Hi-Fi PC Sound Guide
Mar 22, 2002 at 9:11 AM Post #91 of 133
what about santa cruz, are they 24/96?

My SBLive! Crackles alot and I'm looking for an upgrade.

Using the MAD Plugin, I cannot sellect 24kbit resolution. Is it because SBLive ain't 24/96?
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 1:35 PM Post #92 of 133
Sound Blaster Live is a peice of trash. I find it very fatigueing on my ears. As soon as my new dmx xfire 1024 ships, I will be tossing the sound blaster out out. :p
Not sure if I should have bought that card or the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz though, because there might be driver issues with the terratec. Well, as long as I can listen to wavs/mp3s/movies and play Starcraft with sound, I will be happy.

Biggie.
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 2:18 PM Post #93 of 133
Going from sblive to santa cruz would be a switch, not an upgrade.

Good entry level high resolution sound cards are M-Audio Audiophile 2496 or Terratec EWX 24/96, both cost under $200 from two online dealers that I know of. Echo Mia is good as well, but there seems to be quality control and driver problems according to reviews.
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 4:32 PM Post #95 of 133
Quote:

Originally posted by Necroist
what about santa cruz, are they 24/96?

My SBLive! Crackles alot and I'm looking for an upgrade.

Using the MAD Plugin, I cannot sellect 24kbit resolution. Is it because SBLive ain't 24/96?


The Santa Cruz is not 24/96.

Yes, the SBLive is infamous for crackles. Time to dump that card.

Of course you can't! Cards with 24 bit 96 Hz support are high class audio cards (not SOUND cards).

Just to make one thing clear, the Audigy is not a 24 bit card, stay away!
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 4:37 PM Post #97 of 133
Quote:

Originally posted by Audio&Me
Going from sblive to santa cruz would be a switch, not an upgrade.


Audio&Me, be careful with that statement....
I'm telling you, SBLive! to Santa Cruz is definitely an upgrade, much more than you think. First, much less background noise (read hiss). Second, higher clarity. Together, these two factors make quite a difference to the sound. I'm using the Santa Cruz right now, and I've tried higher end cards, like Terratec 6Fire and EWX 24/96. The Santa Cruz should not be underestimated....

Quote:

Originally posted by Audio&Me
Good entry level high resolution sound cards are M-Audio Audiophile 2496 or Terratec EWX 24/96, both cost under $200 from two online dealers that I know of. Echo Mia is good as well, but there seems to be quality control and driver problems according to reviews.


That's the problem with audio cards, drivers.....
Also, they demand much more hardware power. But of course, it's not a problem unless you are a gamer. If you are, you would prefer the Santa Cruz, it would eat up much less processor power.
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 4:50 PM Post #99 of 133
I believe the Santa Cruz uses dual consumer level industry standard (as in crap quality) AC-97 codecs, and outputs at 20bit/48khz. *just because it processes at higher resolution than sblive doesn't mean its quality is any better, oversampling can be a terrible thing if it's done poorly.

Keiso - I would sacrifice performance for quality every time when it comes to audio equipment. A slight reduction in frames per second is not going to concern me one bit, better sound is important, extra 3 fps is not. If it comes down to 24 fps vs 30 fps, then just don't oversample (most game audio is 16bit 22khz stereo).
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 5:01 PM Post #100 of 133
Yes, the Santa Cruz uses AC 97 codecs, but the quality of the components are much better than SBLive!. I'm just reacting to that you call it just a "switch", when it in fact is a clear audible difference in quality.

Unless you go up to the audio card realm, the Santa Cruz is the best card you can get. It offers good sound quality and superior stability (which is more than what I can say about Terratec products.....)

As for gaming, not only do you get a few more fps, but you need good drivers support as well. I don't think audiocards generally have good support for gaming, as this isn't their real purpose anyway.... On the other hand, Santa Cruz's drivers are tried and tested. Works fine with most tasks.

So if you want a compromise of the two worlds, Santa Cruz it is, that is my opinion....
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 5:17 PM Post #101 of 133
All you need is directsound drivers to have sound playback in games. If it's unstable, that's the fault of the game and/or other hardware conflicts. 3D positioning API support is unheard of in high end audio cards for obvious reasons, what does gaming have to do with high fidelity audio? Zilch.

I guess you could call the Santa Cruz "improved" low-fi. I'd say what I use is upper mid-fi.
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 5:27 PM Post #102 of 133
Audio&Me,

Any test results comparing any of the cards you mentioned in this thread? (Measurements, listening tests, etc.) Or are you making a guess based on price and the cards' intented purposes?
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 5:47 PM Post #103 of 133
Could anyone name some... *looks around*... [size=xx-small]low budget[/size] sound card alternatives? I'm not ready to shell out $200+ for a sound card, but I'm still interested in purchasing a replacement to the crappy stock sound card that came with my system. If I plug my Grados directly into it, the noise level is HUGE; the only thing that makes using this card bearable is that I've got it hooked up to my Denon mini-system, whose headphone out I can use to avoid all that noise. Unfortunately, the Denon creates a fair amount of hiss, which doesn't increase when the volume level does, but still makes headphone listening undesirable. So are there any ~$40 sound cards that boast a decent S/N ratio, even if they lack audiophile quality?
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 5:52 PM Post #104 of 133
BlindSeer, haven't you read my posts with praise to the Santa Cruz? I think it's just what you are looking for. The manufacturer claim it has SNR over 100, but more objective testing shows that it has around 94 (as far as I remember...) which is very good for a card of this price.

Nevermind about Audio&Me trashing of it, as he hasn't tried it himself.
 
Mar 22, 2002 at 5:57 PM Post #105 of 133
Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that was a low budget card. I'll look into it, thanks.

Edit: Ahh.. I accidentally skipped the 5th page of this thread. Sorry about that.
smily_headphones1.gif
 
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