TURTLE BEACH 3430-01 Catalina 8-Channel PCI Sound Card
Catalina provides eight analog outputs for supporting 2, 4, 5.1, and 7.1 multi-channel speaker configurations. The optical S/PDIF output provides multi-channel surround sound when connected to a digital audio home theater system. The optical S/PDIF input allows recording from pure digital sources, such as Minidiscs and CD players. Catalina is the perfect audio upgrade for serious PC gamers, DVD movie fans and digital music enthusiasts.
TURTLE BEACH 3430-01 Catalina 8-Channel PCI Sound Card Accessories
TURTLE BEACH 3430-01 Catalina 8-Channel PCI Sound Card Reviews
I'm just using this for listening to music on my receiver in 2-channel mode. In the end, I got it working, but had a few days of frustration with it not working. Don't count on Turtle Beach if you need customer support because they have "discountinued" the product. I was having a heck of a time getting my S/PDIF output working with my Onkyo receiver until windowsupdate.com updated the driver (NOTE: I had to go to windowsupdate.com, select Custom update, and then I was able to select the driver drivers are not an automatic update from what I can tell). I haven't tested any of the multi-channel stuff. As with many sound cards, the master volume control does not affect the volume level of the S/PDIF output, however the company has released a "patch" which is a seperate application you put in your Startup, which will tie the master volume control to the S/PDIF output volume.
Not only that, but you'd have to spend twice as much or more to find a card as good as this one, and probably three or four times as much before finding one that performs better. I will say that this card performs this task BEAUTIFULLY: the detailing of the music I record is accurate and deep, the noise floor is virtually imperceptible to the ear, and after giving it a series of 20-80 minute archiving chores to perform, not once did it cause any anomalies (stutters, skips, clicks, etc). In short, this card outperforms any other card (that I've tried at least) of equal or lesser price by such a wide margin that it's hard to believe. And, honestly, if your archiving needs are such that you'd need better performance than this card can provide, let's face it: you're looking at the $250+ cards, and not reading this review anyway. It looks like good stuff at first glance, though, and even if it isn't, you've already gotten more than your money for the card itself).
The main purpose of my sound card is for the archiving of analog material to digital format. Otherwise, buy and enjoy. associated by bogged-down system resources. (As for the software bundled with the card: I haven't given any of it a very thorough test. After trying different low-to-medium-priced options, and finding none of them suitable for my needs, I did some reading and bought this card. For this, I needed a card that would record my source with clarity, leaving as little artifacting as possible, and without hogging system resources.
My old sound card bit the dust and I found myself scrambling for a replacement.
7.1 outputs. So while a Santa Cruz might have been more what you were looking for - this is still a GREAT card. Both digital in and out - S/PDIF optical connections. Pass through Dolby® Digital and DTS®. Just to respond - while the Catalina is a *different* card than our older Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, it does have some things the Santa Cruz just didn't have. 24 bit / 96 kHz.
If you were watching DVDs and sending the audio to a digital receiver I could see where it would be helpful. Anyway, Turtle Beach cards sound great. For some reason Acid Pro software does not recognize that signal. Also the lack of the versa jack was also a major drawback.
I took all my other components out and just use the sound card and speakers. My advice would be to stick with the Santa Cruz model if you can find one. I use the versa jack on the Santa Cruz to monitor with my headphones. It could be because of the sampling rate being much higher but I don't know.
The sound on this card is excellent but the lack of features has caused me to return it and put my old Santa Cruz card back in. The digital-in works and you can monitor it through your speakers. I had already purchased and returned the Sound Blaster Audigy because of some static during playback. I still couldn't get the headphones to work along with the other speakers or to get it to where I could easily switch it back and forth from the software. My problem was that I couldn't record it.
I am giving it three stars not because of sound quality but because of a lack of features. When I saw that Turtle Beach offered a card w/ digital inputs I thought it would be great. I bought this card mainly because of the digital input so I could use it with my digital multi-track recorder. The Audigy would let me at least record it. I use it with the Klipsch Pro Media 2 speakers and the sound is incredible.
I have the Santa Cruz in my other pc and wished that I bought that card instead. This card have less features than the Santa Cruz. It does not even come with any tweakable parameters such as an Equalizer.
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