pctechguide.com

  • Home
  • Guides
  • Tutorials
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • Glossary
  • Contact

Sound Card Connectivity

Since 1998, when the fashion was established by Creative Technology’s highly successful SoundBlaster Live! card, many soundcards have enhanced connectivity via use an additional I/O card, which fills a 5.25in drive blanking plate and is connected to the main card using a short ribbon cable. In its original incarnation the card used a daughter card in addition to the breakout I/O card. In subsequent versions of the daughter card disappeared and the breakout card became a fully-fledged 5.25in drive bay device, which Creative referred to as the Live!Drive.

Connectivity

The Platinum 5.1 version of Creative’s card – which first appeared towards the end of 2000 – sported the following jacks and connectors:

  • Analogue/Digital Out jack: 6-channel or compressed Dolby AC-3 SPDIF output for connection to external digital devices or digital speaker systems; also supports centre and subwoofer analogue channels for connection to 5.1 analogue speaker systems
  • Line In jack: Connects to an external device such as cassette, DAT or MiniDisc player
  • Microphone In jack: Connects to an external microphone for voice input
  • Line Out jack: Connects to powered speakers or an external amplifier for audio output; also supports headphones
  • Rear Out jack: Connects to powered speakers or an external amplifier for audio output
  • Joystick/MIDI connector: Connects to a joystick or a MIDI device; can be adapted to connect to both simultaneously
  • CD/SPDIF connector: Connects to the SPDIF (digital audio) output, where available, on a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
  • AUX connector: Connects to internal audio sources such as TV tuner, MPEG or other similar cards
  • CD Audio connector: Connects to the analogue audio output on a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM using a CD audio cable
  • Telephone Answering Device connector: Provide a mono connection from a standard voice modem and transmits microphone signals to the modem
  • Audio Extension (Digital I/O) connector: Connects to the Digital I/O card or Live! Drive

and the front panel of the Live!Drive IR device provided the following connectivity:

  • RCA SPDIF In/Out jacks: Connects to digital audio devices such as DAT and MiniDisc recorders
  • 1/4 Headphones jack: Connects to a pair of high-quality headphones; speaker output is muted
  • Headphone volume: Controls the headphones output volume
  • 1/4 Line In 2/Mic In 2 jack: Connects to a high-quality dynamic microphone, studio mics or audio device such as an electric guitar, DAT or MiniDisc player
  • Line In 2/Mic In 2 selector: Control the selection of either Line In2 or Mic In 2 and the microphone gain
  • MIDI In/Out connectors: Connects to MIDI devices via a Mini DIN-to-Standard DIN cable
  • Infrared Receiver: Allows control of the PC via a remote control
  • RCA Auxiliary In jacks: Connects to consumer electronics equipment such as VCR, TV and CD player
  • Optical SPDIF In/Out connectors: Connects to digital audio devices such as DAT and MiniDisc recorders.

Other sound card manufacturers were quick to adopt the idea of a separate I/O connector module. There were a number of variations on the theme. Some were housed in an internal drive bay like the Live!Drive, others were external units, some of which were designed to act as USB hubs.

  • How Do Computers Make Pictures?
  • Graphic Card Resolution
  • Graphic Card Colour Depth
  • Graphic Card Components
  • Graphic Card Memory
  • Graphic Card Driver Software
  • 3d Accelerated Graphic Cards
  • Graphic Card Geometry
  • 3D Rendering
  • FSAA Graphic Card Technology
  • Digital Graphic Cards
  • DVI Graphic Cards
  • HDCP Technology
  • Graphic Card HDMI Ports
  • Graphic Card Display Port
  • Unified Display Special Interest Group
  • DirectX
  • OpenGL technology
  • Direct3D
  • Talisman
  • Fahrenheit Graphic Cards
  • SLI Technology
  • CrossFire Graphic Cards

Filed Under: Sound Cards

Latest Articles

Virtual Memory

Video Covering Virtual Memory - Part of our Fix Slow Computer tutorial found onĀ  https://www.pctechguide.com/how-to-fix-your-slow-computer Transcription From Video Hi, this is Jacob with pctechguide.com. In this video series, we're covering how to speed up your slow computer and this is … [Read More...]

Shared Hosting Issues – Shared Bandwidth and Server Resources

Most websites are hosted in a shared hosting environment, which means that there may be dozens, even hundreds of sites running on the same CPU, RAM, and hard drive configuration. This might seem odd, but in fact if the sites don't have too much traffic and are relatively undemanding of the server … [Read More...]

GDI Laser Technology

The alternative to laser printers which use languages such as PostScript and PCL are Windows GDI (Graphical Device Interface) bitmap printers. These use the PC to render pages before sending them as a bitmap for direct … [Read More...]

20 Cool Creative Commons Photographs About the Future of AI

AI technology is starting to have a huge impact on our lives. The market value for AI is estimated to have been worth $279.22 billion in 2024 and it … [Read More...]

13 Impressive Stats on the Future of AI

AI technology is starting to become much more important in our everyday lives. Many businesses are using it as well. While he has created a lot of … [Read More...]

Graphic Designers on Reddit Share their Views of AI

There are clearly a lot of positive things about AI. However, it is not a good thing for everyone. One of the things that many people are worried … [Read More...]

Redditors Talk About the Impact of AI on Freelance Writers

AI technology has had a huge impact on our lives. A 2023 survey by Pew Research found that 56% of people use AI at least once a day or once a week. … [Read More...]

11 Most Popular Books on Perl Programming

Perl is not the most popular programming language. It has only one million users, compared to 12 million that use Python. However, it has a lot of … [Read More...]

10 Exceptional Books on ChatGPT that Will Blow Your Mind

ChatGPT is a powerful new AI tool that is taking the world by storm. You are going to find a lot of amazing books that will teach you how to make the … [Read More...]

Guides

  • Computer Communications
  • Mobile Computing
  • PC Components
  • PC Data Storage
  • PC Input-Output
  • PC Multimedia
  • Processors (CPUs)

Recent Posts

Driver Reviver Review

Driver Reviver is a very easy to use Drivers update program. It is capable of updating outdated drivers on your computer as well as missing … [Read More...]

Environmental Issues

Unfortunately, the technology used in laser printers makes ozone an inherent by-product of the printing process. The … [Read More...]

How AI Detectors Are Shaping the Future of Technology and Innovation?

Image Credit kiquebg by Pixabay Anybody that hasn't been living under a rock for the last couple of years is aware of the massive changes brought … [Read More...]

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2025 About | Privacy | Contact Information | Wrtie For Us | Disclaimer | Copyright License | Authors