In the market for a new Sound Card

[heidthebaw]

Helloooo all,
I'm looking to upgrade my sound card in the near future and would like this to be as bug free and rewarding an experience as possible.
Looking at the forums there have been various issues with Soundblaster Live! and Audigy card and conflicts with various games along the way. As I intend the upgrade to both make my games and cd audio sound better (and louder!), can anyone recommend a S/C with fully XP compatible drivers to suit my needs?
I was going along the Soundblaster route but now I have my doubts.

HNY

Heid

[DrZaius]

Definately the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

[Guardian]

You know, I've read all the stuff about supposedly bad experiences with SoundBlaster Live! cards but I've got one in my AMD T-Bird with an EPOX 8KTA3 mb and it's been running just great. I play a lot of games and my X-Gamer combined with my Creative 5.1 Inspire speakers just blast the heck out of anything! Yeap, some folks have had problems with VIA chipsets and SoundBlaster, but not me. I'm running WinXP also and I've found it to be a stable as anything I've ever had on a PC.

I plan to buy a SoundBlaster Audigy X-Gamer this next weekend...not because I need it, but because it's there!

[Nuclear Krusader]

Haven't had ANY probs with my SB Live! X-Gamer. And I'll be getting an Audigy Platinum soon.

I have Cambridge Soundworks FPS100 4.1 speakers connected to it and lemme tell u: It kicks b**t. I've had this card since october 99 in a Pentium II/i440BX system and never had an issue. It's now installed on an Athlon 1700+/VIA system and runs flawlessly. I play DOS games and the emulation is excellent. Haven't tried it with XP tough.

[justbarron]

Without a doubt, second the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

[mike breck]

Hi heidthebaw,

The Audigy is topping the reviews at the moment and costs about £89 in the UK.

Two good alternatives available in the UK are the Philips Acoustic Edge (£80)
and the Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo 11 (£45).

I have used the Fortissimo 1 and 11 and never had any compatiblity problems with them. A good card at an inexpensive price.

I have never been able to find the Santa Cruz in the UK.

HTH

[heidthebaw]

To all,
Thanks for all the replies, my mind and my options are still wide open so keep them coming. I really do appreciate all input on this.

Mike, for info, the Santa Cruz, is known as a VideoLogic SonicFury in the UK and Yerp.
I must admit I'm still leaning towards the Audigy but the price is putting me off, I'll check out the Fortissimo II though, more in the price range I was thinking of.

HTB

[mike breck]

Thanks for the revelation heidthebaw,

I didn't know that and shall certainly check out the details.

In that case, the Videologic would be a good contender at £70.

[Captn]

I myself would go with the Sound Blaster Audigy X-Gamer. Also the Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Digital for the money is an excellent choice also, Captn