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Sound Card Q

G

gpfreek

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 2, 2001
Messages
141
I am putting together a parts list for a new computer. But I have a budget so that means deciding what is more important. I have heard that the Turtle Beach sound cards are as good as the Creative Labs at a lower price. Has anyone heard one in action or had any good / bad luck with their cards?
 
I have the Audigy1, Audigy LS, SBLive 5.1, Hercules Fortissimo III and the TBSC. I can honestly and truly say the TBSC is the absolute worst card of that group. The CPU usage was the highest during games, and the audio output was absolutely muddy and shitty. All other hardware remained the same, and I tested using fresh ghost images. I have mine hanging on my wall by fish string until I can figure out a proper way to destroy it. Oh, and I thought my original one was bad, so I RMA'd it and had the same results. The Fortissimo III isn't too bad, but I still prefer Creative's line.

You have to realize many people don't like Creative because they wanted to "charge" for drivers at one point. They never did, but yet many people are too stupid to make their own opinions. They're drivers sometimes contain bloatware, but if you use an ounce of common sense during the install, you won't install any of it. Plus, their hardware is second to none.
 
I've had the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Audigy 2, and Soundblaster 5.1.

djnes, no idea what was up with your TBSC, mine sounded fine, I didn't detect any muddiness in the sound quality.

But I will say Audigy 2 (or LS, the 7.1 card) is the best sound card I've had. Excellent sound quality, driver packages aren't that bad; the Audigy 1 I heard had horrible drivers.
I even hear John Carmack (you know, the guy who programs id's game engines) thought Audigy 1 drivers were so shitty he rewrote them, sent them back to Creative, and basically told them "Your drivers blow ass."

But yeah, Audigy 2 is the sweet spot for me.
 
Thanks for the input. I have heard both sides of the coin and now it seems that TB is no longer a choice for me since djines seems to mirror the stories I have heard. It seems the stories I hear are at extreme opposites. Either the best thing since sliced bread or the worst thing since the plague. Again thanks.
 
I have an audigy 1, 2003 model. it works fine. only time i have had, or am HAVING problems, is with ATi video cards, namely RADEON. it worked FINE with Nvidia video card. all of the latest ones.
 
If you play games then go with a Audigy or Audigy 2. If you just play music and surf the web then TBSC should be fine. But I would still get the Audigy or Audigy 2. You can find Audigy cards for like $30
 
As far as sound goes, I've gone NUTS with a crapload of creative cards and a few junk ESS cards, and found only ONE good sound solution. And u can guess.... Soundstorm! :D *cuddles motherboard*

-/LB/-
 
Actually the Turtle Beach card has much higher grade components than any Creative card. Also, Creative cards have faulty algorithms for sound decompression. While this leads to less cpu usage it also leads to loads of distortion at cirtain frequencies. This has been a problem with Creative cards since the SB Live. The Audigy 2 uses better components than the Audigy and Live cards, but still uses worse components than the TBSC, and also suffers from bad algorithms. If you really don't care about sound quality and most of the time do games like Halo, than get the Audigy Gamer, its like $60. If you are more interested in music, or a computer that can spare 2-5 FPS, then get the M-Audio Revolution or the Turtle Beach card. Good quality almost always takes more cpu power.
 
I don't even know if what you stated is true or not, but it's irrelevant. "Higher grade components" does not necessarily mean the sound quality is superior. Everything I've heard supports the position that, as good a card the TBSC is, the Audigy 2 is superior. During my own experience with the Audigy 2 ZS, I have never heard anything to suggest that the card has "loads of distortion at cirtain frequencies." Nor have I heard anything to suggest that Creative's "algorithms" are faulty. A quick Google search has no really relevant results when I search for "creative audigy algorithm faulty" so as far as I know, there is no evidence to corroborate your claim.

Your entire post reads like a anti-Creative rant with nothing to support it at all. "Good quality almost always takes more cpu power" is a seemingly reasonable statement, but is actually similarly meaningless. It only takes more CPU power if there is no dedicated audio processor on the sound card. While I agree that the Revo is probably a top choice for audio quality, your statements on the TBSC and the fact that you even suggested the Audigy Gamer over the similarly priced Audigy 2 leads me to conclude that you do not actually know what you're talking about.
 
Actually, fool, I own an Audigy 2. I love the card dearly, but only for the features. The drivers are bloatware. You have to resample to atleast 48K with an inpolation method to get the card not to distort at higher frequentcies. The components are adaquate, as the high SNR obviously means. Its just the method they use for decoding and then changing it to an analog signal that is not very good. It does sacrifice quality for speed. Infact, why do you think this card uses much less cpu power than other cards of comparible quality? Most people don't notice this because Creatives is the only sound cards most people ever hear. Many people who do know about Creative cards and their drivers will agree with me. Infact, even the main programmer for ID games (Doom series) rebuilt drivers for the Audigy and sent them back to Creative. He basicly said, your drivers suck cock.
 
If you can't frickin read, the guy also said he was on a BUDGET. The Audigy Gamer is far cheaper than getting an Audigy 2.
 
What is the budget? What are the priorities for this computer? You might be better off getting a MB with a decent onboard solution.
 
The processing chip is only one part of the signal chain. Soundstorm can be good, if you have good DACs either onboard or outboard, and if you are interested in gaming. The EnvyPT chip is capable of 24/96, and provided the onboard DACs are of sufficient quality, the implementation has a high likelyhood of excellence for music and movies. Like I said, what is the expected range of applications that you expect to perform, and what is the budget involved? I think that these are questions that the original poster should answer, not other people.
 
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