Hercules Game Theater XP Or TB Santa Cruz?

I recently bought and used a SB Live! X-gamer but got fed up and returned it for my money back because:
1.) annoying crackling noise with win2k only
2.) Creative has not even addressed this problem (which is about the only problem talked about among customers in their forum) and hasn't released better drivers!!!!

Now I have to choose between two cards (which I hear are really great BTW):
The Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and the Hercules Game Theater XP (possibly OEM).

I understand the price difference but which one performs the best and shows the best reliability (no crackling etc.) under Win2k? Hercules has a really great feature set and a very good driver team while the TB has good performance for $80. Has anyone used these cards under win2k without serious problems (such as crackling/)?