Which sound card?

[fishingeek]

I am about to build my first AMD system. I have a X-Gamer 5.1 but do not want to deal with all the problems everyone else is having with this card. Shoud I go for:

1. The Santa Cruz
2. A Phillips card or
3. The new Hurcules card.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dreben]

I've herd alot of good things about the Phillips card

 

[Cruisin1]

Hercules Game Theatre XP. There hasn't been one review that didn't give it oustanding remarks. I've heard nothing but praise form people that own it too.

 

[V]

I have heard many good things about the Santa Cruz. I'm about to buy one myself.

 

[dreben]

well so much for a unanimous descision

 

[fishingeek]

LOL

 

[Noriaki]

LOL

I don't like the Philips AE becuase in 4 speaker mode it does weird proccessing to 2 channel sources (music).

The Hercules Game Theatre XP and the TB Santa Cruz are the same chipset, just decide if you want the breakout box or not. And buy appropriately.

I'm buying a TB Santa Cruz myself.

 

[CHiMPBizKiT]

Hercules, nothing but good things about this card!!

 

[AFireInside]

The Hercules and Santa Cruz all use the Sensura Chip , so if you want a nice cool looking blue box to plug everything into with all sorts of neat crap on it go for that, i know i would of if i ahd the money but i opted to get a santa cruz for 70 $ and spend the saved money on speakers :-/.

 

[snidy]

I have the philips acoustic edge, and it blows sb live 5.1 away, I haven't used the herculies, so I'm not sure about that, but my friend has the santa cruz and likes it, but mine sounds a little better than his.


ASUS a7v 133
AMD Thunderbird 1000 Mghz
Windows 98se
512 mb crucial ram
3D Prophet 2 Ultra
DX 8a
Philips acoustic edge
Western digital 40 gig

 

[Noriaki]

AFireInside:

FYI, Sensura doesn't make Audio chips. Sensura is an API like A3D or EAX (though it's alot more capable than EAX), but in the case of S3D it's not tied to a single chip, anyone can use it S3D as long as they pay for it.

The Herc GTXP and TB 'Cruz use the Cirrus Logic Cold Fusion Audio DSP (and Cirrus Logic licenses S3D for the Cold Fusion).

 

[UCBPride]

Philips acoustics all the way. Check out the reviews at gamespot.com, gamersdepot.com, tech-gods.com, ALL gave it the best rating out of all the sound cards they've rated.

 

[Wingznut]

I second Noriaki. If you want to spend the extra $80 and want the breakout box, get the Herc. Otherwise, spend $70 and get the SC.

I've owned the SC for a while, and it's an excellent sound card. I recently considered getting a Hercules, but I personally don't care for the breakout box.

 

[duragezic]

I might have to get that Santa Cruz card. The onboard sound on this KK266 is nice (supports a3d and eax) but for one thing it can't play two waves at the same time (like my sb 32). And sometimes it seems the sound is completely off. Like in Tribes 2, ti will be quiet then loud like it should. I don't think it's a T2 problem because it sounds pretty bad in CS compared to my sb live!. I don't want to put the damn sb live! back in either.