SB Live vs. Audigy vs. Santa Cruz

[all420]

does anyone know of any comparisons between the three? Sorry if this question has been asked before. I am debating the best sound card for my new rig, and don't know which one to get. Currently I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I am pretty happy with it, but it is the only aftermarket sound card I have ever owned, so I have no basis for comparison. The two top contenders right now (for reasons of price) are the Live and Santa Cruz. For gaming, listening to MP3's and maybe causal audio mixing, which would you reccomend? Also, my new case has 6+ drive bays, should I get the Live Drive? Thanks in advance.

[DeepScience]

Is it the software upgrade or is it the soundcard?
I was running a Live! card with Cubase version 5.0
I just upgraded to an Audigy and also the 5.1 Cubase VST upgrade came out so I plopped that in there too. Well, I'm stunned. The CPU utilisation dropped from 85-95% down to 35% just like that. I had worked up some 10 or 15 track songs and put effects on them until the machine bogged down and now it's as happy as a lark (whatever that means) AND has a latency of 60ms instead of 750.

Beautiful.

ASIO is the way to go.

[funnyperson1]

basically the Santa Cruz is better than a live, but the Audigy is the best (you will pay a premium though)....

[Softwebdev]

i own audigy platinium ex........................this sound sweet.............the best card........you ever have......................

[thestramel]

I believe the Santa Cruz costs about $30 less than the Audigy. Sound is superb but it's not the latest technology. I haven't personally heard the Audigy but I'm not really inclined to purchase it. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable can correct me on this but it's not that big of an improvement over the SB Live 5.1 (continuing the CL tradition of minor improvements but a steep price). If you are into heavy audio processing a pro card is really the way to go. e.g, Aardvark, Maudio (but I guess this isn't an option since price is a limiting factor in your case).

[Punk]

SB Audigy is way better than the SB live sound cards. Audigy has 4x the processing power and more features, and if u get the platinum like i did then the audigy drive has more connections than the old live drives did (optical in/out, SB1394) soundcard also has more connections on it.

[DeepScience]

Originally posted by thestramel
I believe the Santa Cruz costs about $30 less than the Audigy. Sound is superb but it's not the latest technology. I haven't personally heard the Audigy but I'm not really inclined to purchase it. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable can correct me on this but it's not that big of an improvement over the SB Live 5.1 (continuing the CL tradition of minor improvements but a steep price). If you are into heavy audio processing a pro card is really the way to go. e.g, Aardvark, Maudio (but I guess this isn't an option since price is a limiting factor in your case).

Ok, I'll correct you ;) I've been doing some pretty intensive sound work and the Audigy, as I've mentioned above, just rocks. It's all very well saying "get a pro card" but there's got to be something that works well at the beginner level which sounds good enough to produce back shed bands.

The Live was cool, you'd be impressed with the songs we've done with it but this Audigy is clearly, after testing, clearly streets ahead.

Want to go pro? Well, if you start down that track pull up another $10,000 to go with your pro sound card.

[Acko]

The Santa Cruz (VideoLocic Sonicfury) is better than the 5.1 Live but not as good as the Audigy but you can get incompatability probs. (depends on your Mobo)

I tried the Audigy on my Asus A7v266-E & had to change to the Santa Cruz.

Acko