the audio ports and 2 usb, one firewire.... never volume control etc. Perhaps worse, they usually connect to simple leads that you have to run out the back of your comp and plug into the back of the pci cards etc.

here is an example of a drive for ABIT MAX series of motherboards;
here is a Lian Li port replicator (any mobo/soundcard)

seen some reviews of more on techsites, somewhere... often though theyre like the one in the ad i see at the bottom of this page (which i cant link to 'cos its flash and i dont know how 😱 ) and more just for temp monitoring plus usb/firewire connectors.

 

[kgraeme]

There are lots of front panel drive bay products. They just run cables from the ports in the front, through the computer, out an empty slot in the back, and plug into the corresponding ports in the back. So you lose the back ports to gain the front ports.

Many cases these days are coming with front usb/audio ports. In fact, Intel's motherboard specs for onboard audio include requirements for front panel audio.

My TB Santa Cruz in my Dell has a cable running from it to the front audio jack on the case, but I can't find anywhere to tell me how to do the same with my retail Santa Cruz in my own case. TB doesn't seem to support it.

 

[Egrimm]

Originally posted by: Davegod
i've seen a place here in uk sell the audigy drive bay seperately, for like £45 though :s and i gather it connects onto audigy pins so probs wouldnt work with a live?

That's correct, the Live! series use different connectors than the Audigy, but all Live's can use the same Live-drive (provided they have the pins which the Value didn't).
Not sure that the Audigy and Audigy2 use the same drive either actually

Originally posted by: chrislong
Egrimm: Is the quality of the Audigy really THAT much better, especially for pure musical applications? I am fairly happy with this card for now--you know how you can get used to things--but it might be the next step up for me, short of going to an "audiophile" type card, which might not be the best thing for my gaming. Looking for the best of all worlds, as always!!

The difference is clearly noticable, yes. The Live isn't that distinct in the high tones and has a muddier bass, the orignal Audigy was better as it had a bit clearer high tones but the Audigy2 is an even larger improvement. I can hear high tones I didn't notice before (on either card) and the bass is more clear (and the seperation seems better too).
And this isn't even on some hifi-speakers but a MegaWorks 510D set (I know it's Cambridge soundworks but before someone flames it based on tat they've heard the Inspire series please don't forget that Cambridge also make hifi-speakers and the MegaWorks series is an adaptation of them) so I can imagine the improvement would be even more noticeable on a hif setup.

A cheaper way to get better sound is to get better cables than those which came with your speakers (if you haven't already done so. I exchanged the ones that came with my MegaWorks set with some bought from a hifi-store and the sound got clearer, nearly as large an improvement as the jump from Live to Audigy.

 

[Sinek]

Originally posted by: Egrimm

Originally posted by: Davegod
i've seen a place here in uk sell the audigy drive bay seperately, for like £45 though :s and i gather it connects onto audigy pins so probs wouldnt work with a live?

That's correct, the Live! series use different connectors than the Audigy, but all Live's can use the same Live-drive (provided they have the pins which the Value didn't).
Not sure that the Audigy and Audigy2 use the same drive either actually

everything i read says that physicaly both the audigy and audigy2 drives are identical except for the pinout of that large ide like cable and they are not compatible possibly frying the card and/or drive , prety lousy way of trying to make a quick buck imo

i would like to see nvidia jump into the soundcard buisness , the one they made intergrated on their nforce2 chipsets are supposed to be prety good, creative's driver track record is pathetic, not to mention that the audigy cards wont output optical/spdif when playing from a digital source, prety useless if you want to hook up your computer to a home theater system.