MX300	32* (Currently 16 Hardware, 16 Software. Diamond has publicly stated that an upgrade to 76 hardware supported 3D streams will occur sometime in January)
SBLive! Value	32* (Creative has stated that they're working on adding 64 more 3D hardware streams for the SBLive! for a total of 96 sometime in Q1/99.)

Considering that the first 3D audio card on the market (the Diamond Monster Sound 3D) supported a maximum of eight 3D streams in hardware with an additional 14 in software, the firepower of both the MX300 and the SBLive! is impressive. The general rule here is the more streams the better, but in questioning various game developers about how many streams they feel are necessary for a fulfilling gaming experience, the most popular answer was 32.

Again though, as per our favorite Karen Carpenter joke punchline, "You can never be too thin, or have too many simultaneous 3D positional audio streams…"

MX300	320 Voices* (64 hardware, 256 software)
SBLive! Value	512 voices

Wave table has gone the way of the Dodo bird in games lately (meaning that it's all but extinct) but the SBLive! holds a clear statistical advantage over the MX300 in this department for those interested.

In our objective testing however, we felt that the MX300's wave table sound quality was superior to the SBLive!'s in most categories, including the all important horns and strings sections of the pieces we listened to. Both cards have ample amounts of high impact drums and other percussion instruments, and the wind sections of each were both very clear and full of depth.