Should I upgrade my SBlive! ?

[Wolfmist]

I have read so many good things about the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I have a SBlive platinum, and am wondering if the Santa Cruz is worth the upgrade.

Or should I wait for the next generation of non-creative sound cards? Any input would be appreciated.

BTW, while I am satisfied with the SBlive in terms of sound quality, I have never been with the drivers. One of the things they advertised was that they had the first programmable proccesor, so that one could have new features in the future. Well that never happened, and I that ****ed me off. Secondly I read that they included spyware with a driver set at one point. So I don't like creative.

 

[drunkmonkey]

About the programable processor thing its true but nothing special. I've got a SBLive! right now. Have you downloaded the Playcenter 2.0 and the drivers? man those make the soundcard awsome.
I think if you upgrade now you'll have to get some expensive speakers mine; are $85 and i don't think there at the full potential of the SBLive. I think its like video cards right now, like the new Geforce4 can go to 8xAGP but no Mobos support it. You won't need that much power in a sound card for a very long while.
Heh heh, I've spent $54 so far trying to get my speakers to be at the quality of my soundcard, gold plated jacks, wires, etc. I think 128kbs(CD quality) is holding me back, lol.

 

[BadThad]

If you're satisfied with the sound quality, why change?

I agree about Creative and their crappy driver set. I didn't notice any spyware, but I run Ad-Aware all the time. I bought an Audigy a few months ago and couldn't believe all the BLOAT creative has. It took my an hour to get rid of all their garbage. Arggg....NO I don't want to register and I NEVER will. Registration nags are driving me crazy. I don't need anymore freakin spam.

Creative....GET RID OF THE FREAKING BLOAT AND JUST GIVE US REGULAR DRIVERS! They are the Diamond of the sound card biz IMO. Good product, suckazz apps and drivers.

 

[Wolfmist]

Thanks for the replies. I just came back from CDW (I live right by it) and bought the Santa Cruz. Just couldn't resist myself. Lets hope it wasn't a waste of money. At the very least, I am supporting a more competitive sound card market. I'm sure everyone can agree that we do need more competition in this area.

 

[Wolfmist]

If you're satisfied with the sound quality, why change?

I agree about Creative and their crappy driver set. I didn't notice any spyware, but I run Ad-Aware all the time. I bought an Audigy a few months ago and couldn't believe all the BLOAT creative has. It took my an hour to get rid of all their garbage. Arggg....NO I don't want to register and I NEVER will. Registration nags are driving me crazy. I don't need anymore freakin spam.

Creative....GET RID OF THE FREAKING BLOAT AND JUST GIVE US REGULAR DRIVERS! They are the Diamond of the sound card biz IMO. Good product, suckazz apps and drivers.

I completly agree with you on that one. Oh yes, please remind me in 10 days to get me to register. Its SUCH a hard decision to sign up to get spam and junk mail from your "partners".

Here are links for the creative spyware I was talking about:

http://www.cexx.org/creative.htm
http://www.cexx.org/newsupd.htm
http://www.jsl.org/spyware.htm

And I have Klipsch speakers by the way.

 

[CSaddict]

I have an sb live plat 5.1 and my buddy has the Turtle beach, no difference.