SoundStorm or Santa Cruz

Dom · Mar 14, 2003, 03:33 AM

Which is better, nVidia SoundStorm intergrated APU w/ Dolby Digital 5.1 or TB Santa Cruz DSP sound card?

Necrosis · Mar 14, 2003, 04:29 AM

Now this is a tough question to answer.

The sound on your motherboard is a little better than an Audigy 1 but with hardware decoding.

So.....

The Santa Cruz has a better..cleaner..and warmer sound than the Audigy 1 but the A1 has slightly better gaming support.

However, you will not have the glitchiness with the SC as you do with the Sound Storm. For those of you without this sound "option" it's not a really a glitch just the drivers could be a bit better. I did notice some noise with the Sound Storm myself. It's really a hard decision honestly. I would say it would come down to price. If it's cheap get it and/or if you have it already try installing it and see how it compares.

You should also might want to keep this thread in mind as far as drivers for the SC go.

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...&threadid=6342

Vampyromaniac · Mar 14, 2003, 08:20 AM

Does the SoundStorm have any gaming support?

DallasStar · Mar 14, 2003, 02:53 PM

Yes, it does.

Quote:

from 3d sound surge

It offers excellent support for DirectSound, DS3D (all with plenty of 3D
channels), I3DL2, EAX and EAX2 along with native OpenAL support.

Most noteworthy and somewhat surprising given our expectation of a stock Sensaura reverb engine, the reverb quality while not quite as consistent as the Live or Audigy, is clearly the overall best of all Creative's competitors and a clear plus of gaming on the nForce. What is lacking is support for EAX Advanced HD. While EAX Advanced HD titles can be written with a fall-back to EAX 2, only the Audigy series from Creative currently take full advantage of aural aspects of EAX Advanced HD titles.

Two-speaker, headphone and four-speaker 3D audio from Sensauraâ€™s engine is simply outstanding with both the two speaker and headphone modes arguably being the current top of the market. Six channel gaming support using the NVIDIA implementation of the Sensaura MultiDrive 5.1 engine is also excellent..

Vampyromaniac · Mar 14, 2003, 06:42 PM

that's pretty cool

Dom · Mar 14, 2003, 06:59 PM

The XBox uses the same APU I believe.

Necrosis · Mar 14, 2003, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dom
The XBox uses the same APU I believe.

You are correct Sir.

Mar 14, 2003, 03:33 AM	#1
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	SoundStorm or Santa Cruz Which is better, nVidia SoundStorm intergrated APU w/ Dolby Digital 5.1 or TB Santa Cruz DSP sound card?

Mar 14, 2003, 08:20 AM	#3
Vampyromaniac confutatis maledictis Join Date: May 2002 Location: somewhere dark Posts: 5,974 Rep Power: 74 System Specs	Does the SoundStorm have any gaming support? __________________ *Digitalis 3.3* Athlon 64 3000 // ASUS K8V SE Deluxe // 1024MB PC3200 (2-2-2-10 1T) ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro // 20" Dell 2005FPW (DVI) M-Audio Revo 7.1 + Philips Acoustic Edge // Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 320/16 Western Digital WD3200KS + 120/8 Seagate 7200.7 NEC ND-3550A 16x DVD±RW + Lite-On 52x24x CD-RW Antec Sonata case // 480W Antec TruePower personal bests \|\| Aq'3: 46796 \| 3D'01: 20461 \| 3D'03: 6336 \| 3D'05: 2677 \| PC'04: 4605 \| PC'02: 7691,9092,1250

Mar 14, 2003, 06:42 PM	#5
Vampyromaniac confutatis maledictis Join Date: May 2002 Location: somewhere dark Posts: 5,974 Rep Power: 74 System Specs	that's pretty cool __________________ *Digitalis 3.3* Athlon 64 3000 // ASUS K8V SE Deluxe // 1024MB PC3200 (2-2-2-10 1T) ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro // 20" Dell 2005FPW (DVI) M-Audio Revo 7.1 + Philips Acoustic Edge // Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 320/16 Western Digital WD3200KS + 120/8 Seagate 7200.7 NEC ND-3550A 16x DVD±RW + Lite-On 52x24x CD-RW Antec Sonata case // 480W Antec TruePower personal bests \|\| Aq'3: 46796 \| 3D'01: 20461 \| 3D'03: 6336 \| 3D'05: 2677 \| PC'04: 4605 \| PC'02: 7691,9092,1250

Mar 14, 2003, 04:29 AM	#2
Necrosis HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 8,838 Rep Power: 129 System Specs	Now this is a tough question to answer. The sound on your motherboard is a little better than an Audigy 1 but with hardware decoding. So..... The Santa Cruz has a better..cleaner..and warmer sound than the Audigy 1 but the A1 has slightly better gaming support. However, you will not have the glitchiness with the SC as you do with the Sound Storm. For those of you without this sound "option" it's not a really a glitch just the drivers could be a bit better. I did notice some noise with the Sound Storm myself. It's really a hard decision honestly. I would say it would come down to price. If it's cheap get it and/or if you have it already try installing it and see how it compares. You should also might want to keep this thread in mind as far as drivers for the SC go. http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...&threadid=6342

Mar 14, 2003, 06:59 PM	Thread Starter #6
Dom DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 12,940 Rep Power: 0	The XBox uses the same APU I believe.