Question on Santa Cruz sound card

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

Been thinking about buying one, and I see it has 2 SPDIF outputs (maybe
programmable, changing another jack to this function).

1. I need a card that will have available my regular analog output AND an
SPDIF output simultaneously, not disabling one to get the other.

2. Also, I need to know if any MP3 or other sound, besides .WAV and the
like, is output via the SPDIF. I would like to be able to send MP3 and other
audio over to the main stereo in digital form if possible, and decode over
there.

I've been looking over the Turtle beach site, and the answers to these
questions aren't obvious - though they mention hardware MP3 decoding, which
makes me lean toward believing that it does meet requirement number 2.


Mark Z.

--
Please reply only to Group. I regret this is necessary. Viruses and spam
have rendered my regular e-mail address useless.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 15:48:27 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
<mzacharias@yis.us> wrote:

>Been thinking about buying one, and I see it has 2 SPDIF outputs (maybe
>programmable, changing another jack to this function).
>
>1. I need a card that will have available my regular analog output AND an
>SPDIF output simultaneously, not disabling one to get the other.
>
>2. Also, I need to know if any MP3 or other sound, besides .WAV and the
>like, is output via the SPDIF. I would like to be able to send MP3 and other
>audio over to the main stereo in digital form if possible, and decode over
>there.
>
>I've been looking over the Turtle beach site, and the answers to these
>questions aren't obvious - though they mention hardware MP3 decoding, which
>makes me lean toward believing that it does meet requirement number 2.

Look at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

>Look at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496.

I'll check it out.

mz

--
Please reply only to Group. I regret this is necessary. Viruses and spam
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"Laurence Payne" <l@laurenceDELETEpayne.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:jnlje01q46d7o1m7fq17f3in1eu955kcm1@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 15:48:27 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
> <mzacharias@yis.us> wrote:
>
> >Been thinking about buying one, and I see it has 2 SPDIF outputs (maybe
> >programmable, changing another jack to this function).
> >
> >1. I need a card that will have available my regular analog output AND an
> >SPDIF output simultaneously, not disabling one to get the other.
> >
> >2. Also, I need to know if any MP3 or other sound, besides .WAV and the
> >like, is output via the SPDIF. I would like to be able to send MP3 and
other
> >audio over to the main stereo in digital form if possible, and decode
over
> >there.
> >
> >I've been looking over the Turtle beach site, and the answers to these
> >questions aren't obvious - though they mention hardware MP3 decoding,
which
> >makes me lean toward believing that it does meet requirement number 2.
>
> Look at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 23:32:52 +0100, Laurence Payne
<l@laurenceDELETEpayne.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

>On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 15:48:27 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
><mzacharias@yis.us> wrote:
>
>>Been thinking about buying one, and I see it has 2 SPDIF outputs (maybe
>>programmable, changing another jack to this function).
>>
>>1. I need a card that will have available my regular analog output AND an
>>SPDIF output simultaneously, not disabling one to get the other.
>>
>>2. Also, I need to know if any MP3 or other sound, besides .WAV and the
>>like, is output via the SPDIF. I would like to be able to send MP3 and other
>>audio over to the main stereo in digital form if possible, and decode over
>>there.
>>
>>I've been looking over the Turtle beach site, and the answers to these
>>questions aren't obvious - though they mention hardware MP3 decoding, which
>>makes me lean toward believing that it does meet requirement number 2.
>
>Look at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496.
I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I took
it out and put back by Sound Blaster

Abbedd

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"ansermetniac" <ansermetniac@hotmail.com> wrote in message
newsgrje0144b4v1mh9e9laa9th9qfnp8f14d@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 23:32:52 +0100, Laurence Payne
> <l@laurenceDELETEpayne.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 15:48:27 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
> ><mzacharias@yis.us> wrote:
> >
> >>Been thinking about buying one, and I see it has 2 SPDIF outputs (maybe
> >>programmable, changing another jack to this function).
> >>
> >>1. I need a card that will have available my regular analog output AND
an
> >>SPDIF output simultaneously, not disabling one to get the other.
> >>
> >>2. Also, I need to know if any MP3 or other sound, besides .WAV and the
> >>like, is output via the SPDIF. I would like to be able to send MP3 and
other
> >>audio over to the main stereo in digital form if possible, and decode
over
> >>there.
> >>
> >>I've been looking over the Turtle beach site, and the answers to these
> >>questions aren't obvious - though they mention hardware MP3 decoding,
which
> >>makes me lean toward believing that it does meet requirement number 2.
> >
> >Look at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496.
> I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I took
> it out and put back by Sound Blaster
>
> Abbedd
>

Well, that's not encouraging!

mz

--
Please reply only to Group. I regret this is necessary. Viruses and spam
have rendered my regular e-mail address useless.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

ansermetniac wrote:

> On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 23:32:52 +0100, Laurence Payne
> <l@laurenceDELETEpayne.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>>On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 15:48:27 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
>><mzacharias@yis.us> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Been thinking about buying one, and I see it has 2 SPDIF outputs (maybe
>>>programmable, changing another jack to this function).
>>>
>>>1. I need a card that will have available my regular analog output AND an
>>>SPDIF output simultaneously, not disabling one to get the other.
>>>
>>>2. Also, I need to know if any MP3 or other sound, besides .WAV and the
>>>like, is output via the SPDIF. I would like to be able to send MP3 and other
>>>audio over to the main stereo in digital form if possible, and decode over
>>>there.
>>>
>>>I've been looking over the Turtle beach site, and the answers to these
>>>questions aren't obvious - though they mention hardware MP3 decoding, which
>>>makes me lean toward believing that it does meet requirement number 2.
>>
>>Look at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496.
>
> I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I took
> it out and put back by Sound Blaster
>
> Abbedd
>
I had a Santa Cruz. I then upgraded to an Echo MIA (the original without
the MIDI) The MP3 hardware encoding on the Santa Cruz means that the
card will lossy compress the music for you instead of your computer's
CPU, thereby making encoding happen faster and leaving your CPU free to
do other stuff.

CD

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

How about this:

Can anyone recommend a card that will simply give me optical and coaxial
digital audio outputs from my computer, that is, putting out whatever sound
the computer is doing in 44.1K 16 bit format? I simply want to be able to
shoot music, whether cd, WAV, MP3, whatever, over to the main stereo and use
a Denon D/A unit on that end. I'd prefer optical, I think, to avoid ground
loops, and it'll need to go about 35 feet, so I need to confirm that a
Toslink cable can go that far.

Mark Z.

--
Please reply only to Group. I regret this is necessary. Viruses and spam
have rendered my regular e-mail address useless.


"Codifus" <codifus@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:ccd8s1$h2j$1@news.interpublic.com...
> ansermetniac wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 23:32:52 +0100, Laurence Payne
> > <l@laurenceDELETEpayne.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 15:48:27 -0500, "Mark D. Zacharias"
> >><mzacharias@yis.us> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>Been thinking about buying one, and I see it has 2 SPDIF outputs (maybe
> >>>programmable, changing another jack to this function).
> >>>
> >>>1. I need a card that will have available my regular analog output AND
an
> >>>SPDIF output simultaneously, not disabling one to get the other.
> >>>
> >>>2. Also, I need to know if any MP3 or other sound, besides .WAV and the
> >>>like, is output via the SPDIF. I would like to be able to send MP3 and
other
> >>>audio over to the main stereo in digital form if possible, and decode
over
> >>>there.
> >>>
> >>>I've been looking over the Turtle beach site, and the answers to these
> >>>questions aren't obvious - though they mention hardware MP3 decoding,
which
> >>>makes me lean toward believing that it does meet requirement number 2.
> >>
> >>Look at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496.
> >
> > I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I took
> > it out and put back by Sound Blaster
> >
> > Abbedd
> >
> I had a Santa Cruz. I then upgraded to an Echo MIA (the original without
> the MIDI) The MP3 hardware encoding on the Santa Cruz means that the
> card will lossy compress the music for you instead of your computer's
> CPU, thereby making encoding happen faster and leaving your CPU free to
> do other stuff.
>
> CD

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"Mark D. Zacharias" <mzacharias@yis.us> wrote in message
news:2ktt4jF6e360U1@uni-berlin.de
> Been thinking about buying one, and I see it has 2 SPDIF outputs
> (maybe programmable, changing another jack to this function).
>
> 1. I need a card that will have available my regular analog output
> AND an SPDIF output simultaneously, not disabling one to get the
> other.

AFAIK, the TBSC does that.

> 2. Also, I need to know if any MP3 or other sound, besides .WAV and
> the like, is output via the SPDIF.

I'm quite sure the TBSC does that. It's the sound card in my office machine,
which is used for general audio playback. The power amp is a conventional
2-channel Pioneer receiver, so I don't have any immediate experience with
how the SP/DOF output works.

Beware of the comments about the M-Audio Audiophile 24/96. It's a fine card,
but AFAIK the analog and digital outputs are logically different audio
devices with separate interfaces for software to write data to.

> I would like to be able to send
> MP3 and other audio over to the main stereo in digital form if
> possible, and decode over there.

Shouldn't be a problem. However, the TBSC's digital output is 48 KHz, but
the resampling is of high enough quality.

> I've been looking over the Turtle beach site, and the answers to these
> questions aren't obvious - though they mention hardware MP3 decoding,
> which makes me lean toward believing that it does meet requirement
> number 2.

Actually, the MP3 decoding in the TBSC can be ignored. To activate it, you
need to use a special MP3 player that activates the feature. If you use
something like Winamp or CoolEdit, it acts just like any other sound card.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"Mark D. Zacharias" <mzacharias@yis.us> wrote in message
news:2kub3nF6caceU1@uni-berlin.de...
> > I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I took
> > it out and put back by Sound Blaster

60 seconds told you absolutely nothing. I've used both, and the SC is better
than the SB live for almost everything. (not by as much as some would have
you believe)
They are both fairly cheap and old cards these days though.

> Well, that's not encouraging!

Says more about the person than the cards really.

TonyP.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 18:29:41 +1000, "TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au>
wrote:

>
>"Mark D. Zacharias" <mzacharias@yis.us> wrote in message
>news:2kub3nF6caceU1@uni-berlin.de...
>> > I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I took
>> > it out and put back by Sound Blaster
>
>60 seconds told you absolutely nothing. I've used both, and the SC is better
>than the SB live for almost everything. (not by as much as some would have
>you believe)
>They are both fairly cheap and old cards these days though.
>
>> Well, that's not encouraging!
>
>Says more about the person than the cards really.

Maybe I have better ears than you. And the knowledge to know what I am
hearing.

Abbedd
Chief Engineer/Acoustician The Dave Guardala Companies
>
>TonyP.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"ansermetniac" <ansermetniac@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ienne0hakdvssbmhousqg2bpi8egirhbml@4ax.com

> On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 18:29:41 +1000, "TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au>
> wrote:

>>"ansermetniac" <ansermetniac@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>newsgrje0144b4v1mh9e9laa9th9qfnp8f14d@4ax.com

>>>> I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I
>>>> took it out and put back by Sound Blaster

>> 60 seconds told you absolutely nothing. I've used both, and the SC
>> is better than the SB live for almost everything. (not by as much as
>> some would have you believe)
>> Says more about the person than the cards really.

> Maybe I have better ears than you. And the knowledge to know what I am
> hearing.

Disucssions like this tend to turn into pissing matches unless the listening
comparisons are as fair and as unbiased as possible. I invite one and all to
do DBTs of these cards and reach their own conclusions.

You can either compare one card to the other, or you can compare either card
to an absolute standard, which is figuratively a straight wire. Just
download the test files and DBT comparators from:

http/www.pcabx.com/product/ct4830/index.htm

http/www.pcabx.com/product/santa_cruz/index.htm

Let your ears be the judge!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 07:48:39 -0400, "Arny Krueger" <arnyk@hotpop.com>
wrote:

>"ansermetniac" <ansermetniac@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:ienne0hakdvssbmhousqg2bpi8egirhbml@4ax.com
>
>> On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 18:29:41 +1000, "TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au>
>> wrote:
>
>>>"ansermetniac" <ansermetniac@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>>newsgrje0144b4v1mh9e9laa9th9qfnp8f14d@4ax.com
>
>>>>> I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I
>>>>> took it out and put back by Sound Blaster
>
>>> 60 seconds told you absolutely nothing. I've used both, and the SC
>>> is better than the SB live for almost everything. (not by as much as
>>> some would have you believe)
>>> Says more about the person than the cards really.
>
>> Maybe I have better ears than you. And the knowledge to know what I am
>> hearing.
>
>Disucssions like this tend to turn into pissing matches unless the listening
>comparisons are as fair and as unbiased as possible. I invite one and all to
>do DBTs of these cards and reach their own conclusions.
>
>You can either compare one card to the other, or you can compare either card
>to an absolute standard, which is figuratively a straight wire. Just
>download the test files and DBT comparators from:
>
>http/www.pcabx.com/product/ct4830/index.htm
>
>http/www.pcabx.com/product/santa_cruz/index.htm
>
>Let your ears be the judge!

No DBT is needed to decide the diference the Turtle beach and the
Blaster. Next you will be telling me that I need a DBT to tell the
difference between my Bozaks and the B & W 802s.


Abbedd

 

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Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"ansermetniac" <ansermetniac@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:c4tne0hlc2tv3sstkvvi117nlafeov3ad2@4ax.com
> On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 07:48:39 -0400, "Arny Krueger" <arnyk@hotpop.com>
> wrote:
>
>> "ansermetniac" <ansermetniac@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:ienne0hakdvssbmhousqg2bpi8egirhbml@4ax.com
>>
>>> On Wed, 7 Jul 2004 18:29:41 +1000, "TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au>
>>> wrote:
>>
>>>> "ansermetniac" <ansermetniac@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>>> newsgrje0144b4v1mh9e9laa9th9qfnp8f14d@4ax.com
>>
>>>>>> I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I
>>>>>> took it out and put back by Sound Blaster
>>
>>>> 60 seconds told you absolutely nothing. I've used both, and the SC
>>>> is better than the SB live for almost everything. (not by as much
>>>> as some would have you believe)
>>>> Says more about the person than the cards really.
>>
>>> Maybe I have better ears than you. And the knowledge to know what I
>>> am hearing.
>>
>> Disucssions like this tend to turn into pissing matches unless the
>> listening comparisons are as fair and as unbiased as possible. I
>> invite one and all to do DBTs of these cards and reach their own
>> conclusions.
>>
>> You can either compare one card to the other, or you can compare
>> either card to an absolute standard, which is figuratively a
>> straight wire. Just download the test files and DBT comparators from:
>>
>> http/www.pcabx.com/product/ct4830/index.htm
>>
>> http/www.pcabx.com/product/santa_cruz/index.htm

>> Let your ears be the judge!

> No DBT is needed to decide the diference the Turtle beach and the Blaster.

Abbedd, I can smell the fear from here!

I can also summarize the results of the DBTs - A TBSC is capable of making a
recording that is indistinguishable from the original, even when the musical
sounds being recorded are exceptionally hard to record properly.

Not so with the SB Live! For example, most people catch the timbre change in
the trumpets pretty quickly, even in a DBT. Wanna explain why and how they
slipped by you, Abbedd?

Of course this is contingent on a good installation of both cards. You know,
one without pops or clicks due to configuration errors.

> Next you will be telling me that I need a DBT to tell the
> difference between my Bozaks and the B & W 802s.

Abbedd, you're reducing yourself to an absurdity with ludicrous comparisons
like this. The audible differences between fairly good modern sound cards
and legacy speakers are well known to be entirely different things. And
since you don't seem to be knowledgeable on this point either Abbedd,
hearing differences between speakers is well known to be very easy. It's
darn hard to even level match them!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"Codifus" <codifus@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:ccd8s1$h2j$1@news.interpublic.com...
> I had a Santa Cruz. I then upgraded to an Echo MIA (the original without
> the MIDI) The MP3 hardware encoding on the Santa Cruz means that the
> card will lossy compress the music for you instead of your computer's
> CPU, thereby making encoding happen faster and leaving your CPU free to
> do other stuff.

Hardly something to worry about with any modern CPU. It just spends even
more time doing nothing.
The Echo card does have a lot better performance though for the extra money.

TonyP.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

Looked over the Echo card. I'd rather stick with unbalanced analog in/outs,
I think. I'd like to keep my existing preamp etc without using adapters.
Just more clutter.

Mark Z.

--
Please reply only to Group. I regret this is necessary. Viruses and spam
have rendered my regular e-mail address useless.


"TonyP" <TonyP@optus.net.com.au> wrote in message
news:40ebb53d$0$25461$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...
>
> "Codifus" <codifus@optonline.net> wrote in message
> news:ccd8s1$h2j$1@news.interpublic.com...
> > I had a Santa Cruz. I then upgraded to an Echo MIA (the original without
> > the MIDI) The MP3 hardware encoding on the Santa Cruz means that the
> > card will lossy compress the music for you instead of your computer's
> > CPU, thereby making encoding happen faster and leaving your CPU free to
> > do other stuff.
>
> Hardly something to worry about with any modern CPU. It just spends even
> more time doing nothing.
> The Echo card does have a lot better performance though for the extra
money.
>
> TonyP.
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

TonyP wrote:
> "Codifus" <codifus@optonline.net> wrote in message
> news:ccd8s1$h2j$1@news.interpublic.com...
>
>>I had a Santa Cruz. I then upgraded to an Echo MIA (the original without
>>the MIDI) The MP3 hardware encoding on the Santa Cruz means that the
>>card will lossy compress the music for you instead of your computer's
>>CPU, thereby making encoding happen faster and leaving your CPU free to
>>do other stuff.
>
>
> Hardly something to worry about with any modern CPU. It just spends even
> more time doing nothing.
> The Echo card does have a lot better performance though for the extra money.
>
> TonyP.
>
>
Exactly. I never used the hardware mp3 compression on the Cruz, and my
upgrade to the MIA was to get better A/D D/A performance, which it
definitely gave me I am re-doing all my analog recordings that I once
did with the Cruz just because of that.

CD

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"Mark D. Zacharias" <mzacharias@yis.us> wrote in message
news:2l220aF7nsqjU1@uni-berlin.de
> Looked over the Echo card. I'd rather stick with unbalanced analog
> in/outs, I think. I'd like to keep my existing preamp etc without
> using adapters. Just more clutter.

Ironically, the Echo Mia, the Audiophile 2496 and the Delta 44 and Delta 66
all have unbalanced I/O. The TRS jacks are in effect, decoration.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

"Mark D. Zacharias" <mzacharias@yis.us> wrote in message
news:2kvb4tF6kd1aU1@uni-berlin.de...
> How about this:
>
> Can anyone recommend a card that will simply give me optical and coaxial
> digital audio outputs from my computer, that is, putting out whatever
sound
> the computer is doing in 44.1K 16 bit format? I simply want to be able to
> shoot music, whether cd, WAV, MP3, whatever, over to the main stereo and
use
> a Denon D/A unit on that end. I'd prefer optical, I think, to avoid ground
> loops, and it'll need to go about 35 feet, so I need to confirm that a
> Toslink cable can go that far.

Well optical rules out any of the cheap sound cards. You may be better off
using a co-ax to optical repeater which will probably have more chance at
driving the 35 foot cable as well.

TonyP.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

On Tue, 06 Jul 2004 00:11:53 GMT, ansermetniac
<ansermetniac@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I took
>it out and put back by Sound Blaster

Well, tell us why?

It's not top of my list. But it works. And, in basic operation,
shouldn't sound all that different to a SB.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.audio.tech (More info?)

ansermetniac wrote:
>> Look at the M-Audio Audiophile 2496.
> I bought the Santa Cruz upon reccomendation. After 60 seconds I took
> it out and put back by Sound Blaster
>

Did you have a broken one or are you deaf ?

geoff