Tired of Creative.

Bozo said:
I'm tired of Creative and their lousy sound cards. Can anyone recommend a good sound card?
Click to expand...

Turtle Beach--Santa Cruz. I have had excellent results and zero problems with this card.
 
I like the Philips Acoustic Edge better than the Turtle Beach. But then, I'm still willing to put up with Creative, too.
 
I will third the turtle beach santa cruz.

There are other cards out there with the same processor (such as the Hercules Game theatre)

However, their drivers and software simply don't compare to the santa cruz from all the comments I've read. I think I picked mine up about a year ago for $48 for the retail version... the price has seemed to have only gone up since then.


And just to back mercutio up, I have heard nothing but good about the philips cards.
 
Hi ihsan!

Yup, I'm using alsa drivers with my linux box and an SBLive, thanks.

I'm just wondering about peoples experiences with different cards and drivers. I've mainly used some of the older Creative cards for computers I've built, so I don't have any personal experience with cards from Phillips/Hercules etc...

I'm mainly interested in out of the box drivers/ manufacturers drivers for cards under linux and how they work. And if some of the cards support Toslink it would be nice to know how they have worked.
 
It depends on what you want to do. I recently had to do research for this.

I would like a card that will output coax spdif (for AC3 passthrough) and 5.1 analog on W2k for under US$100.

The philips acoustic edge card is the most like what I need and what I purchased. It is close to perfect for my needs. Unfortunately AC3 passthrough was broken by ServicePack3. Philips has not been communicative on whether or not they will make efforts to fix it. They blame MS. The seismic edge seems to be the same card but without spdif in. Linux support: No, not at this time. That no cable changes is necessary is handy too.

The turtle beach santa cruz does have spdif out by way of the versa jack. You might be able to get around changing cables by using a splitter and then just changing the versa jack function in software. This would be my second choice. Linux support: http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/kb_ftp/8955002.asp

The Fortissimo II or III has optical spdif. This would require a $30 converter to get coax regardless of any cable changing required.

------------------
So I play my games on W2KSP3 and watch DVDs on my Win98 HD setup for games that don't work on 2k. It's annoying but functional.
 
The music market is swamped with sound-cards, from the Echoes to Digidesigns (both US). They all come in varying input/output configurations and are all superior to Creatives usable but technically inferior offerings. I have used many different flavours in a variety of studio applications, from the most expensive to the inexpensive, for both music production, feature film and broadcast TV.

If you can give me some more information about what you want to do with your card, I can point you in the direction of something more appropriate. Incedently, I currently have a cheap Audigy in my home studio, because the EMU chip makes a great sampler if you have the library (alongside a Protools BOB). Just got to be careful about noise because it is very touchy about what it is placed next to...
 
Thanks for all the help :D

I ordered a Sant Cruz. I just wanted a sound card that doesn't sound like a bowel of Rice Crispies.....Snap, Crackle, & Pop. I don't need anything fancy.


Bozo :D
 
JoJo - for Linux, try an SB128. They're autodetected and basically self-configuring in Linux (er, Red Hat, anyway). The Live has Linux drivers, but they don't do everything the Windows versions do.

Anyway, SB128s are cheap and practical.

The Santa Cruz does have Linux support, also. I've never tried one in Linux, so I don't know much about it.
 
Bozo said:
Thanks for all the help :D

I ordered a Sant Cruz. I just wanted a sound card that doesn't sound like a bowel of Rice Crispies.....Snap, Crackle, & Pop. I don't need anything fancy.


Bozo :D
Click to expand...

Here Bozo, in case you want to throw a bookmark on Voyetra Turtle Beach's driver download page: http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/kb_ftp/585ftp.asp

The drivers that will come on the CD with that card a likely to be very outdated.
 
No problem. I was just amazed when one of my linux boxes started making noise out its speakers after I put in a GA7VRXP board (which has the same chip as the SB128) and install RedHat 7.2.
 
I had a Dell system with 98 and a Turtle Beach. No drivers for 2000, for the longest time...
Ditched the card, and currently need one that works.

The Phillips Edge works great on my athlon, but caused boot hangs with the Dell 400mhz P2. Currently it has NO sound card, but, I might try a local company that has sound cards that are ten bucks, out of failed startups...
s
 
Our Price: $50.13

List Price: $79.95
You Save: $29.82


Their list price is a might high... I got mine for less than that (not onsale) over a year and a half ago...

who wants to buy from the devil anyway?


What are your guys' opinion of the best buy online store/site?



My local experiences have been OK in terms of price/selection...

service is slow and often does not help...

you CANNOT return things (even unopenned items sometimes) at my local best buy.. you *might* be able to exchange something if the original item was defective and you have the undamaged packaging and reciept.

Rebates from BB usually don't work... just a scam, IMO.

I sometimes buy a CD or DVD from BB, but don't get anything else from there anymore. I have been burned too many times.
 
woops.... OMG, I cant believe i just made that mistake... yes I know buy.com is different. I apologize to buy.com for the mistake and hope they hold no animosity against me for that.
 
Bozo said:
Small update: The Santa Cruz drivers for Win XP work fine in .NET server.

Bozo :D
Click to expand...

Glad to hear that it is working well for you. I've had not a lick of trouble with mine through 3 different OS'es. Even when trying the beta driver releases.
 
Another happy Videologic Sonic Fury/TBSC user. Best decision I ever made to ditch the SB Live Value and go with this - I always recommend it to people wishing to upgrade their soundcard.

GM
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top