Sound Blaster Live! Platinum $136.67

[GReddyLude]

Link to page with price and specs and purchase page. Calculate shipping charges here.

Shipping charges weren't that bad (around $7.50), but California residents need to pay taxes. Bah.

Due to popular demand, I've taken the *HOT*ness away. But I was just going by pricewatch.com prices, which say that the lowest price they have is around $155+.

 

[HawkeyeNJ]

Hmmmm c u change it already from WARM 2 HOT. It's NOT " 5.1 " and NOT a "1024" . It was the model mfg. between them. So not a bad price 4 those who do not need 5.1 and the remote (which the 5.1 does). But do want the Live drive etc. that is missing in the 1024 also earlier Sound Blaster Live ! models. good post get a bump from me
heck I could be wrong but the last time I checked on the Live Drive it was 124.00 on SB's site. Cheaper to buy this and sell your old Live only card or upgrade from value card.

 

[SirDante]

whew. that was a false alarm. oh well

 

[Siamskunk]

Good find...I didn't read the title so well and expected this was a 5.1

good price thou, thanks

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Not a hot deal.
Just normal price for 4.0 Platinum.

5.1 Platinum is $170 at buycom.

 

[HawkeyeNJ]

Yep shame Buy & Amazon don't have the 99.00 for the 5.1 deal anymore

Glad I got 3 extras though .......muhhhhhhh haaa haaa

 

[urameatball]

wanna share the wealth hawkeye?

 

[Tung]

maybe you should edit the title to cold..

because this isn't even warm.

 

[Stifko]

which if any sb live! has an optical out?

or where can I find an add-on board w/an opticl out for my sb live! VALUE?

thanks

 

[Packy]

The SB Live! w/ the livedrive II has optical in/out. <drool>

Wish I had it, I got a Live! Platinum + original livedrive. Still a damn good setup.

 

[Packy]

Stifko, you can always purchase a livedrive separate, without the SBLive! itself.

live! stuff

Looks like if you'd rather take up a PCI slot, you can opt to have optical in/out in the back rather than in the front. That or the livedrive IR, which looks friggin' insane.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

You can buy much cheaper 3rd party daughter card with both coaxial and optical spdif for your live value - hoontech makes such thing.

 

[mikeford]

Was excited, not anymore. NONE of the current batch of cards will encode game sounds to DTS, they just pass it through from preencoded sources like DVD. The signal on the DTS varies from brand to brand, but typically its a stereo signal with 4 channel matrix encoded prologic style 3.1 sound. If you want 5.1 sound you have to use the analog outputs (except for one creative speaker system which uses some weird setup of 3 stereo digital signals for 5.1 that I doubt is compatible with anything else). No way am I paying $100+ for a soundcard thats generations behind a receiver. Live is dead, too old, too expensive. Maybe Nvidia will have a decent offering.

 

[Deathgame]

It was a while ago when buy.com had it's SB Live! Platinum 5.1 sold at $140 w/shipping.

 

[Stifko]

I want to get a hoontech card, but who sells them ?

 

[Odeen]

You _can't_ encode to DTS, at least in real time on consumer equipment. The closest to it is the Acoustic Edge card which provides facilities for Q-sounding the output up to Dolby Digital, methinks.

Anyways, the non 5.1 Platinums could be had for $80-$100 in CompUSA, so I don't think it's terribly hot.. the 5.1 would be hot.

 

[Platinum321]

Was excited, not anymore. NONE of the current batch of cards will encode game sounds to DTS, they just pass it through from preencoded sources like DVD - some dude above

What's the point of doing something like that? Ever heard of garbage in, garbage out? If the sounds weren't meant to be for DTS encoding, you will not get anything special by ENCODING into DTS. Anything you encode can only be as good as the original source. So there is NO POINT (at least quality-wise) in doing so. On the other hand, DVDs are encoded with DTS playback in _MIND_ so there is a purpose to DVDs having it. Anyways, just pointing something out just in case others might be confused by what you're saying.

 

[dowxp]

Got to have 5.1.

 

[RiceDiGiZ]

eh..

 

[mikeford]

The point of having game sounds encoded to DTS is that most receivers have between 3 and 5 DTS inputs, but none I have seen have more than ONE set of 5.1 analog inputs. I don't want to run 18 feet of 6 analog cables from my PC to my AV system, I want a nice simple DTS cable and a video cable.

Fairly certainly the next generation of sound cards will support full game etc. sound output digitally, hopefully over DTS and firewire both, but almost certainly DTS.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

Stifko, http://www.hoontech.com/

 

[Stifko]

thanks Kingofcomputer, but who sells them retail in the states?

 

[Kingofcomputer]

it seems that nobody sells them in retail channel.
just order it directly from Hoontech.