Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card

Pros: Great sound quality, incredibly affordable today
Cons: Uncertain, unlikely driver future

A Somewhat Historical Look At A Top-Quality Card I've had my Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz for two and a half years. And it was a quite dated product at the time I bought it, so we're definitely talking an ancient card. I've heard M-Audio's ...

Pros: Excellent audio quality, 5.1 support for DVD playback, VersaJack, solid WHQL Certified WDM drivers
Cons: EAX support doesn't quite match the Creative Labs products

Way back when...

I had wanted to write a review about the Santa Cruz back in March of 2001 but Epinions wasn’t taking new suggestions at that time. Now, many moons later, I see that they have finally developed a category for it and four other...

Pros: VersaJack, price, support, customizable
Cons: No EAX3, not true 5.1

A BIT OF HISTORY

Unfortunately, there's not too many good sound card choices out there. Creative Labs dominates the market with over-rated audio cards, and does their best to ensure that they continue to. My last card, an Aureal Vortex SQ2500,...

Pros: Extremely flexible; VersaJack is a fine option, great quality sound
Cons: It's not the newest thing out there, Audigy may trump it; some settings memory issues

The Santa Cruz is the top of the line Turtle Beach sound card, with the demise of the Aureal based devices they previously produced. It was introduced toward the end of 2000 to some glowing reviews in the gaming press.

The Specs
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Pros: rock stable drivers, sound quality, very low price.
Cons: absolutely none

After being severely burned over forking over $200 for a soundblaster platinum live! that had problems from day one (popping, skipping, bluescreens) I wanted to look elsewhere. Looking at soundcards on newegg, I found the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I ...

Pros: superb sound, excellent XP drivers, versatile
Cons: hmmm...no external port drive?

Abstract:

The Santa Cruz is one of the best sound cards available, even though it is almost 3 years old. Ditch your SB Live! and plug in an OEM version for less than $50.

Features:

Crystal DAC, 2-4-6 speaker surround, 2...

Pros: Smooth setup, great value, excellent sound quality.
Cons: None in particular.

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 ...

Pros: Easy to install, extremely reliable.
Cons: Doesn't have all the new features of some current sound cards.

When I say it doesn't have all the features of some sound cards, that shouldn't be taken as a slam on the Santa Cruz, which is a great product. It doesn't have the on-board FireWire ports like the SB Audigy or the front control panel of the Herc Game...

Pros: Simple install, great features, great software, incredible sound!
Cons: None.

I'll keep this review short and sweet. The reviews written before me have summed it all up better than I could.

I recently upgraded my computer JBL Pro speakers to a set of Klipsch ProMedia 4.1's. (also a great speaker, but that's for...

Pros: versatile in speaker arrangement, good software bundle, easy to use control panel, dependable4 everyday use
Cons: misleading packaging about dolby digital compatibility, sound clipping, twangy sound while playing games with EAX

I researched cards before I purchased one, reading all the specs and such. I felt like I was misled by the Santa Cruz's packaging about the card being 5.1 dolby digital compatible. It is compatible, if you send the unprocessed digital signal to an outside source to process, therefore defeating the purpose of buying a 5.1 card in the first place. It has a VIRTUAL 5.1 DSP which really falls short of what you'd expect. The Versajack can be set up to power headphones, send a signal to a subwoofer and center channel, or send a digital signal to another unit for processing. I have found that the versajack does not send an analog signal to the center channel speaker even when I tell it to in the control panel. On top of that, some games that I play have bad clipping noises and a twangy sound when using EAX. I will be offing this waste of my time on ebay and going with Creative. I suggest spending $20 more and get the Audigy2. I wish I had.

Pros: Performance,price,dependable
Cons: make sure you download the 4161 drivers from the Santacruz site,my originals were defective

Excellent card,and it's more than reasonably priced,in a world where overpriced merchandise is status quo,this card is a slap in the face....try it