So it took me a while to find the source because you could not pinpoint from where the sub made it's awesome noise. As you maybe already know, low frequencies like the ones the subwoofer makes are expanding in all directions unlike high frequencies which are narrowly sent, try turning your satellites away from you, you can barely hear them, put your sub anywhere in the room, it sounds almost the same. No stage anywhere, just a heap of stands. So I started looking around for the stage. It was not loud, you couldn't hear anything but you could feel it. I thought to myself "wow, must be a really awesome stage somewhere around here". Once upon a time, I guess about more than 5 years ago I went to a computer fair in my city, walked into one of the (enormous) pavillions and immediately felt that specific deep bass in your gut. This is a long story, but hey, the Z5500 is worth it Let me tell you a story of how I found out about the Z5500 and why I fell in love in them and DON'T WANT ANYTHING ELSE. Well, then you think everyone should be like you and have the same expectations from a sound system. I think the myths are ready for retirement as well as the Soundblaster Live 5.1 itself. Anyway, I don't like it, and will be pulling it out in the morning and go back to onboard. And I've also read about issues with resampling output to 48kHz.
I feel the thing is that the Live! series were originally not meant to be 5.1, rather just a 4 channel sound card. terribly lacks subwoofer control, hard to set up, sounds are too obtrusive, too distinct and make your head hurt. + ok in playing HD movies, I guess it gives a bit more fps in games, but with todays processors I hardly see any real advantage with that a lot of background noise when speakers turned up, sound in general feels a bit flat (I had nVidia's SoundStorm before, now that was a killer ass onboard soundcard)
+ great hassle free stereo upmix to 5.1, excellent feel of where the sounds comes from in games (both this onboard and the Live! feature EAX 2.0), HD movie playback is a breeze, generally nice and warm sound, pleasant to the ears, non-intrusive (I'm not saying it's excellent quality tho, but sounds ok) It did take some time to set up Realtek's onboard soundcard (someone screwed up the colors of the inputs on my mobo, same thing happened with Abit's NF7S featuring the SoundStorm) but once set up it beats the living sh?t out of these old myths "go for any external rather than onboard". I've also tried a few games (GTA IV and Test Drive Unlimited), again, onboard is miles away. I've also tried with kX unofficial drivers, it only made matters worse, the subwoofer sound was almost gone, and the rear speakers were just too obtrusive no matter how you set them up. Somehow the bass is dull, and other frequencies sound like playing on cheapo 5.1 system for $30. it's just obtrusive and makes your ears hurt. How to explain something that is felt subjectively.
It's true that the Live! is in it's 11th year since it was made, but there are so much reviews around saying "go with the Live instead onboard", I say DON'T!įor example, Realtek onboard upmixes stereo content to 5.1 with such ease and such excellence I almost cannot believe it! Right now I'm still on Live! with Creative's most recent drivers and sound is played through front and rear, but not center. The only thing better on it than onboard sound is that there is no background noise, other than that, nothing else. To be honest, Soundblaster Live! 5.1 is pure rubbish! My sound system is a 5.1 Logitech Z5500 over analog connections. Just to see if I'm missing out on something by using onboard sound from Realtek ALC888 (Gigabyte M57-SLI nForce 570). So I've tried out the Live! 5.1 (SB0100) that's been collecting dust for about 5-6-7 years now.