What sound card to get?

Alright, I am in the market for a new sound card and I really dont want to get another Creative product. Its not that I have had bad luck with their cards, its more that I want to try something different. My first choice is a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. Does anyone have some good feedback out there about this card? I have read review after review about it and I am more or less looking for some 3DS users experience. I am also considering the Hercules Game Theater XP. Alright, Im gonna start a poll..

CREATIVE LABS
GUILLEMOT/ HERCULES
NEWQ
PHILIPS
TURTLE BEACH/VOYETRA

Faced w/ my budget & the prospects of only being able to afford the Audigy MP3+ -retail, I decided VALUE was more important. I purchased the SB Live Platinum retail w/ Live Drive & the full software package ($30 more than OEM) because the price dropped as retailers made room for the Audigy line.

Allright, I have some friends which are in music biz, so they purchase for their recording studio the new Creative Audigy. So I must trust them when they say me that Audigy was a waste of money... It gives for a standard user the same sound quality as the Live!, just as a higher price (I don't talk about maintaining of 48k bug or the improved ASIO drivers).

If you want to have your own Home Theater, then I say (from the choices you gave) that the winner is Hercules Game Theater XP.

Thanks for the responses thus far. I guess my main reason for a new sound card purchase is that I am a bit tired of the lack of features of my current card. I am not a musician or a huge game player. I just like to have a good sound card with excellent driver support and something that doesnt take up alot of system resources. This is the reason why I didnt put the Philips card on my poll.

I understand that the Creative card is going to be the popular choice. If you vote for or against the Audigy, please post you reasons why like duku and uncleel did.

Thanks for the input.

santa Cruz user

Hey Svtcobra,

I'm using a santa cruz, (or sonic fury here in uk), and I think it's a great card for the money.
Although if you intend on upgrading to XP, you'll need to get the 30 Mb patch for it to work......

luck
the prawn:grinthumb

What system you got?
I wouldn't put Philips down like that though As you might have seen on the news they are releasing beta wdm drivers for the PSC 70x cards that use the avenger DSP very regularly.

Thomas, I am running a system similar to yours with a 1.33 and 512mb. I am also running a GF3 and a MSI k7 mobo. I may wait for the new drivers to be released for the Philips card. There will be plenty of feedback around to see how the new drivers do.

Thanks for all the responses thus far...

Santa Cruz all the way!

Best driver support and stabilty than other Sound card out there! I can't see Creative Labs equaling Turtle Beach with there 3-month Driver cycle development. Even now the 4142c drivers are rock soild for me in Win2K. I ditched Creative and their products after the all the debacle they had with the SB Live!


I prefer a Sound Card with rock soild drivers and than to a Sound card which has under-par drivers....

ss1.

Im getting a good vibe from the Santa Cruz thus far..

Yup, great card, though don't pick it up if you want good 5.1 in Games, as it's no good at it. Neither is the GTXP at that though either.

Thats one of my main reasons why Im looking to upgrade.

Yup, Santa Cruz does sound better than any of the Live!'s. In everything basically.

Well, 3DS Pricegrabber is showing that Mwave.com has the Santa Cruz for 69.00. I looked around on Ebay but there aint much happening for this card. So I guess I'll place my order. I may as well look at a new AMD XP processor while Im at it...

Thinking of getting one santa cruz in the future!!

Yes, the Santa Cruz has better playback and recording ability that the Soundblaster Live! It actually rivals professional entry-level digital audio cards as far as recording goes.
Yes, the Soundblaster Audigy is not of high enough quality for a recording studio since it does not support true 24-bit/96Khz recording like a professional card would. For playback I think you would find the Santa Cruz and Audigy to be very similar.

It is such a toss up...It seems like the Santa Cruz is gaining some ground in the polls.

You should go for Creative Sb Platinum.or wait till the contests result if you can win the sound card.

Well last contest I won a Hercules Games Fortissimo2 and its been great. But since this poll doesn't include my card I can't vote.
But since its Hercules I would go with the Games Theatre over any Creative product. They have cheapened and botched too many products over the years for me to give them any alliegence.