Print Article: Hercules Audio Roundup



		Hercules Audio Roundup January 08, 2003 Alan Dang

Summary: Hercules has a range of 5.1 and 7.1 audio cards that are built for the needs of many consumers. Whether you want a $50 7.1 audio card that works in 8-channel mode with existing 5.1 DVDs, or would like to spend a little less and opt for 5.1 channels, Hercules has a card for you. In today's article we take a look at three of Hercules' latest sound cards. See how they perform in our latest article!

Introduction Page:: ( 1 / 6 )

Almost two years ago, we reviewed the Hercules Game Theater XP. At the time, it was the first sound card to seriously challenge the Sound Blaster Live! on shipping drivers and it earned one of FiringSquad’s highest final verdicts for sound cards.

Thus when Hercules sent us info of their new $80 DigiFire 7.1 and $50 Fortissimo III 7.1 sound cards, our attention was immediately caught. It was not simply the fact that these are the first consumer/gaming sound cards to officially support 7.1 (the Game Theater XP being the first), but Hercules also revealed that a unified driver architecture was being used between these sound cards and the Game Theater XP, meaning that driver quality issues should not be a major factor.

Both of these sound cards use the Cirrus Logic CS4624, the younger sibling of Game Theater XP’s Cirrus Logic CS4630. Though the lower-cost CS4624 is designed only to have the processing horsepower for 4-channel 3D surround gaming (as opposed to a 6-channel performance of the CS4630), the Sensaura MultiDrive HRTF algorithms are only designed for 4 channels in the first place.

In addition, since the additional channels will be used primarily for DVD playback (in which the decoding is done on the host CPU via PowerDVD or WinDVD), the additional power is unnecessary. To achieve 8-channel connectivity, Hercules has given each card dual CS4294 CODECS – the same chips found in the Game Theater XP. The DigiFire 7.1 adds 3 IEEE-1394 ports and a better software bundle.

For gamers on a budget, Hercules has the Muse 5.1 DVD with a retail price of $30, which we will also look at in this article.

SIDEBAR: If you’re going to invest in a surround sound card, make sure you also budget the money for the speakers to go with them.

First Impressions Page:: ( 2 / 6 )

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As you can see, the DigiFire and Fortissimo III are nearly identical in terms of board layout. The key difference, as we mentioned in the introduction, is the addition of a PCI bridge and IEEE-1394 controller.

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In comparison, the Hercules Muse 5.1 DVD appears to be a standard CMI 5.1-channel reference board.

Drivers

The drivers were fairly straightforward to install. We had some trouble upgrading the DigiFire/Fortissimo drivers to the latest revision since Hercules’s installer had a bug. Things used to be much easier when they just zipped the drivers in one place. One disappointing feature to the DigiFire and Fortissimo III is that you will need to restart your system in order to switch between digital 2-ch PCM output and Dolby Digital/DTS pass through from PowerDVD.

SIDEBAR: Sorry, my digital camera isn’t as good as Tuan’s.

Performance Page:: ( 3 / 6 )

From a features perspective, the Muse 5.1 DVD offers only 16 hardware accelerated streams while the DigiFire and Fortisimo III offer 32 hardware accelerated streams. In addition, the acceleration features on the Muse 5.1 appear to be far poorer than that of the DigiFire. Our test platform of a Duron 950MHz was used to maximize the differences between these cards

DirectSound 2D

DirectSound 3D

Muse 5.1 DVD in 5.1 channel mode

DigiFire/Fortisimo III in 2 channel Sensaura HRTF mode

DigiFire 7.1/Fortissimo III in 8 channel mode

nForce2 MCP SoundStorm with 2 channel Sensaura HRTF mode

nForce2 MCP SoundStorm in 6 channel AC-3 mode

Static 22kHz, 8-bit, 8 voices 9.45 4.9 6.3 3.29 3.09

Streaming 22kHz, 8-bit, 32 voices 17.4 13.8 12.4 6.64 5.34

Static 22kHz, 8-bit, 8 voices 9.46 4.58 6.11 3.21 2.98

Streaming 22kHz, 8-bit, 32 voices 17.4 14.9 12.3 6.99 5.2

Static 44.1kHz, 16-bit, 8 voices 9.86 5.12 5.23 3.39 2.28

Streaming 44.1kHz, 16-bit, 32 voices 20.7 15.4 13.9 7.31 6.27

Static 44.1kHz, 16-bit, 8 voices 14.4 5.66 5.0 3.72 3.22

Streaming 44.1kHz, 16-bit, 32 voices 21.5 15.5 14.4 7.31 6.25

By selecting the maximum speaker configuration for each system on the DigiFire and nForce2, the Sensaura MultiDrive algorithms are mixed with proprietary spatialization algorithms. This is done because 1) Sensaura has not developed the math for 5-channel spatialization and 2) as you increase the number of physical speakers, the importance of HRTFs decline slightly. Interestingly, while the 2D performance of the Hercules sound cards is slightly better than NVIDIA’s, the 3D performance isn’t as capable. It's unclear if Hercules will provide support for Sensaura 5.1 in future drivers -- it has been in the Analog Devices SoundMAX for over a year now

The Muse 5.1 DVD offers poor performance across the board in comparison to modern sound cards. It is worth mentioning, however, that this performance on the Duron 950 is actually better than what the Sound Blaster Live! originally had in Windows 2000 with their LiveWare 3 drivers. The DigiFire/Fortissimo III line offers good 2D hardware mixing performance but falters when it comes to 3D performance and offers poorer numbers than the Game Theater XP. If you’re not gaming though, it’s not a problem.

SIDEBAR: Writing a random

Haiku for each article

Can be very tough

Audio Quality Page:: ( 4 / 6 )

Since we unfortunately did not have a chance to get our professional level recording audio card in time for this article, we are electing to only publish our numerical results. The images allow you to get the big picture and recognize “relative performance” differences at 16-bit 48-kHz.

Frequency Response

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Noise Level

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Dynamic Range

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THD + Noise (-3 dB FS)

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Intermodulation Distortion

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Stereo Crosstalk

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As expected, the more expensive Fortissimo III and DigiFire 7.1 outperform the Muse 5.1 DVD. The Muse 5.1 DVD does not have a very flat frequency response curve, however the deviation is for the most part minimal, less than 0.5 dB. At the higher frequencies, however, the Muse 5.1 DVD has significantly rolled off audio, making it a poor choice for any speakers with tweeters.

SIDEBAR: The best 24-bit/96-kHz DACs are superior to the best 24-bit/192-kHz DACs for CD music.

Ballistics Report Page:: ( 5 / 6 )

Pros

Excellent Price: If you’re looking for a sound card on a budget, Hercules should be at the top of your list. We’re talking $50 for a 7.1 soundcard!

Stable drivers: The CMI chipset in the Muse 5.1 is pretty much a no-frills product, and so it’s not difficult to write reliable drivers. The Crystal APUs on the Fortissimo III and DigiFire 7.1 share drivers with the Game Theater XP and have had the benefit of years of development. This is not to say that the drivers are bug free though, like any other card, including Creative Labs’s cards, there are bugs and feature wishlists. Stability just means that on most systems, you shouldn’t expect your system to crash or BSOD – something that isn’t always the case with gaming sound cards.

7.1 Output: Although most DVDs only store 5.1 channels of information (there exists DTS-ES Discrete), 7.1 matrixing works superbly. The sixth, rear-center channel is processed using Pro-Logic like decoding. Decorrelation is then used to expand the single rear center into a diffuse 2-speaker back surround channel, create the 7 speaker, 1 subwoofer setup. That extra speaker makes a difference when it comes to ambience.

Software Bundle: The one thing we haven’t talked about yet is that Hercules bundles the appropriate version of PowerDVD XP with each card. On the 7.1 sound cards, you get the full version of Power DVD Pro EX. The basic version of PowerDVD ordered directly from Cyberlink costs as much as the sound card!

Cons

Average 3D Performance: If you’re looking for the crème de la crème of 3D audio performance, you’re not going to get it for just $50 in the Fortissimo III. You’ll need to shell out a bit more.

No User-Selectable Environmental Modeling: Some people really like the ability to add reverb/chorus to MP3s.

SIDEBAR: In addition to sound cards, Hercules also manufactures their own line of 5.1 speakers, the XPS 510.

Final Verdict Page:: ( 6 / 6 )

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