SB LIVE! Questions

[acobra]

Ok, well after 356 uninstalls and re-installs I finally got my system working fine with Liveware 3.0 and Lava, etc.

I have 3 questions though...

1. Lava works fine with the Microphone and Wave files, but if I try to play CD-Audio, the CD is all choppy and it skips a lot. Any ideas why that would be? (it didn't work with 5.15 drivers at all, I had to install 5.25 drivers)

2. The speakers I have now are the old ASC500's which were out for just a few months (maybe a year) before they disappeared from existance. If you aren't familiar with them, the 2 main speakers are towers that are taller than my 19" monitor, with 5 speakers in each tower. There is also a nice big subwoofer. My question is: what speakers could/should I use for rear speakers without having to replace the whole setup? (I paid almost $250 for the ones I have now.) Do they have to be amplified (I think they have to but I'm not 100% sure)?

3. In regards to the amplification question, if the SB Live! has no amplification on board, how can non amplified Headphones (which are most headphones) work? I would like to buy some decent headphones but I can't see how they can possibly work??

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Current Specs:
Epox MVP3G2
K6-2 450 @ 450 (4.5x100)
128MB PC100
Marvel G200 (5.25 Drivers, 2.6 Bios, 1.51 Vid Tools)
SB Live! Value (Liveware 3.0)
18GB IBM ATA/66 HDD
Compaq DVD-Rom drive
Some Cheap 40x EIDE CD-Rom

[acobra]

C'mon, someone must have some ideas??

[SteveC]

Hi,

The Lava! uses OpenGL, but if it works with wavs and the microphone... I have no idea. Sorry!

there's no amplifier on the SB Live! at all. Therefore, yes you have to amplify any speakers.

Headphones don't need amplification because their speakers require so little power to make sound. Although I haven't tried this, so can someone check this before relying on what I say.



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Cheers,
Steve

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million-to-one", he said.

[Echo|Fox]

www.klipsch.com
Klipsch ProMedia v2-400... 400w RMS of pure speaker power made by a great name. A positive steal at $249 US, right from their online store. They even have links to reviews. Nothing can compare to these speakers.
As to headphones with an SB Live, i use el cheapo unpowered headphones from my discman _all_ the time and there is no problem. In fact, its great. The stupid preamp in my old SB16 made it _way_ too loud and even the lowest volume settings were often too high. With this, its just about perfect.

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P3-450@558mhz@2.1v, ABit BE6, 128megs 7.3125ns PC133 SDRAM, SB Live! Value, G400 32meg Dualhead (@120%), Acer ALN-201 PCI 10bT NIC, 6.5gig Seagate Medalist Pro 7200rpm, 13gig Quantum Fireball CR, Yamaha 4416e Burner, Pioneer 10x DVD-ROM, Panasonic e70 17" Monitor

[acobra]

Thanks for the responses. But i'm really looking for good, cheap speakers for the rear. I'm not gonna spend another $250 for the rear speakers...

Doubt it is worth it, especially for me... (my ears aren't all that sensitive)

[Frank]

Acobra, just send me $10 and i'll post you my el-cheapo $10 amplified speakers! I used all four of them now I only use two. Got the Microsoft System 80 digital setup for my main front speakers and definitely dont need a high quality expensive setup for the rear.
You will find these cheap speakers in many stores for $5-$10. They seem to be quite popular.
Not sure what quality you expect for a rear setup but IMHO, these little cheapies rock for the price and make a perfect addition to an already existing quality front setup.

[Petter]

Hello!
There is one thing thats is very important in this issue whith a 4-speaker setup.
It´s that the front and rearspeakers sounds fairly simular. Many people think that it´s only real musicians that care about that but that just not true. If you have a pair of expensive speakers in the front and a cheap pair in the rear, you will feel like the sound "jumps" if you for example overtake another car in TOCA 2.
For best performance you buy a 4-point set of speakers. I recommend the FPS 1000 from Creative. This set is optimized for the SB-liveseries and rather cheap to. When I heard it I thought that it sounded much more than they looked like. Dont be fooled by the size...

///Petter

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PII 350
64 SDRAM PC100
G400 32 DH MAX
SB LIVE PLAYER 1024
TAXAN 17"
GRAVIS Xterminator (buy it, the best gamepad in the world)

[acobra]

Oh, yeah... I ended up buying a set of Altec Lansing 2-speaker setups, so I have the same brand all around at least. They were like $30. Not that bad.

I really think it sounds great, except 2 issues: it's a pain to adjust both front and rear volumes to try to get a good balance. And, the way my desk is set up I can't get a speaker behind me to the right... (the computer is in the desk corner, so behind me to the right would be in mid-air) so when something is supposed to be approching from the right, it sounds like it's directly behind me... Oh, well!! maybe I'll have to rearrange my whole set up!!

[Borg]

Hi !

So...when playing CD-music...feels some kind chopy..right ?..you should enable SYNC DATA TRANSFER in Control Panel/SYSTEM/DEVICE MANANGER/CDROM /SETTINGS also be sure to enable DMA if available

for LAVA ! when starting go to SETTINGS (litle red button near START buton..right side)..then ADVANCED /PUSH COMPEXITY & FRAMERATE to maximum ,RESPONSE at your wish

you can always reduce COMPLEXITY if feeling chopy but FRAMERATE should always be @ max

Be aware there is a strange problem with PD.5.30 & OGLICD (hanging,sampling,freezing sys.)if you gonna use LAVA! you should replace your current ICD with MATROX beta ICD or ICD from 5.25 or 5.13 & then you will have no problems...I hope


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PIII450@465,P2b,128mb,Matrox Mill-G400 32SH,SB.Live !(value)...