This card is really a very good performer. I bought his card primarily for the purpose of watching Hi-Def movies and this card proved to be one of the best cards that i ever had.
Frequency distribution was very good for the surround speakers. Every back-ground music was evenly divided among the two surround ( rear ) speakers. For instance when a pin drops to the floor the "tick" sound was heard from each rear speaker alternatively while the front speakers produced none ( Actually front speakers should only produce speech ).
When watching movies the dialog was very clear from the front two speakers while the BGM was heard "Crystal Clear" from the rear speakers and the "BANG AND BOOM" sounds from the rear speakers was very well accompanied by the Sub-Woofer. Woofer performace was very very good when using this card.
The points that i mentioned above favours this card only and not my home theatre.
Also CD-IN, AUX-IN ports are present on the board.
My home theatre performed poor with the audio card that i previously had. The audio channels would mix up often and all the front speakers wont work and the front channels would mix up with the Woofer. This was the case with the previous sound card that i had.
Also "Mic" performance is very good. Microphone input is accompanied with hardware noice cancellation unit so as one speaks in mic, external noise is mostly supressed and clarity of the recorded audio is noticably improved.
Also SPDIF output is provided not as a spearate socket but along with the sub-woofer jack. Digital Audio thru. SPDIF is also very good.
This card performs very well with games enabled with EAX. In-Game sounds are reproduced excellently and when playing CRYSIS, the bullet firing and water splashing sounds are very superbly reproduced. This card is a killer when playing games
So to conclude with, this card is essentially The Best card that one can buy to completely experience an overall Home Theatre effect. This card is a Must Buy for Hardcore Gamers and Music Lovers and even for conventional users who have a 5.1 Home Theatre.
Movie lovers will have a great time watching their movies with Hi-Definition Audio too. :-)
Hence this card is a Must Buy everyone because its performance excellent for its price. This card's performance makes it comparable with Hi-End Cards like XONAR..
P.S = This review is truly from my own experience with the product and is not taken from any site. Please rate this review if you find it useful. Love to have your comments too.
Regards
Nishanth Lakshminarayanan
Pictures of Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Untouched box pack
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Excellent value for money, easy to install, great sound quality, excellent Creative software set Disadvantages: No extra software, but you wouldn't expect that from a value card
very helpful by (100%):
