USB digital speakers or SBLive???

I am having problems with my DSS80 speakers and my SBLive. Basically the DSS80s go into sleep mode a lot for no reason when I use it with my SBLive. I tried and tried and cannot fix it, so I just assume it's broken. However, if I use the USB digital output everything is fine.

Should I A) stick with the USB digital output or B) buy new speakers?

PS: I have a dual processor system. Do you think the other processor will suck up the extra load of playing USB digital sound when playing games and stuff?

 

[Quickfingerz]

I have DSS80's and I had to switch out of my sound card so I run USB as well. The USB portion barely eats up CPU cycles so you'll be fine. My main reason why I took out the SB Live was because of the win2k drivers. I kept getting a crackling sound that I couldn't get rid of.

Unless you plan on getting good 4.1's or 5.1's just keep the DSS80's. Then again, they sell really well on ebay so who knows.

 

I have problems with my SBLive under Win2k too. When I was playing Diablo2 I had a lot of sound problems. Liveware is really broken under dual processor systems.

 

[GoSharks]

hmmm... that is strange. i remember when my friend tried my dss80s with his mx400 back at a lan party that i had, and my dss80s would also go into sleep mode when attached to his comp. they work fine on mine though, with both digital and analog connections...

 

I think it's a common problem with the speakers. I had it working fine for about 2 years on my old system with a MX300 then one day it decided to go into sleep mode all the time.

 

[Benjoman]

I also have a dss80 working fine until recently. All I get is the amber light and it doesn't want to wake up. I have it set-up using the SBlive without using the USB. The only thing I remember doing before it went down is that I placed the power to the dss80 on a power strip. I may have powered on-off-on the switch too quickly. Do you think this may of caused the speakers to stay in the sleep mode? I'm not sure if there was a warning, not to power the speakers through a power strip. If this is the case, has anyone taken this speaker apart to try to fix it?? Thanks in advance.

Benjoman