3DsoundSurge Review: Hercules Game Theater XP

Important Info:

Sound Card By : Hercules

Price : $149.99

API Support : DirectSound, DS3D, EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0, I3DL2 and A3D 1.0 (by translating to DS3D calls, works with most but not all titles). Sensaura's ZoomFX

Minimum System Requirements:

Windows® 95/98, Millenium Edition and 2000
Intel® Pentium® MMX 233MHz / AMD K6® and higher or compatible
PCI 2.1 slot, 16MB RAM
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
Headphones or amplified speakers.
Available USB port
PowerDVD™'s 4 or 6 speakers Dolby™ Digital decoding and Dolby® Headphone processing:
- Intel® Pentium® 2 350MHz, Celeron® 350, AMD K6™-2 300MHz
- 32MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive

Technical Specifications
Data Transfer	PCI 2.1 bus
Audio Processor (DSP)	Crystal CS4630
Audio Converters	· 18-bit ADC/20-bit DAC For high audio quality at sampling rates of up to 48kHz
Wavetable Synthesizer	· DSP accelerated synthesis engine allows for an unlimited number of voices (64-voice hardware) ·8MB General MIDI/GS™ sample set · DLS support - GM™ (General MIDI) · Yamaha Soft Synthesizer™ S-YXG50™: 676 instrument sounds and 21 drum kits Effects: reverb and chorus XG-compatible
Rack Dimensions	· 4.3 x 21.6 x 15.5cm (1/2 U) (H: 1.7 W: 8.5 D: 6.1 inches) · Cable between the PCI card and rack: 2m (78.74 inches)

Reviewers PC:

Mark
- Win98
- Celeron 333a o/c 416
- 128MB PC100 ram
- Creative TNT
- Creative Voodoo Blaster 12 M
- 6.1 and 13 GIG EIDE HD
- For four speaker testing purpose I hooked the card up to Videologic's Sirocco Crossfire speaker system using the analog inputs as well as MidiLand S4-7100 and several other systems such as the ProMedia 4.1, Polk AMR-150, Logitech Xtrusio DSR-100 and Monsoon MM2000. For 6-speaker testing I used the MidiLand S4-7100 and the Abit SP-50. For two speaker testing purposes I used the same speaker systems but only connecting to the front channels as well as the Diamond Audio Technology HPM-4100 and for headphones testing I used a set of Sennheiser HD525s. Digital output was tested with the MidiLand ADS-2000 as well as the Cambridge SoundWorks DTT2500 and Creative DTT3500.

Mikael
Tests using the VideoLogic SonicFury to give a rough indication of Game Theater XP WDM driver performance.
- Win98
- Celeron 300a o/c 450
- 128MB PC100 ram
- GeForce DDR
- 6.4 GB Quantum SE
- For four speaker testing purpose I hooked the card up to Videologic's Sirocco Crossfire speaker system using the analog inputs and later in testing I used Videologic's Digi Theatre speaker system for 6-speaker testing. For two speaker testing purposes I used the VideoLogic Sirocco Pro as well as the same speaker systems but only connecting to the front channels and for headphones testing I used a set of Sennheiser HD570

Prior to Aureal’s demise the retail multimedia sound card market was pretty much a battle between products featuring Aureal’s Vortex 2 technology and Creative’s EMU10k1 based Sound Blaster Live product line. That’s not to say there were not other interesting products during that time, just that the Aureal and Creative products had garnered almost all the attention in the consumer market. In that time there has been some nice products come out from a number of companies using technology from Yamaha, Trident and Fortemedia. The fear was that without Aureal pushing Creative the sound card market would become too static. Thankfully that has turned out to be anything but the case. With the release of the Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and VideoLogic SonicFury (especially after subsequent driver updates for those cards) and the Philips Acoustic Edge there was once again significant competition facing the Sound Blaster Live line for the performance multimedia market. However, there was surprisingly still nothing to compete against the extra connectivity offered by the various LiveDrive versions bundled with Creative’s Live Platinum models.

That’s just where Hercules decided to enter the sound card market by going straight to the top end for multimedia cards. Like the Santa Cruz and SonicFury the Game Theater XP uses a new DSP from Cirrus Logic / Crystal Semiconductors, a company that has for quite sometime been a major player in the PC sound chips market but the last few years only in the less exciting PC OEM. In an interview in the Fall of 1999 David Crowell, Product Marketing Manager for Computer Audio products at Cirrus Logic / Crystal Audio, we got the first hint of what was then things to comes. As noted, Hercules has done more than just enter the market with another CS4630 card, they have come at the Creative LiveDrive head on by bundling the card with their own digital/analog breakout box that is just packed full of features. That they have done it for $50 less than the Live Platinum series is all the more remarkable.

The CS4630 chip was really the first chip that offered something beyond what we have already seen in the second-generation PCI soundcards. When we talk about generations of PCI soundcards we include the Vortex1, original Monster Sound and some others in the first generation. They all offered 8 3D streams and lacks support for environmental audio effects (e.g. EAX and A3D2/3’s wavetracing). In the second generation we include cards that support at least 16 3D streams and support the wavetracing of A3D2 and/or EAX. This includes all cards using the Vortex2, Emu10k1, Canyon3d, 4DWave, FM801, YMF744/754, Thunderbird 3D and a few others.

What will be considered the 3^rd generation is too early to tell but there are a couple of features which appear to set this chip apart from the second generation. First, the flexibility of the DSP which can, for example, be changed from accelerating at least 32 3D sound streams with full EAX 2.0 support, to decoding MP3s in hardware (only using the DirectShow interface), to doing microphone echo cancellation or, to accelerating up to 64 MIDI voices is sure to turn some heads.

Unlike the Santa Cruz and SonicFury, which used the aptly named "VersaJack" for enhanced connectivity, Hercules decided to move almost all connectivity off the bracket and onto the breakout box. This allowed for many extra I/O options including COAX and optical I/O capabilities, RCA analog output jacks (as well as mini-jacks, a 4 port USB hub and more, all without taking up any extra valuable real estate in terms of PCI slots. The card also comes with a varied bundle, but most of it can be download for free from the respective company websites. Three items do stand out though. One is the full retail version of the outstanding PowerDVD 3.0 (an approximate $50 retail value) and the second is the full retail version of Sensaura’s Virtual Ear technology. We will get into this in more detail in the review but in brief, Virtual Ear allows the user to customize the way the 3D audio is generated to their ear and head shape, which in theory should result in better performance. It’s worth noting here that Sensaura’s Virtual EAR is now available as an upgrade for $25 directly from Sensaura’s website for motherboards using ADI SoundMAX 2 and sound cards and motherboards using the Yamaha YMF 724, 744 (and likely 754) chips. The third is the Yamaha XG50 software XG MIDI engine and player.

In this review we will take an in-depth look at the feature set of the Hercules Game Theater to see if what looks to be an innovative feature set on paper translates to real world benefits. One other thing we will mention up front is this is a very lengthy review. If you don't want to read a lot then you can head straight to the last page for the overall summary, but you will by doing so miss out on the in-depth detail.