TB Santa Cruz vs. Creative? Which one?

[SpriTz]

Ok, ive always been with creative, but i havent been impressed with the audigy i had, my father in laws aud plat, and then he just got a defect aud 2 plat ;/. Although his extigy worked killer.. Soo, how is the santa cruz? Is it an improvement over aud 1? Over sblive 5.1? My 5.1 was slightly worse sound wise than my aud, but aud had so many more problems than 5.1. Kinda sick of creatives **** :(

[TheNamelessOne]

I don't know if this will help you or not but I asked similar questions and I was sold on the Santa Cruz. Going to but it for $62 free shipping off newegg as soon as they get it, (1/14/03) keeping my fingers crossed.

Edit: Oops that's today! Order filled, too bad it was 6:30 now I gotta wait for tomorrow for them to ship it.

[ToledoSteel]

If you haven't already bought a sound card, I would definetly recommend the TB Santa Cruz. It plays games and music great, and for the $$$ you can't beat it.

[Zim2411]

I saw on The Screen Savers that Patrick said that the SBLive was slowing down games and that the Santa Cruz was better. I went out and bought it and put it in. Installed it and started winamp3.
Compared to my SBLive 5.1 Xgamer (Which i had at the time) the Santa Cruz was terrible. The audio was horrible. I can't even describe. Currently i have a Audigy 2, and i'm happy with it. It sounds great and the ability to hook up to 6.1 speakers is cool. :)

[madcow235]

I love my santa cruz and even though i have cheap speakers (z640s) i can here a noticable difference in sound quality over my audigy. I love it and i still think it was one of my best investments in this computer.

[Johnny Knoxville]

Originally posted by Zim2411

Compared to my SBLive 5.1 Xgamer (Which i had at the time) the Santa Cruz was terrible. The audio was horrible. I can't even describe. Currently i have a Audigy 2, and i'm happy with it. It sounds great and the ability to hook up to 6.1 speakers is cool. :)

i don't know what you did there, but the santa cruz has better sound quality than the audigy 1 let alone the Live

[orion25]

Santa Cruz without a doubt!! I have one and it is great. Plays MP3's and Games through my 2 speaker + sub Altec speakers admirably!

[Scant7]

Santa Cruz all the way

[Morbid]

I've had both a Santa Cruz and a SB Live 5.1

I would MUCH rather have a Santa Cruz than a SB Live 5.1, anyday. No hissing/crackling from the Santa Cruz as found in the SB Live 5.1's.

As for the Audigy/Audigy2 ... I don't know, yet. My Audigy2 should arrive today.

[Avatar28]

When I build an HTPC, I'm either going to go with a TBSC or the Phillips Acoustic Edge (since I hear those are some of the best sounding cards around).

For my main right, though, I'm probably going to go with an Audigy 2, mainly for the live drive.

[Jon]

TBSC and a NewQ console for me. I won't be buying Creative again, that's for sure.

Philips does make a pretty good gaming card too.

[Morbid]

Got my Audigy2 in, hooked it up with my new set of z560's since my amp fried on my other set from kicking the wires (chances of that happening now are slim). I must say.. Creative did very good with this sound card, a HUGE improvement over the SBLive 5.1's. I can't believe how clear and crackle free it is. Very loud too, I like it alot more than my TBSC.

It was only ~$112 at Newegg for the retail box, plus it comes with Soldier of Fortune II : Double Helix and Hitman 2. Haven't played either yet, but I have played the demo of SoF2 and it is teh ownij :)

[Johnny Knoxville]

with the audigy 2 having DRM copyright protection and the normal problems of creative cards like IRQ conflicts and crap drivers go for the TBSC

[mattspalace]

Santa Cruz all the way. Best sound card I've ever owned.

Check this deal I got.

During early summer CompUSA offered the Santa Cruz card AND Logitech Z-540 speakers for 79.99 out the door. No rebates or anything. I just happened to be building my puter then, so this was nothing short of perfect timing.

The Santa Cruz also comes with a nice assortment of apps too.

[Maxvla]

if you are still looking for a card... it appears the best card on the market for sound quality is the M-Audio Revolution ($99).

i've seen threads on another forum saying how it blew away the SC and the Audigy.. both 1 and 2.

not sure how it is for gaming though.. as far as hindering/boosting performance.

[hacgumyu]

i hear no difference in live 5.1 & TBSC

just my .02

[CPFitz14]

Originally posted by mattspalace
Santa Cruz all the way. Best sound card I've ever owned.

Check this deal I got.

During early summer CompUSA offered the Santa Cruz card AND Logitech Z-540 speakers for 79.99 out the door. No rebates or anything. I just happened to be building my puter then, so this was nothing short of perfect timing.

The Santa Cruz also comes with a nice assortment of apps too.



Guess who picked that same deal up.:D And guess who else just happened to be building there computer then.:D

What a coincidence.

All I can say is that I love my Santa Cruz. I haven't used anything else, though. I think its a great card, but can't compare it to Creative, because I haven't tried any of their newer cards.


-CPFitz-

[Zim2411]

Originally posted by Morbid
Got my Audigy2 in, hooked it up with my new set of z560's since my amp fried on my other set from kicking the wires (chances of that happening now are slim). I must say.. Creative did very good with this sound card, a HUGE improvement over the SBLive 5.1's. I can't believe how clear and crackle free it is. Very loud too, I like it alot more than my TBSC.

It was only ~$112 at Newegg for the retail box, plus it comes with Soldier of Fortune II : Double Helix and Hitman 2. Haven't played either yet, but I have played the demo of SoF2 and it is teh ownij :)

See! I told you!!!!!!

No one listens to the little almost 13 year old kid!!!! *sigh* O well...... I forgot that it came with two games. Hitman 2 isn't very good, but SOF2 rules.

AUDIGY 2!!! WOOOO!

[RJ]

Turtle Beach

[Yodums]

It's Hercules, or Santa Cruz now for low line sound cards as I don't like Creative anymore because of poor driver support and I think the Hercules and Santa Cruz sound better and they can handle higher FSBs :)

[Richard]

I dunno what to say when I read all these problems with Creative's cards. I've never had a single issue with any Creative Labs sound card.

The Santa Cruz is a good budget soundcard. If you desperately want to break-away from Creative; it is a viable alternative. From a music standpoint, it is excellent. In gaming, it isn't bad. You may have to disable positional sound in games, but if you're not really into that - that's not necessarily a big deal.

[Lithan]

My live went to 195 @ 1/5th divisor on my kt333 board just fine. It's at 208 on my locked 8rda right now ;).

[FemtoHz]

My vote TBSC

[Arkaine23]

TBSC = one great card!!!

[mirko_3]

anyone else heard anything of the M-Audio Revolution?

[Penguin4x4]

Yeppers I have, lemme dig up some linkage...

EDIT:

http://www.midiman.net/products/consumer/revolution_page1.php

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=163153

[Golden]

I have the revolution and i absolutely LOVE IT. I heard a crackling sounds when my klipschies were plugged into the Santa Cruz in my Dell machine. But when i finished building my new machine and plugged them into the revolution, the cd sounded crystal clear. And the control panel for the revolution is awesome lets you pick your exact speakers from a list then changes the settings according to your speakers :).

[Evil_Eye]

I'm more of an Acoustic Edge person. At the moment I have one plugged in, and it really brings the Umph out of the sound that comes out of my PC. While it's not crystal clear in terms of output (it has a harmonic thing to it unlike other SCs) I still like it's sound positioning and bass response.

[Orion66]

Since I've had my SC card for over 1yr now, I've been very happy with it. I have the 5.1 speaker setup and playing a DVD or game
sound very nice.. And having switched out two motherboards and other cards on my system over the year. I have had no problems reinstalling the card unlike the old SB cards I was using before the SC and I would really have problems with them.