SB Live USB performance

Back in the day, a Sound Blaster Live card meant you could expect stuttering and distortion on almost every sound in SL. Has this changed since beta? More importantly, if I should purchase a Sound Blaster Live 24-bit External, am I going to hear the same sorts of problems with SL today? Does anyone use SL with this card? Any major headaches to report?

I have an SB live (internal though). I've had it since 2001, and SL has never had any problem with it.

Hey Cat Pardon me, I want to gain a better understanding of your situation: is there any reason why you're going for the *external* model? Are the ports appealing to you or are you on a laptop? AFAIK, also, this is *not* the same Sound Blaster Live! that was out for a long time inside the shell because of different converters (24-bit as opposed to 16-bit). Likely newer drivers too, if that makes a difference.

A sidenote: I haven't tried this one out myself but I do know that I've never been happy on anything less than an Audigy 2 -- and even that has fudged specs (shame on you, Creative!) and subtle resampling aliasing probs.

I want an external model because of feedback and interference from the other hardware. I don't know about bandwidth though -- is USB 1.1 going to be sufficient for me?

AHHH yes, I know what you mean -- in this day and age, interference should be a small deal, at least with the Audigy models and up. I would think things have considerably improved in terms of crosstalk and such tho.

Funny thing is, Creative's soundcards are so widely used but when I really look into the nitty-gritty of them, I see *so* many design flaws and cut corners to this day. Especially when stacked up against "professional" cards (that actually don't cost a lot more but are specialized for audio engineering) from M-Audio and the like.

I was going to mention the thing of USB bandwidth too. I do hope if you decide to get this, that you acquire it from somewhere with a good return policy and a good price. I'm ambivalent and I wish I could offer you more hands-on experience. I just tried to dig up some dirt on this card but doesn't seem to be many reviews to be found, period. :|