Windows 7 - Old Santa Cruz sound card problem

[dreamliner77]

Well, I've been using an old Turtle Beach Santa Cruz in my testing/destruction machine. It's a great old soundcard and would pick it over any Creative card still today. Because it was discontinued, official drivers were never released for Vista but it was possible to get it to work in 32 bit Vista:

"NOTE:
Installing the Santa Cruz in Windows Vista requires that
you have a separate Windows XP partition on your hard drive


1. Without the soundcard installed, install the latest drivers (sc_4193.exe)
from our web site - this will install all of the software, but the drivers
will fail. *** This is normal ***. Windows Vista is looking for digitally
signed drivers.

2. With the sc_4161s drivers installed on another Windows XP partition,
navigate to the Turtle Beach folder:
(x:\program files\turtlebeach\drivers\wdm)
and point the Add New Hardware wizard there manually.

3. It will then 'discover' other Santa Cruz devices. Follow the installation
prompts.

4. Finish

Enjoy it. Compliments of Turtle Beach Support Team but do not even think of
asking any questions about this. Thank you!"


Well, now that I went and installed Windows 7 64-bit, I cannot get this card to install. I'm not sure I want to go to 32 bit just to see if I can get this card to work. Think there may be any other ways (short of enabling my onboard sound that sucked)?

My other "best option" would be a M-Audio Transit, but alas, it also looks like there is no 64 bit driver (and supposedly bad Vista 32 bit support anyway).

I do have a few other cards but floating around but I think I'm gonna run into alot of the same problems.

 

[hansrijf]

I think 32 bit drivers do not work on a 64 bit system...

 

[LordOfLA]

the modern alternative to the santa cruz would be either asus xonar or m-audio with the m-audio being slightly better on the numbers. I doubt you'd tell the difference to be honest.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

I think 32 bit drivers do not work on a 64 bit system...

I think he means he wants to install the 32bit OS to see if it works

 

[Johnny]

If it didn't have drivers to work with vista then it won't work with windows 7. You will have to get a new card.

 

[dreamliner77]

I could get it to work with vista through the work around above. No dice in 64 bit though. I think I might just install the 32 bit beta to see what happens. I'm not going to buy a new sound card just for a beta.

Also, LordOfLA, I love M-Audio, I have 2 Delta 1010's, a 2496 and a Transit but they have almost non-existent Vista support. I'm gonna blame MS for rewriting the audio stack.

Has anyone actually used the Asus cards?

 

[LordOfLA]

Has anyone actually used the Asus cards?

I have one The Xonar D2 is THE best soundcard I've ever had the pleasure of listening to.

 

[dreamliner77]

Now I'm debating. I've always used "clean cards" (SB 16, Chaintech AV-710, TBSC, or USB devices (transit, etc)) or recording cards to outboard gear but maybe it's time to jump up to a a Xonar.

 

[LordOfLA]

It is a great soundcard with high quality analogue audio paths. I doubt you'll have much problem with it. Its based on the c-media cmi 8837 oxygen HD chip (that asus licensed exclusivley - hence why the auzentech card using the chip vanished).

I've not had any issues with it in vista or XP and from my perspective going through my AV amp from the analogue output it sounds stunning

 

[dreamliner77]

Dumb question but does it do bit perfect digital?

 

[LordOfLA]

its digital, its not going to be anything but bit perfect. However the point of a soundcard isn't digital audio its analogue. If you're using digital then onboard wil suffice.

 

[dreamliner77]

Not true, many cards aren't bit perfect.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/faq-emporium/88852-faq-what-bit-perfect.html

 

[indyjones]

I have the asus Xonar HDAV1.3 which despite a buggy driver time is getting better and more stable each time. This card is the only current card that supports pure unmodified bit-stream out put via HDMI of the HD audio standards from bluray or HD DVD disks
Although not having a expensive amp I am currently using the analogue outputs (I have the deluxe version with the daughter card) to a 7.1 speaker st up and I must say the new audio standards sound superb

 

[LordOfLA]

Indy,

You should always use the analogue output on the card. Since you have AnyDVD the requirement for HDCP compliant sound and video does not exist. The power of the Xonar is in its analogue output.