Rating: 
Summary: Stable & Great Sound
Review: I have had problems with the sound quality of captured video. The on-board AC'97 made it sound scratchy & tinny. Hence I decided to get a sound card. SB live! and Philips cards were no go as they locked up my system. Hurricane Extreme was no better than on-board audio. In a last desperate measure, I installed the Santa Cruz 5.1 card. The installation was unbelievably smooth (W2K + MSI K7-Master) and the sound quality is excellent. I heartily recommend this card to anyone looking for a stable PCI card with excellent audio quality
Rating:
Summary: "The Best"
Review: I love really good equipment- and this card is the best overall. It has better driver support for more games- a better user interface than creatives cards ( I have a SB live also) and has a smaller CPU usage footprint...and it's cheaper. It's an ABSOLUTE steal- yes It's better that SB live value- LIVE!- and IMHO- better than ALL audigy cards for gaming- it's gives less trouble and runs better on most games. 5.1/6.1 sound- versa jack- sound options out he WAZOO! I built a new rig with MSI 415d motherboard (Nvida chipset) AMD athalon xp2100 OCZ PC 2700, Coolermaster ALUM. case, HCC_001 CM HS, and by my choice (and i had the money to but Audigy) I plugged a new Santa cruise in this baby- ...and...it rocks.
Rating:
Summary: Best Card for the Money
Review: I recently bought the Santa Cruz card to replace the SB Live that came with my Dell P4. The SB never worked well, giving me sound out of only 3 of my 4 main speakers. The Santa Cruz installed and played 4.1.digital without skipping a beat. The sound is better than the SB and the SC control panel is MUCH easier to use DSP effects. The only weakness compared to the SB is the rather boring accesories included with the SC. If you want a quality sound card and don't need the extras, it's as simple as - Santa Cruz rules, Sound Blaster BLOWS.
Rating:
Summary: Just what I needed: good price, great value
Review: I recently upgraded from basic speakers to a 5:1 speaker set and discovered a hardware problem with my old sound card, a Creative Labs card that was a standard component with my system. The documentation that came with the card wasn't great, and it took a while to identify the problem, so I was looking outside the Creative family for my next sound card. I'd read several good reviews of the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card, so I figured I'd take a shot on it. That shot definitely paid off. I have nothing but good things to say about my new sound card: installation was easy (I only had to unhook the microphone connector from my old card and snap it onto this one), the drivers installed quickly and easily, and the accompanying software was far superior to the software that I had from Creative. There are a host of sound options available: your standard volume-by-source controls, a graphic equalizer that can be turned on and off with several presets, options for multiple speaker setups with an accompanying image showing where your speakers should be connected (2 speakers, 4 speakers, 5:1, and so on), and additional applications if you want to get more involved. I haven't had a chance to put the card through its paces with a decent game, but the difference in listening to my iTunes files is amazing, and the control I have over the music is great. I'd definitely recommend this card to anyone looking for a reasonably-priced, fairly high-powered sound card, and with Amazon's newly-lowered price, it's an even better deal than when I got it. Buy it and enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: 5.1 OUTPUT... not PROCESSING
Review: I was misled by the box's labeling which stated that it was dolby digital compatible... It is, if you send the digital signal to an external dolby digital processor. It does not decode dolby digital itself. I recommend going with a Creative Sound Blaster. You get the card that does the dolby digital decoding itself for just a little bit more money.
If you don't care about that aspect of signal processing, then it would be a good card for you.
Rating:
Summary: 5.1 OUTPUT... not PROCESSING
Review: I was misled by the box's labeling which stated that it was dolby digital compatible... It is, if you send the digital signal to an external dolby digital processor. It does not decode dolby digital itself. I recommend going with a Creative Sound Blaster. You get the card that does the dolby digital decoding itself for just a little bit more money.
If you don't care about that aspect of signal processing, then it would be a good card for you.
Rating:
Summary: Smooth Installation -- no problems so far....
Review: Installed this board in a 4 year old Dell (PIII 500 MHz) as part of an upgrade to Windows XP. Previous sound card was a Turtle Beach Montego that does not fully support XP. The Santa Cruz installed without a hitch and I have had no problems after installation. The Santa Cruz control panel is compact and easy to use and the sound is fine. Some of the supporting software is "lite" but includes an interesting assortment of things for experimentation. Recommended for those interested in a reasonably priced midrange to high end sound card.
Rating:
Summary: Great product, easy to install.
Review: THE ONLY PROBLEM I HAVE WITH THE CARD IS THAT WHEN I RECORD DIGITAL AUDIO USING DIGITAL ORCHESTRATOR PRO THROUGH THE SANTA CRUZ, THROUGH A MICROPHONE, IT DISTORTS THE AUDIO. DON'T TRY TO USE TECH SUPPORT EITHER. THE ONLY CONTACT WITH TECH SUPPORT IS VIA EMAIL. THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS. I KNOW MORE THAN THEM.
Rating: 
Summary: RECORDING DIGITAL AUDIO
Review: THE ONLY PROBLEM I HAVE WITH THE CARD IS THAT WHEN I RECORD DIGITAL AUDIO USING DIGITAL ORCHESTRATOR PRO THROUGH THE SANTA CRUZ, THROUGH A MICROPHONE, IT DISTORTS THE AUDIO. DON'T TRY TO USE TECH SUPPORT EITHER. THE ONLY CONTACT WITH TECH SUPPORT IS VIA EMAIL. THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS. I KNOW MORE THAN THEM.
Rating:
Summary: A dissenting view...
Review: There are so many positive reviews of this card here that I thought I would describe my experience with it by way of contrast. The installation (Win98SE) hung twice, but finally worked on the third try (nothing out of the ordinary there). As everyone else mentions, the digital audio is fine (ie playing MP3s or wave files). However, here are three down sides: 1) the MIDI implementation is poor. The card distorts if several voices sound at once; it occasionally plays the wrong notes, and the chorus effect (making mono sounds into stereo) is terrible. But this is moot as many of the voices sound so cheezy you would never listen to MIDI for any length of time anyway. 2) 3D positional audio has a bug in games that makes close things sound far away or inaudible, so that enemy can sneak up on you and you can't hear him. 3) There is no full application software included, all are limited use demo versions. ... Bottom line for me: the card is going to be removed and discarded. Your mileage will undoubtedly vary.
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