Do I have a Live! Value or Live! standard sound card?

[MGMorden]

I was just curious. I ordered a Sound Blaster Live! Value (oem) card recently but when I got it in today it looks like it's a Live! standard card w/out the SPDIF board. On the PCB is just says Sound Blaster Live! with no mention of value (and I thought I saw Value on a picture earlier). Also, the speaker connectors are gold whereas I heard the Value had colored plastic connectors. The drivers also reported the card as a Sound Blaster Live! even though a specific Live! Value driver was present as well. Finally, the card has a digital output jack. Don't know if this came on the value, but I'm listing it anyways. Just thought I'd ask you guys whether or not the card is a value or the standard. Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Vinny N]

I think it's the standard.

1. I've never seen any Live! Values come with gold connectors.
2. The drivers are family drivers whether it's off of a CD or the Creative Labs web pages, there's no such thing as a specific Live Value driver AFAIK, the driver identifies what the card is. If it's reported as a standard Live! it probably is one.

Some places are known to sell OEM Live! Values that are really standard Live!'s without the I/O board.

The revision 2 of the Live! Value has digital out, but if yours is gold, your card is the standard edition.

 

[gcliv]

A live! card is a live! card. Theres no different versins. The only diff is the stuff it comes with. Software and crap like that. But the card itself, connectors and all is exactly the same no matter which model it is.

 

[Vinny N]

gcliv:

Apparently you haven't looked at them, the gold connectors issue may be kind of moot, but some of them are physically different in the connectors they provide internally (ex: i/o, cd spdif) or externally (digital out).

EX: SB Live Value! revision 1, doesn't have an external digital out. SB Live Value! revision 2, has an external digital out. I know the rev 1 has cd spdif digital in, and I'm sure rev 2 doesn't have it (I'd look to doublecheck but I'm not going to open up a computer in another room at 3am.)

It's not just software.

Heck, if anything, the software is all the same except for the SB Live! 5.1 series!

Both revisions of the SB Live Value that I have, have "cd digital" as one of the volume control bars even though one of them doesn't even have a connector physically for it!

 

[MGMorden]

Thanks Vinny. I think it is a standard as well. What I meant by it having a specific value driver was that inside the family drivers there is a specific listing for the value, and one that just says live!, and the auto-detect picked up this card as the latter.

Of course having the standard over the value isn't anything if you don't have the SPDIF board, but still, kinda makes me feel like a got a little more than I payed for.

 

[Vinny N]

<< What I meant by it having a specific value driver was that inside the family drivers there is a specific listing for the value, and one that just says live!, and the auto-detect picked up this card as the latter. >>



Exactly, all the more logical to conclude that it's a Live! standard.

 

[AMB]

I am sure that all Lives come with gold connectors, apart from OEMs sold to people like Dell or Gateway.

My Platinum has gold connectors, but I think it is the same for the Value.

Or is it the 2nd version of the value???

 

[Oyeve]

My sblive value rev 1 has no colored plastic NOR gold connectors. Its just black.

 

[Quickfingerz]

My connectors are gold as well. I actually hate this card. I liked my Vortex2 card better. argh! if only aureal didn't depart us.

Oh yeah, upon looking again I just found out that I have a digital out. What can I use the Digital out for?

 

[MGMorden]

I went to a review site last night and see that the Live! Value they reviewed did have colored plastic connectors. I'll link the review if I can find it again.

Quickfingerz: I just replaced my Voretx2 (MX300) with this as well. Can't say that I don't like the card, but I also wouldn't say this is any better than the Vortex2, but it definately does have better driver support. (support in alternative OS's seems to be second only to the Ensoniq 137x-based cards).

 

[Maverick]

I can't wait for my Acoustic Edge to get here tomorrow

 

I have a Sb Live Value rev 2 i guess.
Look at the PCB, in the upper right corner it will have a CT-XXXX number.
That Identifies the card.
And there are differences, Live value does not support Live drive or Live drive 2 fully.
I bought a Live drive 2 with out knowing its not supported with the Live value.
But the optical seems to be working fine.

 

[Pakman]

Am I the only one here that hates the new SB Live value revision? I have the older version and the newer version. My older SBLive value was retail without the digital out, and the one I have now in my new rig is the OEM version. It appears when they added that extra digital output, they had to put the connectors closer together. Now my microphone jack won't fit cause the connector is too thick to plug in next to the speaker jacks. Arrrrggg!!! Now i have to goto radioshack and find a slimmer connector... My 2 pennies.

 

[Impact55]

Mine has digital out and gold connectors...

 

[gcliv]

Hmmm....well I didnt know about different revisions. Do the different models have different revisions or did all models start selling revision 2 when it came out?? I'm also curious about the digital output....do digital speakers have higher quality??

 

[Kingofcomputer]

1st gen: Live with spdif in/out back panel
Live value with fewer pins extension header
2nd gen: X-gamer/MP3+/Platinum add yellow spdif jack, Platinum with LiveDrive
3rd gen: 5.1 add 5.1 analog output jack, Platinum with new LiveDrive

oem (bare card) could be any of them, some without digital cd-in.

 

[Fardringle]

Just to add my $.02 to this, my Live! Value (rev. 2) has the colored plastic connectors on the back, and has digital inputs on the card, and even has an internal connector for digital out (probably for connecting to the digital I/O card that comes with the full Live! version...