Rutabago - the issue you describe should not be the case. It could be that you are using too high of a quality of a cable. Yes, I did type that.

What I mean is that one of the distinguishing features of higher end cables is that they put more meat on the 'grab' surfaces of the plug. These can interfere with each other if the hole spacing is tight. I have some Monster brand headphone extension cables that I inherited that have a grab handle diameter of 14 mm! (I just measured them with some calipers) These would be unusable in the SB Live card holes.

What you need is a cable where they've skimped on this thickness. Cheaper is better for this in most cases.

-Scott