[dbarks]

After extensive investigation (looked at this forum for a few weeks) I went out and bought the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz for my computer. And for listening to music it is hands down better than my SoundBlaster Live card. For the first 3 days I was very happy with the card.
Then I started playing some games and noticed a major difference between the quality of in game sound on the TB and the SB.
The SoundBlaster card is much better at providing precise sound placement for many of the games I am now playing. For UBI's RavenShield, Medal of Honor, and Battlefield 1942 the difference is so distinct that with the TurtleBeach card some of the in game sounds don’t even come through. This is a problem if you are listening for an opponent and with the SB card you can hear them coming from 10 to 15 feet away. With the TB card you don’t hear them. . In fact I can not find a game that does not write sound with SoundBlaster cards in mind and therefore (IMO) the SB cards have an natural advantage for in-game sound.

Has anybody had a similar experience and is there anything I can do about this. I love the TB for music but will not play games with it.

Any help would be appreciated, other wise I’m returning the card.

 

[Beauregard]

dbarks,

Can't give you any current info, but I had game probs with the Santa Cruz that came with my Dell PIII (2+ years ago). Some games with problems ran fine if you turned down the 'hardware acceleration' a notch or two. But that simple fix didn't work for other games and updated drivers didn't help. I ended up yanking it and putting in a SoundBlaster for game compatibility - though as you say, music quality doesn't compare with the Santa Cruz.

I would've hoped the Turtle Beach people would've managed to work this out by now...

Best,
Beau

 

[chia-pet]

You might want to consider installing both your old soundcard and the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and using them at the same time. I purchased an M-Audio Revolution 7.1 with the intention of using it alongside my Sound Blaster Live. This may be a good option for you too.

 

[vrao81]

I installed and used a TBSC and an audigy 1 in the same system (TBSC for music, audigy for games). You could try that.

 

[dbarks]

Does this dual card trick take any more CPU cycles from the box?