Hercules Fortissimo II Digital Edition

[Chronic321]

I'm looking for a good sound card (have a SB Live Value) without paying more than $80 (obviously the cheaper the better). I can get the Hercules Fortissimo II for ~$41 at Best Buy with my employee discount. This card offers optical in and out which would be great if I can get a VGA adapter for my Xbox. I plan on hooking these up to Z560 4.1 speakers, is this card good? Based purley on performance can it compete with the Audigy or Santa Cruz and does its value make it the better option regardless? (Note the digital edition includes 5.1 support).

Thanks

 

[rocketbubba]

I bought this card based on bang for the buck. It's got some great features, including the optical I/O you mentioned. From things I've read (not from personnal experience), the TB Santa Cruz and Audigy are superior cards. However, $41 is a steal for a really nice card. If you haven't already, be sure to check out this comparison article at the tomshardware.com page.

Good luck!

 

[Goi]

As rocketbubba mentioned, the Fortissimo II, while decent(comparable to SB Live! if not better), is inferior to the Santa Cruz sound quality wise. However, with your Z560's, you might or might not notice the difference...

 

[RanDum72]

As rocketbubba mentioned, the Fortissimo II, while decent(comparable to SB Live! if not better), is inferior to the Santa Cruz sound quality wise

Well, I had both cards and playing CD's and MP3's through the digital outs and into my Kenwood receiver/Energy Take 5 speakers, they sound exactly the same.

 

[DeRusto]

The Fortissimo II has a sound chip on it similar to that on the turtle beach card.. about the only thing it doesnt do is hardware mp3 decoding, which is rather unnecessary anyway.

Sound quality between these two cards should be comparable, and it WILL be better than an SBLive! card.

I would certainly reccommend it over any of the other cards primarily for the price/performance issue.