Dude, that definetly helps, thanks.Originally posted by: blacklit
nice price ~ bought mine for $50 ages ago. i highly recommend it. it's an underrated low-profile card that has a bit of a cult following. bear in mind, it SHINES when paired with good speakers. so have/get one, otherwise you won't realize the true benefits.
as testimonial, i upgraded from sblive 5.1 and heard a significant improvement in sound clarity in BOTH games and music... especially music. i have old 2.1 altec lansing's and thanks to the santa cruz i finally learned/heard what music "sound stage" was.
for comparison, a friend uses audigy 2 with logi-z640's. on his rig, you get that "presence" in games, as if you're in the game. but it was, for lack of audiophilinguistics, slightly tron-ish with music -- i imagine resulting from the same effects/dac's that give that "presence" in games. clearly, they don't work too well with music. that said, the santa cruz can reproduce similar effects quite nicely, but on a different degree. think of it this way (if you LIKE):
sb live: games-right on! music-right on!
audigy x: games-WOW! music-nice!
santa cruz: games-wow! music-WOW!
m-audio: games-nice! music-O MAMA! or WOW brittney really CAN'T sing!
audigy zs: games-WHOA get down we're being bombed! music-WOW?
it might help to consider.. the santa cruz's selling point during its glory days was... it matched CD audio, that is, it was capable of putting out (accurately) that high quality audio we loved in our CD's. if your CD's aren't "high quality" on your "stereo" that's another story. despite all the super hyper duper (rather dOper) audio out there, CD quality still sounds pretty darn good yes? yes!
so in lieu of the theory of relativity, it's simply a decision isn't it? the highly acclaimed audigy xx's, m-audio's, etc for about $80... OR the santa cruz for 20 of your minimum-wage-earned dollars. before you decide, put yourself in the hot deal[ers] position, reflect, and ask... what would a smart not-overly-cheap bastard do? :roll:
so... ya... hope that helps.
Originally posted by: vcarpio
Nice - thanks! I'm going to get one tomorrow.
Question: Is this better (technologically superior? better sound-quality?) than the SB Live 5.1? If it is, then the TB goes into my daughter's PC and I'll take her SB Live 5.1 and put it on the "guest PC" I'm building. (Can you believe it? PCs are so cheap nowadays that I'm building a guest PC so my guests can play Quake online.)
Originally posted by: blacklit
nice price ~ bought mine for $50 ages ago. i highly recommend it. it's an underrated low-profile card that has a bit of a cult following. bear in mind, it SHINES when paired with good speakers. so have/get one, otherwise you won't realize the true benefits.
as testimonial, i upgraded from sblive 5.1 and heard a significant improvement in sound clarity in BOTH games and music... especially music. i have old 2.1 altec lansing's and thanks to the santa cruz i finally learned/heard what music "sound stage" was.
for comparison, a friend uses audigy 2 with logi-z640's. on his rig, you get that "presence" in games, as if you're in the game. but it was, for lack of audiophilinguistics, slightly tron-ish with music -- i imagine resulting from the same effects/dac's that give that "presence" in games. clearly, they don't work too well with music. that said, the santa cruz can reproduce similar effects quite nicely, but on a different degree. think of it this way (if you LIKE):
sb live: games-right on! music-right on!
audigy x: games-WOW! music-nice!
santa cruz: games-wow! music-WOW!
m-audio: games-nice! music-O MAMA! or WOW brittney really CAN'T sing!
audigy zs: games-WHOA get down we're being bombed! music-WOW?
it might help to consider.. the santa cruz's selling point during its glory days was... it matched CD audio, that is, it was capable of putting out (accurately) that high quality audio we loved in our CD's. if your CD's aren't "high quality" on your "stereo" that's another story. despite all the super hyper duper (rather dOper) audio out there, CD quality still sounds pretty darn good yes? yes!
Originally posted by: usernamemax20charact
Thanks for the info. Think I'll pick one up in the morning. For $20, it's a great deal.
Originally posted by: drkclw
Is the rebate still good?
CC's website says it must be purchased 4/18 - 4/20
Originally posted by: Ensign
Originally posted by: usernamemax20charact
Thanks for the info. Think I'll pick one up in the morning. For $20, it's a great deal.
Unfortunately, looks like you had to purchase by 4/20/2004 for the rebate to be valid.
Originally posted by: Murse
The rebate form says it is good until 4/24
Originally posted by: corinthos
well, the rebate was still up (with the expired date) when i used in-store pick-up.
by the time i got to the store, the rebate was pulled from the site and it showed $79.99-$20IR=$59.99...
i cancelled.
Thanks, I had already looked for it on FW. I'll see what the counter people have to say. I used a gift card with it for part of the purchase price. I may have to deal with that. HEY, maybe they'll refund the entire price to my credit card and turn the gift card into real money!Originally posted by: corinthos
IW: check FW... there's a thread there that's supposed to have a link to the coupon that expires 4/24. don't know if they'll honor it though... i'd try to get an adjustment at the store instead...
Originally posted by: carpenter
Would it help if I scanned my copy of the rebate and emailed it to you?