Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI Sound Card
by TURTLE BEACH SYSTEMS
(Click here)
Digital product summary information
Manufacturer: TURTLE BEACH SYSTEMSModel: TBS-3400-01
Product features:
- Digital Signal Processor (DSP) offloads audio tasks from PC central processor
- High-resolution converters provide crystal-clear reproduction of MP3, WAV, CD, DVD and Internet Audio
- Spectacular home-theater surround sound with programmable ambiance effects on 2, 4, or 6-speaker systems
- SensauraVirtualEar Technology optimizes 3-D positional audio for enjoying surround sound with headphones
- Supports industry-standard 3-D positional audio for interactive PC gaming
- Logitech Z-640 6 Speaker Surround Sound System
- Pyramat Interactive PM300 3-Speaker Sound Lounger
- JBL Creature 2.1 Speakers (3-Speaker, White)
Digital camera reviews of Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI Sound Card
Digital camera Review: Excellent audio card - great sound and smooth setup.
Summary: 4 Stars
Though being 5.1. surround, the onboard sound card in my new Dell XPS 400, a.k.a. Dimension 9150, was much too low quality to serve my Altec Lansing GT 5051 5.1.loudspeakers right: The sound was flat, with little or no bass, ambience or sense of depth (Although very happy with my Dells in general, you would think that a dedicated gaming system such as the XPS would have an audio card already in it!)
When doing my audio card research to complement my GT5051 speakers, I concluded that it was between a Creative Soundblaster Live! or a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (or similar). I went with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz as other reviewers had suggested that the setup was pretty straightforward and were complementary about the sound.
I can recommend it, too: The card slipped right into one of my empty PCI slots and the color coding of the card outputs matched the inputs of my Altec Lansing 5.1 speakers for quick and easy hookup. Upon restart, my XP immediately recognized the card (make sure to "Cancel" XP's offer to install the drivers itself - instead, install the drivers from the CD-ROM that comes with the card once the computer booted up).
Software installation went without a hitch. The associated software is excellent, with plenty of adjustments and settings, so you can set it up exactly for your hardware requirements, taste and applications. If you are replacing an onboard sound card (as opposed to a dedicated sound card), PLEASE note that you will need to turn off the onboard sound card in the computer BIOS (F2 or F11 on startup) - if you don't, you will get NO sound off your new Turtle Beach card. This is NOT explained in the Quick Guide that comes with the card AT ALL.
Summary of Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI Sound Card
A next generation PCI sound card that drives up to 6 powered speakers or enhanced to sound like 6 with programmable DSP effects Simultaneous record & playback up to 48kHz Digital Outputs - 48kHz PCM or AC-3 for external processors 10-band graphic EQ with presets and peak meters 3 20-bit DACs 10Hz-120kHz (-3dB) SNR - 96dB FS A-weighted THD+N - (-3dB) - < -91 dB FS (0.0027%) Requires Pentium 200MHz processor w/MMX or better, 32MB RAM, Win95/98/NT 4.0 (w/SP.4 or higher), PCI 2.1 slot, CD-ROM drive and 69MB disk spaceCameras and Photo
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