Rating: 
Summary: Driveacious
Review: As a sound card alone, the Live! is wonderful - a top-notch, full-duplex beast with lots of built-in effects and some flexible speaker / recording routing. It's the best balance between features and sound quality in a domestic sound card, and you have to pay a lot more for something better.As a bundle, the Platinum is good-ish. Essentially it's an original, vanilla Live! with a bundled Live! Drive. On the one hand, the 'Drive is a great thing to have - sitting in a free drive bay, it provides you with easy access to Midi and Digital IO, without having to reach down the back of your PC - but on the other hand, you are paying twice the price of 'X-gamer' for what boils down to extra convenience (oddly, the European version has the Live! Drive 2, which offers increased functionality).
Rating: 
Summary: there is no analog support through the live drive
Review: I have a Live! Value and a Live! Platinum (SBL!P) and I can confirm that the sound quality is the same between the two. The platinum may deliver just the right value for you if you like to tinker with music. (The serious electronic musicians I have talked to use more dedicaated cards and equipment, but the SBL!P seems like a pretty good hobbyist's toy.) Keep in mind that the controls in front are for =musical= instruments, not game controllers or the speakers themselves (which must be plugged into the back, as always). Also keep in mind that the Sound Blaster Live! isn't particularly good for DOS games. It can be far less clear how to adjust the sound settings with a Live! than it ever was in the old DOS days. (Some of the Diamond Monster sound cards, like the MX80, work specifically with old SB-type cards and allow you to use them for DOS games and use the newer card for newer games.) So, before you buy: decide how important musical instrument access is to you; decide how much time you want to spend mucking around with your old DOS games.
Rating:
Summary: Make an educated purchase.
Review: I have a Live! Value and a Live! Platinum (SBL!P) and I can confirm that the sound quality is the same between the two. The platinum may deliver just the right value for you if you like to tinker with music. (The serious electronic musicians I have talked to use more dedicaated cards and equipment, but the SBL!P seems like a pretty good hobbyist's toy.) Keep in mind that the controls in front are for =musical= instruments, not game controllers or the speakers themselves (which must be plugged into the back, as always). Also keep in mind that the Sound Blaster Live! isn't particularly good for DOS games. It can be far less clear how to adjust the sound settings with a Live! than it ever was in the old DOS days. (Some of the Diamond Monster sound cards, like the MX80, work specifically with old SB-type cards and allow you to use them for DOS games and use the newer card for newer games.) So, before you buy: decide how important musical instrument access is to you; decide how much time you want to spend mucking around with your old DOS games.
Rating: 
Summary: Great...
Review: I purchased the SB Live X-Gamer, and am now regretting it. Although its the same card the Platinum comes with the 'live drive' which has optical in/out and midi and all that good stuff. If you just want to play games and mp3s get gamer or the mp3+, but if you're serious and want the live drive also, get the platinum. =]
Rating:
Summary: Need I Say more?
Review: If you're looking for the best sound card around, this is the one. It's the best, of the best, of the best, sir! Enough said. The only improvement you could make is to get it with the LiveDrive II (Sold Seperately).
Rating:
Summary: If you want to save some money, Get Live! Value
Review: Not only the card gives you the best sound system you can get, I like the way how you can manage all the in and out from the front of the computer instead of the back. In case you want it cheaper, don't really need to manage from the front and don't need those software bundled, I would strongly recommend to get Live! Value edition as it's so much cheaper and has the same quality of sound.
Rating: 
Summary: Support issues with Creative Labs
Review: The ideas behind the card are wonderfull..if it works. If it does not work on the first try, don't count on having good documentation on either the website or in the manual. The Creative Labs website appears to be no more than an advertisement for more purchases of Creative Labs products. My install was done strictly by the manual, has no hardware conflicts, but hangs my machine (that exceeds the specifications) and does nothing but squeel or pop if I get any sound out of my speakers at all. Even as an experienced installer, in the future, I'd pay to have this particular card installed so that I didn't have to deal with Creative Labs pitiful lack of troubleshooting documentation.
Rating:
Summary: Some things to know... then buy this card
Review: The only drawbacks to this card are: 1. Windows 98 auto-detect did not seem to like the setup CD (but the drivers did load up later). 2. Some of the bundled software is kid's stuff (then again, some of it is extremely powerful!) 3. The headphone jack in the front is not amplified: it gets loud enough but not loud. 4. There were minor software issues concerning getting the microphone to work with my existing audio software. 5. The software loads with a +20db "mic boost" effect, which lead to distortion and feedback until I figured it out. Regardless, none of this outweighs the good things about this card and these issues were easy to overcome. The sound editing software is incredible. MIDI and SPDIF i/o ports make it a snap for cyber-musicians. The front jacks make everything easier - no more "reach-around" to plug in a headset combo. Plus, the front jacks are 1/4" stereo as opposed to the standard 1/8" jacks on most cards - and a stereo 1/4" to 1/8" converter is included. The card also supports 4-speaker surround sound with awesome positioning software, tons of needless effects and comes with a cheap PC microphone. Comes with 3 full version games, SoundForge XP 4.5, a synthesizer emulator, Cakewalk Express, MusicMatch Jukebox, etc. The software alone validates the price, plus try to find a decent MIDI interface for a PC for under $100. I don't think there's any way to be disappointed by this card.
Rating:
Summary: there is no analog support through the live drive
Review: The thing works well EXCEPT the reason i bought it was that it has analog support through the live drive. It says that there is, but there isn't. I want to be able to use full duplex mode and record while playing back at the same time. However this doesn't fully work with multitrack recording programs. In both Cakewalk and Cubasis, when recording a second audio track, the first audio track is mixed in with the second, which analog wouldn't do. I called up creative labs and they told me that this product doesn't have analog through the live drive like how it advertises. If you want to do multitrack recording, don't expect to use the live drive.
Rating: 
Summary: Alright Card
Review: This bundle is essentially a Sound Blaster Live! card, with the Live! drive and all the trimmings. It also includes an infrared remote control. If you add surround sound speakers, playing games can be enthralling. Imagine playing a game and actually hearing someone walking behind you (or shooting). The bundled software ranges from cool to useless. The games are nice, but I find the Keytar application particularly worthless. It presents the image of guitar which you "play" by strumming (moving the mouse). If you want the convenience of plugging in cables without reaching around to the back of the PC (like for headphones) or MIDI, then this bundle is for you. If not, then I would recommend the MP3 or X-gamer versions which are both cheaper. Also, please note that the installation CD will install a spy-ware application, which will sometimes "phone home." It can be removed by editing the registry without any ill effect. For privacy invasion, I have to deduct at least one star.
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