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If you're anything
like this reviewer, you are one to enjoy healthy competition within the
industry of consumer electronics. For PC people (and MAC for that matter),
there's been pretty much one major vendor when it comes to Sound Card
technology - Creative Labs. One other thing you might have in common with
this reviewer is you remember the days when "SoundBlaster" wasn't
the only thing on the market - with great products like the Roland and
Adlib cards competing.
However, if there is a company that's lasted for sometime against the
Creative Labs monster, it's been Turtle Beach. Want widespread compatibility?
Drivers that utilize today's operating systems' to their fullest? How
about features most of the other sound cards don't have? And finally,
just plain damn good sound? If these are things you are interested in,
then it turns out the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz is the sound card you are
looking for.
 The
Santa Cruz is the first consumer PCI audio card to offer a reconfigerable
DSP core, audiophile sound, and six discrete outputs for under $100 -
more specifically you'll find this bad boy running for around $79 at your
local electronics store. Now the Santa Cruz's DSP provides versatility
in multiple settings, including computer gaming, digital music playback,
home theater entertainment, and music composition.
A quick rundown of the Santa Cruz's main selling points include:
- Six discrete output
channels; either six-channel analog or Dolby Digital/AC-3 5.1 channel
passthrough
- MP3 decoding in
hardware, which reduces the hit on your CPU
- Support for all
major 3D audio APIs: EAX, A3D, I3DL2, DirectSound3D, MacroFX, and MultiDrive
- 1,204 MIDI voices
To recap all that,
you can setup 2, 4, or 6 speakers. The card decodes MP3s, which makes
for less lag time while multitasking. The card is supported across the
board, so all your applications and games will sound just fine. An impressive
resume for the Santa Cruz indeed! The fact that the 5.1 decoding is done
onboard (although the Santa Cruz uses a Virtual 5.1 mode for games; it
doesn't have true 5.1 support), and not through an addition piece of hardware,
this saves consumers a ton of money. For example, Videologic's DigiTheatre
LC system, which costs $149 without a Dolby 5.1 decoder and $279 with
one. It's definitely a price saving move anyone can appreciate.
There's not much need to discuss the ease of installation. Windows XP
users will have zero problems (famous last words, I know) popping the
sucker into their motherboards and starting the computer up, although
it comes highly recommended that you run the installation CD first.
But let's get down the main thing - performance. From the standpoint of
playing MP3 files, this is where you really get your money's worth from
the fine people at Voyetra/Turtle Beach. From a perspective of saving
CPU usage, minimizing multitasking strain, and most importantly the quality
of the output (as compared to both the SoundBlaster 128PCI and Live! cards),
the Santa Cruz just blows the competition out of the water. You'll find
your MP3s playing like never before! The performance during gameplay with
a 4 speaker set is impressive, but not outstanding from the competition.
The Santa Cruz PCI sound card is a perfect sound card for the consumer
who wants a great value - a card that really offers it all. With great
audio quality , especially while playing MP3s, and at a retail street
price of $79, this is one audio card you'll find yourself hanging onto
for a very, very long time.
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9 / 10 |
OVERALL SCORE
92%
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9 / 10 |
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9 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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9 / 10 |
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9.2 / 10 |
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