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SoundBlaster Live! for Mac announced

updated 07:45 am EST, Fri January 5, 2001


Creative Labs has officially announced SoundBlaster Live! for Mac, as reader Jon Schalliol noticed. The card will be demonstrated and begin shipping at Macworld Expo next week (booth #2339). Details on the card, as well as pricing information, are not yet available. At last year's Macworld San Francisco, the company promised Mac users that it would deliver the first sound card for Macs targeted at the masses.


by MacNN Staff

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Comments

  1. 0

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    If it's under $150...

    I'll buy it in a heart beat. If they price it at $200 or higher, it might be a hard sell. Either way, it's great that Macs will finally be able to "officially" support (and make proper use of) those high-end 5.1 speaker systems.

  1. 0

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    Can I borrow a PCI slot?

    I really cant see using one of my precious PCI slots for a card just so I can listen to 5.1 channels of sound. I spent $5k on a Sony receiver and Polk Audio speakers to listen to sound with. I dont know about the rest of you but I dont have enough slots. I have second monitor card,SCSI card and I will be getting the Final Cut Pro realtime card when it comes out. Ideally I would also like to get the Pro Tools entry level card the Digi 001 card. Last but not least I would love to have the Sonnet Tempo RAID card. $150 for a sound card? Not a chance!

  1. 0

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    It does so much more...

    ... than just 5.1 sound. It should also improve the performance of any application that uses audio (audio software, games, MP3 players) since it frees up the processor from having to process the audio. I heard games could see a boost as much as 25%. If you don't do anything with audio, then there's no reason to get it, obviously.

  1. 0

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    I'm buying it

    I have an SB Live! Drive for my PC and it's excellent. The Mac's audio output has always been lame so this is a welcome addition to my G4. We can FINALLY get 5.1 output!

  1. 0

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    Better wait...

    I hope that they do a better job with the software than they did with the WebCamGo+

    Doesn't look like the software will ever get out of beta. They originally advertised the camera as Mac compatible, but didn't have software available until months after it was released and many user had purchased units. The software still is only 50% functional in beta form. I guess Mac compatible to them meant it has a USB port...

  1. 0

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    Want to, but can't!

    I'd buy this card in a heartbeat.. but once again it shows that 3 slots just don't cut it. I'm full, so there's no SoundBlaster in my future (at least until my Mac wears completely out and I get get a nice 7 slot machine from Dell).

  1. 0

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    Depends...

    I'll wait and see how it's priced. The only way I'll spend more than $100 on the sound card would be if it had features like line-level inputs, a fairly high power output, etc. If it's just an add on to get more sound channels, I don't think it's worth the PCI slot. In all fairness, however, it is nice to see Soundblaster come out with Mac-oriented products.

  1. 0

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    I might buy it!!!

    Before buy it I will be waiting to see the benchmarks for this card. I want to know how much it adds to my FPS in quake and unreal.

  1. 0

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    wait and see

    lets wait and see just how bad the drivers are...
    There will obviously an extension and control panel that will require more ram and if not well written to conform with the non carbon OS' could be a huge issue. Creative is exactly known for their mac products.

  1. 0

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    Tech support?

    I have a Soundblaster Live Platinum 5.1 in my PC. It is an excellent product but, like most manufacturers, they try to direct you to their website for tech support which has mainly promotional material and the result is bad tech support by phone. It was difficult even finding their phone number.

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