Hello. First time poster here.

I use Winamp with kernel streaming to play back my audio. My soundcard is a Soundblaster Live 24-bit (this version lacks the Emu chip but is capable of 24bit/96kHz output which IMO is useless anyways ololz). I use the analog output instead of the digital one, since my speakers (Terratec Arena 2.1) don't have digital input.

Now to my question. With kernel streaming, the "Wave" slider is dead, as expected, so kernel streaming seems to work. However, the "Playback" slider (the one that controls the overall output volume) still functions. But I ain't got a clue about the volume level that should be used for "line out" level. People claim that this slider never increases output, it only limits it, so keeping at 100% ensures "line out" level. Problem, at 100% the volume is *really really* loud. Even if I have my speakers at about 2/5th max, the volume is enough to wake up the dead. However, I can't hear any clipping or distortion. The sound is clear. It's just... extremely loud.

When going the Windows XP control panel's sound settings, there's a button to reset the volume to "default". Clicking it adjust the volume slider to exactly 50%. So my question is, at what volume level do I have "line out" with this soundcard, without any aplification nor reduction.

When you decrease the level digitally, you reduce the resolution. Since little music uses the full dynamic range potential of CD, this frequently isn't a great problem. However 50% is quite a bit. For 16 bits that corresponds to 8 bits. For 24 bit it is 12 bits less resolution.

If the soundcard hardware is really 24 bit (Creative has frequently lied about their soundcards), the input to the soundcard may be loaded into the upper 16 bits, giving you 8 bits of adjustment before you actually effect the data (nothing but zero in the bottom 8 bits). Some software will display the actual playback bit depth, which could be a big clue about the soundcard capabilities.

My soundcard has 36 bit output DSP hardware. However, I never adjust the level in the digital domain, for me it is much more convenient to use the analogue volume control knob near my left hand. If there was a reason to adjust it digitally, I would not worry about it.

I'm a bit confused. What does 50% stand for? Is there any sort of standardized percentage scale which relates to audio dB?
50% of the signal level would correspond to -6dB, but apparently that's not the case.

If the control isn't calibrated, there is no telling unless you do you own measurements. On my soundcard's control panel, -6dB is with the slider about 1/10 of the way down. I guess I made some assumptions that may be totally off as far as any particular numbers go, but the principle is valid.

Thanks for the reply.

Honestly, I don't know if Creative is lying about the specs of this card

In any event, these are the specs:


(I stripped out the "EAX advanced HD" and stuff as it's irrelevant and only used in video games, I think.)

Also, I don't know if the card resamples to 48kHz/96kHz internally. I suspect it does, because the drivers install a new entry in the Windows control panel where you can switch between 16/24 bit and 48/96 kHz, but when you do switch to both 24bit and 96kHz, the CPU utilization rises significantly, so I guess the drivers are converting everything to 24/96 before sending the samples to the card.

Anyway, the point of my question was if it's possible that this card (or any card) can actually amplify the output. I had two cards in the past that actually did this, but they were ISA cards (a Terratec Maestro 32/96 and a Soundblaster AWE32). But those cards achieved this by using built-in analog aplifiers (they also had two output jacks; one marked "line out" and one marked "passive speakers / headphones out").

I highly doubt that this card has an analog amplifier. But the fact that it simply sounds too loud at 100% makes me wonder. I would test with a regular device (like a CD player) that has "line out" to see if it sounds just as loud with my speakers, but the problem is I don't have such a device (at least something with pure line-out).

Trying to listen for "abnormalities" in the sound won't help. I guess if there are any, my cheap $100 Terratec speakers aren't "hi-fi" anough to let me hear them

Don't know if it's of any relevance, but another thing about this card is that it still outputs sound from other applications even though music is playing back in Winamp with kernel streaming. When I fire up Media Player, VLC and MPC instances and have all of them playing back sound at the same time that Winamp is doing kernel streaming, they don't have problems playing the sound. I thought kernel streaming takes exclusive control over the card. Or is it only taking control over the channels it uses? (Two channels in this case, since it's stereo).