Nforce2 better than Turtle Beach Santa Cruz?

A

agentzero9

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 27, 2002
Messages
2,799
I found this article quite suprising.


"With respect to audio performance, the onboard APU (Audio Processing Unit) of the MCP-T proves to be comparable to a high-end PCI card. Throwing the stereotypical image of a conventional onboard chipset out the window, NVIDIA’s APU supplies the same performance as a high-quality PCI sound card while saving the user the additional cost (close to $99) and reserving the single PCI slot for another component."

Can the onbard sound really match the quality of the TBSC; any opinions?
 
The digital is... the analog is just the regular AC97 chippy...
 
Is there a way I can send the digital connection to my HT receiver? Currently with the TBSC I have the analoge out (the green out) connect to a Y-Adapter which goes into my reciever via red/white RCA inputs.
 
Originally posted by agentzero9
I found this article quite suprising.


"With respect to audio performance, the onboard APU (Audio Processing Unit) of the MCP-T proves to be comparable to a high-end PCI card. Throwing the stereotypical image of a conventional onboard chipset out the window, NVIDIA’s APU supplies the same performance as a high-quality PCI sound card while saving the user the additional cost (close to $99) and reserving the single PCI slot for another component."

Can the onbard sound really match the quality of the TBSC; any opinions?
Click to expand...

Yes for gaming there are no comparison with the ancient Santa Cruz and Soundstorm.

And in digital mode the sound quality are pretty much the same really.

However in surround environments TBSC just can´t compete really.
 
Originally posted by agentzero9
Is there a way I can send the digital connection to my HT receiver? Currently with the TBSC I have the analoge out (the green out) connect to a Y-Adapter which goes into my reciever via red/white RCA inputs.
Click to expand...

This is where the nForce excels. Its the only solution that encodes your audio into a Dolby Digital 5.1 stream that your receiver can understand. Your receiver will have much better DACs (Digital to Analog Converters) than the crappy Realtek ones on nForce2 mobos, and likely quite a bit better than the TBSC ones too.

Does your receiver have digital inputs? If so, are they optical, coaxial, or both? This should influence your decision when buying an nForce mobo. the Abit NF7-S, for example only has optical SPDIF outs, while the Asus A7N8X-Deluxe only has coaxial SPDIF outs.
 
Can the onbard sound really match the quality of the TBSC; any opinions?
Click to expand...

Digital certainly. Analog, no way.

CPU usage of the NF2 can be lower than even the most expensive add-in gaming cards, which is good.
Analog output quality is less than impressive in many cases.

Manufacturers need to start implementing high quality CODECs if they want to bill their NF2 audio system as "high quality".

The Realtek ALC650 just is not a great DAC.

Call me when someone implements an AC97 2.3 CODEC with the NForce2 + APU.

Unfortunately, [H]OCP seems to very badly informed about computer audio (for instance, they believe nvidia makes CODECs, which they do not, and they also believe that other manufacturers make "onboard audio chipsets", which outside of the defunct CMI8738, they do not), and completely eschews objective measurements of sound quality.
 
One of the main reasons I bought the a7n8x-deluxe was the soundstorm with onboard dolby digital encoding. One cable hookup and pretty good sound quality. However, I'm now in linux and I got tired of fucking with it so I put the santa cruz back in. I agree with the others on this one - for digital go with the soundstorm, but for analog stay away from it.
 
Originally posted by SilverMK3
This is where the nForce excels. Its the only solution that encodes your audio into a Dolby Digital 5.1 stream that your receiver can understand. Your receiver will have much better DACs (Digital to Analog Converters) than the crappy Realtek ones on nForce2 mobos, and likely quite a bit better than the TBSC ones too.

Does your receiver have digital inputs? If so, are they optical, coaxial, or both? This should influence your decision when buying an nForce mobo. the Abit NF7-S, for example only has optical SPDIF outs, while the Asus A7N8X-Deluxe only has coaxial SPDIF outs.
Click to expand...

This is very interesting information.

I'm actually looking at this shuttle case, which seems to have an SPDIF_Out in the frout.

A few questions about that:

1. Is that just a normal optical out that can go into one of the optical inputs on my reciver?

2. Is this the output that has higher quality than the TBSC analoge output? And by higher quality does that mean clearer, cleaner sound, or just more audio channels (i.e. 5.1 instead of Stereo)?

3. Will it only send out a 5.1 signal?


The thing is I will be using the optical out for music. And thus I want stereo as true music is stereo (Except DVD-Audio etc.). I don't want the Nforce2 upmixing my stereo music into 5.1. Is there a way around this?
 
Hello,

I have an Abit AN7 mobo with the Realtek 658 chip and the analog is pretty freaking good. I use it with cans when I'm keeping a low profile at night. The AC-3 output is awesome using the Soundstorm processor. For 16bit audio its wonderful and I don't notice that much of a difference for most material. I ran the optical outs to my audio setup in the living room which consists of Magnepan MMG speakers and Arcam amplification and CD's played through that setup had a bit more air and soundstaging when sent through the analog outputs. There was less noise on the AC-3 outputs. The AC-3 (Dolby Digital) stream is compressed so there is some loss in quality but its VERY minor. I am really impressed by that. It would be nice if they would revise thier chip to support 192/24 audio and use a better analog codec so I can play DVD-Audio at my computer. It would be mostly for convenience more than anything. The serious listener would have a dead quiet room when playing Hi Res material on a home stereo. Sometimes thats just not possible and I hate having to buy a DVD-Audio disc and its standard CD counterpart so I can hear it when Im not in front of my stereo. Oh well.

Tesfaye
 
The SantaCruz has a coax digital out that can be selected via the versajack box in the TBSC control panel. Then you can hook it to your reciever and it will send out the DD / DTS streams if your dvd decoder supports them. I have a Chaintech NF2 board, and i perfer the Santa Cruz over both the analog and digital outs on the nf2, the dac's they use on the mobo seem to sound a little to rough compared to the SC.
 
omg coincidence i was just thinking this exact thing a few days ago...

i guess i'll be trying the soundstorm into my receiver when i get home...
 
Originally posted by AlphaWolf260
The SantaCruz has a coax digital out that can be selected via the versajack box in the TBSC control panel. Then you can hook it to your reciever and it will send out the DD / DTS streams if your dvd decoder supports them. I have a Chaintech NF2 board, and i perfer the Santa Cruz over both the analog and digital outs on the nf2, the dac's they use on the mobo seem to sound a little to rough compared to the SC.
Click to expand...
where'd u get the cable. i tried searching but i didn't really know what to call it. I think I need aminiplug digital coax to normal (rca-like) dig coax... do they exist?

i saw some coax to optical converters that would work but i really didn't want to spend that sort of money.

(i may have confused some/all of my terminology, sry)
 
Originally posted by AlphaWolf260
The SantaCruz has a coax digital out that can be selected via the versajack box in the TBSC control panel. Then you can hook it to your reciever and it will send out the DD / DTS streams if your dvd decoder supports them. I have a Chaintech NF2 board, and i perfer the Santa Cruz over both the analog and digital outs on the nf2, the dac's they use on the mobo seem to sound a little to rough compared to the SC.
Click to expand...

I have always wondered how one would use that "digital out" in the TBSC control panel. It looks like a regular 1/8" headphone jack. How do you get coaxil out of that?
 
Originally posted by agentzero9
I have always wondered how one would use that "digital out" in the TBSC control panel. It looks like a regular 1/8" headphone jack. How do you get coaxil out of that?
Click to expand...
There is a cable that goes from 1/8" stereo plug to dual rca plugs. Plug the 1/8" plug into the tbsc and plug one of the rca plugs(I forget which one) into your receiver's digital in.
 
Originally posted by jpmkm
There is a cable that goes from 1/8" stereo plug to dual rca plugs. Plug the 1/8" plug into the tbsc and plug one of the rca plugs(I forget which one) into your receiver's digital in.
Click to expand...

This is not just a normal y-adapter is it? I'm already using one of those for the analoge out.
 
Originally posted by agentzero9
This is not just a normal y-adapter is it? I'm already using one of those for the analoge out.
Click to expand...
That's it! I think. Plug the 1/8" stereo plug into the versajack(I think that's where the digital comes out) and set digital out in the control panel. I believe one of the rca plugs provides regular stereo pcm out and the other one puts out the dolby digital sound. It would probably be best to check the manual, I suppose. It's been a while since I've messed with that.
 
I have an Abit AN7 mobo with the Realtek 658 chip and the analog is pretty freaking good. I use it with cans when I'm keeping a low profile at night. The AC-3 output is awesome using the Soundstorm processor.
Click to expand...
That's the first use of the ALC658 with the MCP-T APU I've heard of.
You're right though, the ALC658 is an excellent quality CODEC (and it's not freaking made by nvidia, Morry, so maybe you could bother to list it, huh?!) relative to the vast majority of CODECs that are slapped onto NF2 boards.
As I said, AC97 revision 2.3 is where it's at if you want good integrated audio quality.
 
Originally posted by jpmkm
That's it! I think. Plug the 1/8" stereo plug into the versajack(I think that's where the digital comes out) and set digital out in the control panel. I believe one of the rca plugs provides regular stereo pcm out and the other one puts out the dolby digital sound. It would probably be best to check the manual, I suppose. It's been a while since I've messed with that.
Click to expand...

WOW. You were right. I never knew all this time that I had that capability with my existing equipment!

Here is some more info I found on the subject:

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/kb_ftp/5856017.asp
 
See Inline:

Originally posted by agentzero9
This is very interesting information.

I'm actually looking at this shuttle case, which seems to have an SPDIF_Out in the frout.

A few questions about that:

1. Is that just a normal optical out that can go into one of the optical inputs on my reciver?
>Yes, the optical TOSLINK cable will let you hook your computer up to your receiver.

2. Is this the output that has higher quality than the TBSC analoge output? And by higher quality does that mean clearer, cleaner sound, or just more audio channels (i.e. 5.1 instead of Stereo)?
>Yes to both. If you don't want to expand your 2 channel stereo source to 5.1 you can make it pass the clean, 2ch digital information directly to your receiver - which will handle it better than the TBSC or the onboard codec.

3. Will it only send out a 5.1 signal?
>no, see above. It encodes / upmixes content on the fly, but you can disable it. If you're watching a DVD and have your output set to SPDIF it will pass through with out touching the original DD-5.1 or DTS stream.

The thing is I will be using the optical out for music. And thus I want stereo as true music is stereo (Except DVD-Audio etc.). I don't want the Nforce2 upmixing my stereo music into 5.1. Is there a way around this?
>Yes. You can control this.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for those answers. I since have the nforce board and I'm enjoying the sound :).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top