MPN: TB120340004 See Product Details
Quick Glance
Slot Type: PCI
S/N Ratio: 96 dB
Summary
Product Title: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI Sound Card w/ Digital Signal Processor
Manufacturer: Turtle Beach
Power Score: 4.3 | 0 Reviews
General
Class: Card
Category: Sound/Multimedia
Type of Sound Card: Stand-Alone Audio Card
Slot Type: PCI
Interface Connection: Audio - Headphone Out (1/8" Mini), Audio - Line In (1/8" Mini), Audio - Line Out (1/8" Mini), Audio - Microphone In (1/8" Mini), Audio - RCA Digital Coax (S/PDIF), Audio - Speaker Out (1/8" Mini), Game - 15 pin D-shell (MIDI/Joystick)
Audio Technologies: Dolby Digital, Dolby Surround, Microsoft DirectMusic, Microsoft DirectSound 3D
Digital Audio Depth: 18 Bits
Signal To Noise Ratio: 96 dB
Music Generation: Wave Table Synthesis
System Type: PC
Warranty Information: (Not Specified)
URL: Manufacturer Link
Strengths: The Santa Cruz is the best sound card I've ever come across. It uses very few resources, it supports ever 3D sound API out there and unlike the Sound Blaster Live, it has no problems with Athlons
Weakness: at around $70 it's not the cheapest, but that's still much less than most Sound Blaster Lives
Turtle Beach might not be as well known a brand as Creative Labs, but this sound card is awesome, the sound is incredible, you can output it to any surround sound system, it has a port that can be configured as an digital input or output, it has more feature, costs less, and has no problems working with windows 2000, windows XP, or any motherboard chipset.
Strengths: None. Voyetra's Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card is not stable in a Windows 9x environment. It has difficulty sharing IRQ's so beware in Windows 2K/XP.
Weakness: Bad Win9x drivers which give all kinds of BSOD's, GPF's, and errors. Turtle Beach is not updating their old 1/15/2001 Windows 9x drivers for their Santa Cruz Sound Card.
I am getting all kinds of BSOD's, GPF's, and errors because Turtle Beach is not updating their Windows 9x drivers. I believe for newer hardware, they are out of date. While viewing DVD's ported to my TV, if I click around too much in the Santa Cruz Control Panel, it will GPF on me. This also occurs while simply listening to MP3's. When the Santa Cruz drivers GPF, they bring the whole system down...
Strengths: great crisp sound, various sound effects features...and most of all, it works!
Weakness: the stupid sound icon on the sys tray which can be easily removed.
i have windows xp pro. sp1 running on a dell 400sc server. i originally had the soundblaster audigy 1394 gamer which i've used for about 2 months. after installing the drivers, along with the web update, the card would work fine...for about 2 days. i kept loosing sound in the 2 rear speakers on my monsoon 505 5.1 speakers. this would piss me off so much because i would have to uninstall the SB...
Strengths: Sounds good...when it worked
Weakness: TECH SUPPORT!!!
This worked nicely the first time I installed it with the CD. I lost the CD and had to go to the website to redownload the drivers. It's been hell ever since. I've had to do things from changing permissions on the registry (suggested by tech support) to redownloading the drivers gazillion times. KEEP THE CD!! I keep getting this "the data is invalid" error. Turtle Beach support has no clue. Looks...
Strengths: Great sound quality. Easily configurable no matter what type of speaker set up you use. I play 5.1 surround movies through my Sony home receiver and get excellent sound quality.
Weakness: None. If you know what you are doing, you should never need tech support.
People who complain about Win98 not working with the SC have to realize that Win98 is junk to begin with. Upgrade to the much more stable XP and you will have no problems at all. Although, I never had problems with my SC when I had Win98. Why pay more for a high end sound card when this one does every thing you need for around 60.00.
Strengths: A great sound card
Weakness: very bad service, no bundled software,hateful people in sales, Control panel "Feels" like a wore out pice of junk
With all those things wrong with it would I ever buy another Turtle Beach sound card? You better believe it! If you love music there is NO other card that even comes close! None!! ..... Tony Hobbs
Strengths: 5.1/ & virtual 5.1 output for less money, Better Software then Creative Labs SB software. a3d & eax.
Weakness: none so far
I had a sb xgamer, and my sterio cable broke off in the 2 channel output female end so i bought a turtle beach. And all i gota say is, why the hell did i get the xgamer in the first place??? Unlike creative labs this card has sofware that is simple to use and doest take as much overhead to run. The stupid creative software makes my pc start so much slower when booting and its interface is stupid....
Strengths: Works fine for most things
Weakness: Wont work with any voise messengers unless you pay for alot of add on hardware. When I email for help I recived 2 replys from 22 sent in a year.
If you do not use any on line voise aps ( in gaming,net meatting or any voise messengrs) thin it,s not bad. If you need suport for any reson forget it. I do know what I,m doing on a PC so they cant blame me. You should never have to go buy more hardware to make a produck do what it clamed it would on the box. That,s a false add.
Strengths: Easy to set up
Weakness: CD documentation is an overview only, no depth.
Significant improvement in sound quality compared to my Soundblaster AWE 64 using the same speaker system. No glitches in sound at the beginning of each song. Very happy with this product.
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Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI Sound Card w/ Digital...
Strengths: Includes many desireable features, [if you can get them to work].
Weakness: Has several compatibility issues with widely used Win 9X OS's. The Tech Support has a lot to be desired.
As mentioned in other reviews, Turtle Beach is no longer providing support for the many people that are running Win 9x. This raises the question - "Why can Cre*tive come up with new drivers where-as Turtle Beach cannot??!" Fortunately T/B has updated their web site to alert buyers that this card may have problems with Win 9x O/S's. If I knew this back when shopping for a sound card, I would not...
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