A thread was recently started on xlr8yourmac.com by CreativeOne, an employee of Creative Labs, the creators of the recently released Sound Blaster Live! card for the Mac. The thread was started for SB Live! Mac owners to give Creative Labs engineers direct feedback regarding their recent experiences with the card in order to facilitate the bug-fixing process, as well as alert card owners in general to potential problems.

Reports on the card have varied widely, but some common issues do seem to appear. Many users report hearing various static pops and clicks while scrolling through menus and performing other mundane tasks. Some users report various extension conflicts and system crashes. Plenty of people have complained about the installer for SB Live's system extensions, which is apparently inelegant and multi-faceted. Many problems can supposedly be solved by simply turning OFF "sound sets" in the Mac OS 9 Appearance control panel.

Life is not all bad for new SB owners. The users also report that the card puts out some great sound for their system, with the included copy of Deus Ex - EAX version producing incredible effects that actually improve gameplay. For audiophiles, the S/PDIF issue is being discussed in detail, with initial reports for 4.1 output being extremely positive.

For the rest of the thread, be sure to check out xlr8's forums. Feel free to also follow up in IMG's own hardware forum, where discussions on the SB Live! are also in full force.

xlr8yourmac - SB Live! Forum Thread

IMG Hardware Forum - SB Live! Thread

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