Kardde Posted August 2, 2000 Share Posted August 2, 2000 For those interested, Turtle Beach is now selling their new "Santa Cruz" sound card directly from their site. I received mine today, and am extremely happy with the sound quality, performance, and ease of use. I cannot really compare it to the SoundBlaster Live!, as I was having endless problems with that sound card. But, I can say with a certainty that it offers just as much, EAX and A3D support, 6 speaker support, and better MIDI quality without those nagging soundfonts. And at $100, I'd say it's a good buy. - Kardde Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drgnkngt Posted August 9, 2000 Share Posted August 9, 2000 Well I just purchased a Santa Cruz sound card and I must say that I am impressed. I had a SBLive! and the Santa Cruz I very able to compete with it. Although the Santa Cruz does not have a digital I/O card it processes digital right on the card. The mixer has an option to use 4.1 digital and man does it sound clean. I am still messing with the setting a bit but with what it comes with and at just the right price I would highly recommend this over anything Creative has put out thus far. Great job Turtle Beach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBlair Posted August 9, 2000 Share Posted August 9, 2000 Great, now you guys can answer some questions for me. 1) which versions of A3D and EAX does it support and how. Does it translat the A3D to D3D calls or does it know how to interpret A3D calls. 2) How is the DD decoding? Hmm, that's all I guess. I have no need for digital I/O, so that's not a problem.c>------------------ Who knows what evil lurks in the darkness of The Kave ? www.thekave.net Home of The Klipschmonster! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geekysteve Posted August 9, 2000 Share Posted August 9, 2000 Don't know if you saw this page or not, but it might help answer some questions: http://www.voyetra-turtle-beach.com/site/products/santacru/specifications.asp Also, couldn't help but notice- no mention of support with Win2K. ------------------ The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. -- Qui Gon Jinn, Star Wars: Episode One Try the world's greatest search engine: www.google.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 Thx for the link steve! I'm mighty interested in this card, hope it will stomp Creative cards in the dust Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kardde Posted August 10, 2000 Author Share Posted August 10, 2000 1. EAX 1.0/2.0 and A3D 1.0. I don't know how well it works with A3D, as I don't believe I have any games with A3D, so I have no been able to try. It works well with EAX, though I have been noticing some oddities. For example, in Unreal Tournament, the sound is extremely muffled whenever you're in a tight area. Crouched under a staircase, or even crouching on a snipers ledge somewhere. I understand that it should sound muffled given it's such a small area, but this is REALLY muffled. Even the "Head Shot!" voice is muffled. These instances are fairly rare, though, and I'm sure it will be corrected in a patch. 2. Not sure on the DD decoding. I've never had a decoder card, or a receiver, so everything's always been done within my system. It seems to work superbly for me so far. Each channel is distinct and clear. The card does have a Digital Output jack. They have this nifty thing on it called the VersaJack, which is basically a 4-in-1 jack. You can use it as an Analog Line, Digital Output or Analog Line Input, or Headphones Output. Just plug any of those into the jack, and change the appropriate setting in the Santa Cruz control panel, and it will work for it. Chances are they will be coming out with a daughter card for it, though. They've certainly left the card open for expansion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drgnkngt Posted August 11, 2000 Share Posted August 11, 2000 Kardde - I also have a Santa Cruz and must say that i am rather satisfied with it. The sounds are much crisp and clearer then they were with my SBLive! However I am having one issue and maybe you can help me. In the control panel where you sset your speaker setup mine keeps changing back to 2 speakers. When I play a game and go back to the control panel after the game is when it sets itself back to 2 speaker. I am currently running it at 4 speaker setup. Are you having the same issue with your control panel? If not what OS are you using? Your input on this matter is much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcoldricex Posted February 28, 2001 Share Posted February 28, 2001 i just bought one, it sounds much better than my sblive platinum.... working under win2k. only issue i have with it is that the sound control panel isn't working anymore (i installed a midiman 2496 sound card)... i probably just have to reinstall it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k27-R Posted February 28, 2001 Share Posted February 28, 2001 quote: Originally posted by xcoldricex: i just bought one, it sounds much better than my sblive platinum.... working under win2k. only issue i have with it is that the sound control panel isn't working anymore (i installed a midiman 2496 sound card)... i probably just have to reinstall it. how's the sound of the 2496 compared to the santa cruz in music? and how did you connect the promedia's to the 2496? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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