want a sound card from hercules

[novalogic88]

cant decide between game theater xp, fortissimo II and and muse XL, i really dont need 5.1 and all i use is some 30 dollar headphones from philips,

oh has anyone tried the virtual 6.1 on their GTXP, btw i will be using windows Xp pro

 

[stuck4life]

I've got the F2...for music and games its great, but one of the main reasons I bought it was for the optical digital output (to record MP3s onto my MD) and that doesn't work to well at all (I can go into detail if you want). Hercules' R&D department have been notified of this problem and it should be fixed in the next driver update, however, it takes forever for them to release drivers! So, overall, I'd say its a good card, but not great.

 

[DARRIN]

Just installed a game theater xp last night. Games sound better then they did with my SB Live Value card. I really like the breakout box. I have not used the optical outputs like stuck4life has.

 

[Alex]

game theatre owns

 

[Chesebert]

I just got the F2..I want detail on the optical out..

what's the problem?

any workaround?

thx

 

[DaveK]

For the F2, the optical output will not work at the same time as the regular analog outputs. If running win98, you'll need to switch 1 setting in their control panel thingie. If running win2k or winxp, you have to change that same setting, and then reboot. It's a big PITA, but a decent soundcard otherwise.

DaveK

 

[Chesebert]

oh..I reboot my win2k all the time to play game in 98
np here

thanks for the head up though

 

[Chesebert]

I just got the card..


install was a breeze....(kinda

The sound output was simply nice, clean, accurate!

I use a pair of Grado SR80 so I would know if something isn't right ...I think ^_^

simply awsome for $33 from newegg!

 

[boran]

strange, I have the Herc F2 and I can output to both optical and analog (headphones) output at the same time without problems (using latest drivers under win2k)

 

[novalogic88]

has anyone compared the game theater and fortissimo 2

 

[Motero]

Gametheater is supposed to be really awesome. I've put a F2 in a system a few days ago, and that's a great card as well.

 

[Chesebert]

Does any oneknow if I can output to both speaker and headphone at the same time?

I know this doesn't make much sense..I have a pair of Grado80 and my gf wants to listen to music on my altec Lansing speaker I just can't give up my Grado....sigh..

any clue?

btw, how do I output to both optical and main output at the same time?

 

[Chesebert]

bump for ideas

 

[nortexoid]

i personally wouldn't pay $33 US for a mediocre 4.1 channel sound card when u can get others for FAR cheaper (i.e. c-media/yamaha/aopen840) that probably have better driver support and working digital.

if u need digital, the aopen AW744 Pro w/ optical out is a crazy steal for $25, and what's even crazier is the zoltrix nightingale pro 6 w/ optical in/out for the same price...the former is 4.1 yamaha chipset based, and the latter is a 5.1 c-media chipset card.

and then there's the aopen 840 4.1 channel analog card for a whopping $13, or their 5.1 850 card for $20

and those all support the latest 3d positional algorithms for gaming, and WDM 2k/xp driver support (that works)

 

[Chesebert]

I am not sure about the C-media chip, but the Cirrus Logic chip in Fortissimo 2 has excellent SNR and the frequency response is well behaving as well.

That is assume they use similar chip as the Santa Cruz card

 

[Yihaa]

I wouldn't call the the Crystal 4624 chipset on the FII mediocre. For one thing, CPU utilization is even lower than its 4630 based big brothers (GameTheatre and SC)
so gaming is no proble, Sound quality-wise, its the same as the other two. As for driver support, Hercules has been a little slow on it but they have posted new
drivers lately so hopefully they keep it up.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

<< i personally wouldn't pay $33 US for a mediocre 4.1 channel sound card when u can get others for FAR cheaper (i.e. c-media/yamaha/aopen840) that probably have better driver support and working digital. >>




F2 has optical in and out,
try to find another card with optical in and out and hardware DSP and hardware midi at such price.

Yamaha has hardware DSP and hardware midi, but it's 5 years old (the first 724 came out even earlier than SB Live), although 744 is a newer variant, you just get 4.1 but no optical in and out for about $15 less than F2.

CMI8738 is just a basic sound DSP, no hardware midi.
F2's CS4624 is much more powerful - 300/255 MIPs SLIMD DSP, Fat Labs approved 64-voice wavetable synthesis with effects

 

[nortexoid]

the 744 does come w/ optical out, and an additional (plus series) optical kit can be bought EDIT: for optical in...

the zoltrix nightingale pro 6 (and audioexcel av512) both come w/ optical in AND out AND 5.1 channel, and support midi (whether or not it's software/hardware, i've no clue...moreover, who care or uses that feature?...and if u do, then the F2 MIGHT be better depending on the particular advantages of hardware midi)

they all have hardware DSP and thus relatively low cpu utilization...again, this is for the most part irrelevant.

the differneces are small on paper and hardware...larger in wallet.

 

[Yihaa]

If I also remember right, the original Fortissimo used the Yamaha 744 chipset ( I owned this card and it was a CPU hog). I had a Super7 board from PCChips that already had
the C-Media 8738 (which is an upgraded 8338, which was buggy as hell). The Yamaha and C-Media are older chipsets simply rehashed with new features
but both can't hold a candle to the Crystal 4624 in terms of sound quality and CPU usage.