Santa Cruz.... WOW!

Well my audigy (oem from tcwo[forget name]) crapped out in my brand new system. When it blew it fried my Sennheiser's :| , and then my on board wasnt very good (p4b533). I kept hearing about the santa cruz from General Hardware forum and i thought, what the hell...
I just wanted to say thanks and would like to tell others who like to listen to mp3's while playing CS,Q3,UT, or whatever that this is the sound card to get.

/me proceeds to call vendor for refund on bunk audigy....

 

[nortexoid]

when i go overseas next month i have to sell my system....

when i do...the only thing i'm keeping out of it is the SC...i can't let it go!
besides, those bastards i sell it to can use the onboard sound...

 

[Rebel7254]

Yep, the Santa Cruz rocks. I can definitely tell a difference between it and my fomer C-media onboard sound. Now I just can't wait till my Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers get here that I bought off of ebay next week. Too bad I'll be out of town when they arrive, but I can't wait till I get back to hook those badboys up!

 

[pdo]

All right I guess I might ass well jump ship. This onboard sound on my mobo sound like shtt. Which vendor did you guys get your card from?

 

I got mine from circuit city cause i was tired of waiting. It was 79$ and well worth it..

 

[Jarwa]

I have to agree too. I thought I could handle the on-board sound of my Epox 8KHA+, but it just didn't cut it. I bit the bullet and shelled out around 80 clams for the Santa Cruz, also. WOW! It is r0X0r! Glad I bought it! Sounds great. I think I bought it from Newegg - don't quote me on that.

 

[Adul]

newegg.com caries the santa cruz. yes definitely a great sounding cound card

 

[Strafe]

Just picked up a Santa Cruz to replace my MX300 (Vortex2) another highly praised card. Do you think I'll notice a difference?

 

[Bobbyeyes]

IMHO
not only does it sound better than sb live, it takes up less resources.
when installing eg. win98.... look at your auto exec,bat files before loading creative sb drivers...
then load the drivers and now look at your files...
wow!

i think your machines will not only sound better, they will perform better also.
i also like my santa cruz card for listening to music and gaming

 

[PuppettMaster001]

I guess that I am going to have to pick up one of these to replace the intergated sound that comes on the Gigabyte 8IEXP that I shoud be ordering soon.

 

[Pabster]

Yep, the SC is an amazing card at an amazing price. It still amazes me that people are spending upwards of $100 more for a cheap plastic breakout box and a $10 remote control. Not to mention the rock solid driver sets Turtle Beach puts out.

 

[Biggs]

Welcome to the Santa Club, the home of the no nonsense computer sound card.

 

[tweakmm]

How does the sound quality compare to the Game Theater XP or are they about even?

 

[Paulson]

Originally posted by: Pabster
Yep, the SC is an amazing card at an amazing price. It still amazes me that people are spending upwards of $100 more for a cheap plastic breakout box and a $10 remote control. Not to mention the rock solid driver sets Turtle Beach puts out.

For your information, it's a very nice system... you can hook up an audio output, microphone, audio input, spdif in and out, optical in and out (out going to surround sound) + you have midi ports and you have firewire in case your system doesn't have it otherwise (like mine)

Sorry to say, but it aint bad for it's price. I use most all the features on the breakout box and am totally satisfied. Thank you.

Edit, also, I don't use the remote hardly at all, but it would come in handy had I used this as a mp3 server in my living room... you can pick whatever song you wanted played in winamp and can control pretty much any program you want to.

 

[Maverick]

Originally posted by: tweakmm
How does the sound quality compare to the Game Theater XP or are they about even?

probably the exact same since its the same chip. GXTP just has more I/O options with the breakout box. I think driver support maybe a little better with the SC, but if you get it working they should both sound similar.

 

Originally posted by: Shiva112

Originally posted by: tweakmm
How does the sound quality compare to the Game Theater XP or are they about even?

probably the exact same since its the same chip. GXTP just has more I/O options with the breakout box. I think driver support maybe a little better with the SC, but if you get it working they should both sound similar.

Its not really the same.
I sold my GTPXP for the audigy (or as i call it , "$#%%$^%#") because my gtpxp didnt pump my sennheiser headphones loud enough. I had to use my klipsch speakers to amplify it, which i couldnt do when i was at LAN events. Now with the santa cruz it not only goes loud enough but IMO it sounds a bit better.
Ty, Turtle Beach!

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Shiva112

probably the exact same since its the same chip. GXTP just has more I/O options with the breakout box. I think driver support maybe a little better with the SC, but if you get it working they should both sound similar.

It's not the same. The output circuitry on the SC is of considerably higher quality.

 

[Workin']

Just picked up a Santa Cruz to replace my MX300 (Vortex2) another highly praised card. Do you think I'll notice a difference?

Yes. I reluctantly replaced my trusty old MX300 first with an Audigy (which was a mistake - it caused my system to crash randomly no matter what I tried) and then replaced the Audigy with a Santa Cruz, and the difference is very clear. The MX300 is a pretty good-sounding card and the Audigy sounded better at least when it worked, but the Santa Cruz sounds even better.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I think the Gametheater Xp sounds better than the SC especially with my Stereo for Mp3. And with my logitech Z560 it's great and crisp. I tried the Sc for a few days but didn't like it much and would rather have a breakout box.

 

[Pabster]

Paulson wrote:

"Sorry to say, but it aint bad for it's price. I use most all the features on the breakout box and am totally satisfied. Thank you."

Great! I'm happy for ya =)

Don't take life so seriously, man. I wasn't insulting those who choose to drop $150+ for a consumer-level sound card. I just can't see the logic in it -- but I don't have any use for the breakout boxes or remote controls.

And I'll still maintain the SC sounds better

 

I just can't see the logic in it -- but I don't have any use for the breakout boxes or remote controls.

And I'll still maintain the SC sounds better

Indeed!

 

[JSFord]

I sold my GTPXP for the audigy (or as i call it , "$#%%$^%#") because my gtpxp didnt pump my sennheiser headphones loud enough. I had to use my klipsch speakers to amplify it, which i couldnt do when i was at LAN events. Now with the santa cruz it not only goes loud enough but IMO it sounds a bit better.

Is this true? I have the same prob. I dotn have pricey headphones but the GTXP doesnt seem to
push them enough. So I plug them into my speakers as well.

Funny thing is, I ordered a SC from Newegg and they sent me the GTXP, lol.
I dont use any of the fancy I/Os though so its really a waste of space.

 

[PuppettMaster001]

Originally posted by: Phocas

I just can't see the logic in it -- but I don't have any use for the breakout boxes or remote controls.

And I'll still maintain the SC sounds better

Indeed!

I agree I only use the speaker outs, heaphone out, and mic in on my card.

 

[Rebel7254]

Got mine OEM from Newegg.com for $63 shipped.

 

[BD231]

I dont see how an SC sound card could sound better than an Audigy.......