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Philips AE vs Santacruz/sonicfury

X

Xain

Member
Once and for all, which of these cards is better? I get recommendations for both all the time...

I need:
Good drivers
Win2k compatibiltiy (ie. good drivers 🙂 )
Good 5:1 sound (I gather both are good).
Good price, < £80
Availably in UK

The Videologic Sonicfury (marketing as Turtle Beach Santacruz in North America) is available all over the place here, usually around £70. I've read that the drivers are poor, but this is in reviews written as soon as it was out. Newer drivers are now out, although they are 25Mb to download - WTF is in there?

The Philips Accustic Edge has a good repution for sound quality and I gather the new Win2k drivers are good. It's about the same price in USD, but I have yet to find any UK retailers (philips tv/hifi/speakers are sold here). I have heard of poor performance once, but I think this was someone bungling (they said a 30FPS decrease!).

What do people think?
 
I will have to say the Philips AE once again, great W2K drivers, performance is on par now, true 5.1 in gaming/music. The TB Santa CRuz/SonicFury is also a very good card but will only do true 5.1 in DVD playback, the new drivers are solid, EAX implementation is a little better than the AE.
 
Yeah, this seems to be the general consensus on other boards too, except that this is the first I've heard of not true 5:1 in games and such - what's this about?!

Also, where in the UK can I actually buy an AE? I can not find anywhere.
 
The TB Santa Cruz only does true 5.1 under DVD playback with a correctly supported player. It does not offer true 5.1 output for games as of this time but instead offers a virtual 5.1 setting when using a 6 channel analog output system. Using the virtual 5.1 setting generates a subwoofer channel from the front channel inputs and a center channel from the front and rear channel audio inputs. It sounds like a ping pong ball in a muffler. 🙂

Regarding the U.K., they are suppose to be on the market shortly according to some posts here- Link

Of course, the other choice will be the Audigy here shortly, it might be the best card out if the drivers are up to speed.
 
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