Anyone have experience w/ the Turtle Beach Montego DDL?

[flashbacck]

I'm looking around for a new sound card and thought I'd at least look into what other non-creative options were available. The turtle beach montego DDL is pretty cheap and does DD encoding, but there aren't many reviews out there. If you own(ed) this card, do you have any thoughts on this? Thanks.

 

[DaveSimmons]

There have been a few threads mentioning this and the X-Mystique, Advanced Search might turn up some info.

I don't have one, but from my reading the issues with both cards are
- Dolby Live encoding is software-based so games take a frames-per-sec hit if the game was already fully using the CPU.
- Slight lag from the dolby encoding
- Some normal Windows altert / beep sounds can partly drop out because a receiver doesn't catch the first bit of an intermittent sound stream (Newegg users saying this)

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Unless you're hooking up to a receiver, there seems to be little point to the DDL feature.

 

[flashbacck]

Yeah, I do have a receiver that would be able to take advantage of the DDL.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: flashbacck
Yeah, I do have a receiver that would be able to take advantage of the DDL.

Ok cool. Does your receiver have 5.1 analog inputs too?

Oh, and I can't seem to remember anyone mentioning any personal experience with the Turtlebeach cards. I don't think very many people have them that post here regularly.

 

[Techno]

I have the Monego DDL and Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 Speakers. I just installed them on my new Dual Core rig.. i'll let you know tomorrow about how good it sounds...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Techno
I have the Monego DDL and Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 Speakers. I just installed them on my new Dual Core rig.. i'll let you know tomorrow about how good it sounds...

That's not really going to test the DDL capability of it though.

 

[Boogak]

I bought one a few weeks ago for the HTPC in my living room, it's hooked up to a Panasonic receiver via optical SPDIF. I don't game on it so I can't comment on that aspect, but I do watch DivX movies on it and there is no lag that I can notice from the DDL encoding. All in all I'm pretty happy with the purchase.

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: flashbacck
Yeah, I do have a receiver that would be able to take advantage of the DDL.

Ok cool. Does your receiver have 5.1 analog inputs too?

Oh, and I can't seem to remember anyone mentioning any personal experience with the Turtlebeach cards. I don't think very many people have them that post here regularly.

Hmm... I'm looking at the card, and it appears to only have an optical S/PDIF out. The receiver (old) I want to plug it into only has a S/PDIF RCA plug. Is there any adapter to change that?

If not, I'd have to get a HDA Mystique 7.1 instead of the montego.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: flashbacck

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: flashbacck
Yeah, I do have a receiver that would be able to take advantage of the DDL.

Ok cool. Does your receiver have 5.1 analog inputs too?

Oh, and I can't seem to remember anyone mentioning any personal experience with the Turtlebeach cards. I don't think very many people have them that post here regularly.

Hmm... I'm looking at the card, and it appears to only have an optical S/PDIF out. The receiver (old) I want to plug it into only has a S/PDIF RCA plug. Is there any adapter to change that?

If not, I'd have to get a HDA Mystique 7.1 instead of the montego.

Yeah, you can get an optical to digital coaxial converter
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=180-961

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
There have been a few threads mentioning this and the X-Mystique, Advanced Search might turn up some info.

I don't have one, but from my reading the issues with both cards are
- Dolby Live encoding is software-based so games take a frames-per-sec hit if the game was already fully using the CPU.
- Slight lag from the dolby encoding
- Some normal Windows altert / beep sounds can partly drop out because a receiver doesn't catch the first bit of an intermittent sound stream (Newegg users saying this)

Just in case anyone else is having this problem, someone on the AVSforums figured out how to fix this.

This is easy to fix. Just enable "Magic Voice", but leave the other controls where they are so it doesn't interfere with the audio quality. That leads to full-time Dolby Digital encoding, and no more sound gaps!

Cheers!
MarkF

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6762996&&#post6762996

 

[flashbacck]

well, I think I'll end up getting an Audigy 2. Couple of reasons why:

1) Used Audigy 2 can be found for cheaper than a new or used mystique or montego DDL.

2) Audigy 2 does support up to EAX 4 (although I have yet to find anyone who even notices what EAX 4 does).

3) CPU usage w/ Audigy 2 is slightly lower than Mystique 7.1

I've survived w/o 5.1 in my games so far, so I'll probably be able to survive for a while longer until I can pick up a nice klipsch 5.1 setup. Anyway, thanks everyone for the input.

edit:
4) I know everyone hates Creative and their drivers, but I get the impression the Mystique developers have the same problems. So why not go with what will be supported more often, the Audigy.

 

[froz3nfir3]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=86359