well, i'll agree that the sb live isn't exactly the pinnacle of pc audio, it's not horrible. especially comparing it to the onboard chip i have. i can't remember what chip i have, and i'm too lazy to look.
i've tried to tweak it a little bit, but it's just plain nasty.
this board doesn't have optical out, it seems that became much more mainstream just _after_ the board came out. now i see it's on a lot of boards, and with that i'd assume is backed with a little nicer processor.
i would also agree that generally speaking, cd audio is better quality than mp3. however, i record most mp3's at higher bitrates than generally used, and the sound quality is acceptable (on a good recording, there's little difference on this setup than an audio cd). and, it's much easier and includes more variety just to load a large playlist and let it shuffle through the day (i don't have one of those fancy carosel cd changers).
also, some of the new formats coming out for digital audio are rather impressive, something to check out (the new format itunes uses, for example).
i'm sure there have been recent leaps and bounds in on-board audio, but everything i've used to date was mediocre at best.
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