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Hercules DigiFire 7.1 Sound Card


Date
: 02/20/03 – 01:34:03 PM

Author
:

Category
: Sound

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer: Hercules
Price : around $70

Introduction

We all know Hercules from their excellent graphics solutions like the 3D Prophet series with nVidia as well as ATI based GPUs. But since our Fortissimo III 7.1 review (reviewed here), the world now knows that Hercules also manufactures other kinds of hardware for the mainstream PC market.

Budget-minded people probably know the older GameSurround Fortissimo II with Crystal CS4624 chipset and the GameSurround Muse with C-Media CMI8738 chipset. These still are fine & cheap 4-channel sound cards, but of course they both lack 5.1 high-end cinematic audio support.

Well, if you own one of these new DigiFire 7.1 sound cards from Hercules, you surely don't have to worry about that any longer! Following the footsteps of the Fortissimo III sound card with
8-channel 7.1 sound support, the new DigiFire offers an even greater connectivity …

Let's check it out!

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

And here's the usual copy/paste from the manufacturer's website with all the specifications of the card :

Data transfer

PCI 2.1 bus

DSP

Cirrus Logic SoundFusion CS4624

Audio quality

CD and Pro Audio quality
20-bit quad output and 18-bit dual stereo input codec
up to 48kHz sampling rate

Game compatibility

Sensaura based 3D positional Audio with support for Microsoft DirectSound 3D, EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0, A3D 1.0, I3DL2 , MacroFX , MultiDrive , ZoomFX , EnvironmentFX
Sound Blaster

Audio compatibility

Microsoft DirectSound & DirectMusic
Dolby Surround
Dolby Digital & Dolby Digital EX

Software wavetable synthesizer

DSP accelerated engine for unlimited number of voices (64-voice hardware
8MB General MIDI/GS sample set
DLS 1.0 compatible
GM (General Midi) and Yamaha XG compatible
Yamaha S-YXG50: 676 instrument sounds and 21 drum kits Effects: reverb, chorus, variation…

External Connectors

· Analog output connectors:
· Front speakers out
· Rear speakers out
· Centre / LFE out
· 7 & 8 channels / Headphones out
· Line in / Mic in
· MIDI / Game port (MPU 401 compatible)
· Digital S/PDIF out (optical)
· 2 FireWire ports

Internal connectors

· CD-in; CD-in 2; Aux-in; S/PDIF in
· FireWire port

The Specs In Detail

What should you expect to find inside the retail boxed package?
Here's the list :

- The DigiFire 7.1 sound card
- A MIDI/Game port bracket
- The CDROM with drivers and software
- A well-written printed manual
- 9 Hercules stickers

The folks from Hercules were kind enough to send us the retail package of their brand-new DigiFire 7.1 sound solution. The package comes in a solid cardboard box with a nice layout. It includes the main sound card, an extra bracket with the MIDI/game port, the driver CD and a well-written printed manual with several languages to ensure a good installation. As a special bonus, Hercules also included a paper with 9 stickers on it to decorate your case. ;) The CDROM in the package includes a couple of interesting software titles like a modded version of Cyberlink's PowerDVD 4 and PowerDirector Pro 2.5 ME which is Cyberlink's video editing program. The PowerDVD version has been modded to enable 6.1 and 7.1 channel sound support with Dolby Digital EX decoder. This means that the hardware will decode 2 extra surround channels compared to the "normal" 5.1 Dolby sound system. Furthermore, the CDROM also includes Acid Xpress, a loop-based multi-track music creation tool, and Hercules' Mediastation III which is basically a multimedia jukebox.

It certainly looks like the Hercules engineers really like the blue color, because just as all of their recent (video & sound) cards, the DigiFire 7.1 comes with blue PCB. The card is based around the same
Crystal CS4624-CQ chip
as we find on the Fortissimo III 7.1 and the 'old' Fortissimo II 4-channel sound cards! It's weird how Hercules suddenly transforms a 4-channel sound chip like the CS4624 into an 8-channel version! The two tiny CS4294 chips you can locate near the center of the card handle the other 4 channels of this 8-channel sound card. We talked to Hercules about this and they told us their R&D department was able to modify the CS4624 4-channel DSP to allow it to support more codecs and sound channels. With the necessary modified drivers, the DigiFire is now capable of producing genuine Dolby certified 7.1 8-channel sound through the 4-channel CS4624 chipset! You can find more information about the different Crystal chipsets on the Cirrus Logic website.

The only difference between this card and the Fortissimo III 7.1 (reviewed here) is the presence of two IEEE1394 or FireWire ports to expand the connectivity of the DigiFire card. You can hook up just about any IEEE1394 device onto these ports. These additional FireWire ports are controlled by the Agere FW323-05 and HINT HB1-SE33 chips which allow a max throughput of 400Mb/s.

If you take a good look at the specifications of this 7.1 sound card, you'll see that it features Sensaura based 3D positional audio with support for most 3D effects used in today's high-tech games as well as future games. Like I said before, the card has been improved with a Dolby Digital EX decoder to ensure a full 7.1-channel 360° realistic positional audio experience with Dolby Digital EX DVDs. For those who like to play with MIDI wavetables, Hercules has included a Yamaha S-YXG50 wavetable software synthesizer featuring 676 instrument sounds and 21 drum kits effects. Too bad there's no ASIO support :(

The internal connectors (the connectors you don't see on the outside of your computer case) are 2 CD-ins, an AUX-in, an S/PDIF in and an internal IEEE1394 connector located at the top left of the PCB. On the outside of the case, the DigiFire 7.1 sports a wide range of external connectors (from left to right on the picture) : the front speakers out, the rear speakers out, the center / subwoofer out, the back surround left & right out (channel 7 & 8) / headphones out, line-in / mic-in and a digital S/PDIF optical out and finally the two IEEE1394 or FireWire ports. The extra bracket holds the MIDI / Game port. You need to connect this bracket internally to the main sound card by plugging it into the Joystick/MIDI connector.

That's about all we have to say about the specs of the new Hercules DigiFire 7.1 sound card. I suggest we continue with the most important part of a sound card review … the testing section! How does this sound card perform in real life situations? Let's check that all out on the next page …

Page 3 : Installation & Testing

Testing

Test System :

- Intel P4 1.6A @ 2.13GHz (133MHz FSB)
- ABIT IT7-MAX (i845E) Mainboard (onboard 5.1 sound disabled)
- 512MB Samsung PC2700 DDR RAM
- Chaintech Xabre400 Video card
- Hercules DigiFire 7.1 Sound card
- 2 x Maxtor 60GB ATA133 7200rpm hard drive (RAID0)
- WinXP + SP1 + latest drivers

Installation

First of all, let me tell you I didn't have any problems installing the main sound card and the bracket in my case. Neither did I have a problem with the installation of the drivers and software. As soon as you insert the CDROM in your drive, an autorun will pop up. This little "wizard" or menu will lead you through the various steps of the installation process. Easy and efficient! Windows XP immediately recognized the card after the first reboot, asked for the drivers and installed them without any hiccups. Same story goes for the rest of the software like PowerDVD, Acid Xpress, etc.

We were amazed by the quality of the software and drivers. Just take a look at the screenshots and you'll see what we mean :

Our Impressions

At this point, we haven't been able to get our hands on a 7.1 speaker set to test the full capacity of our DigiFire 7.1 sound card. The Hercules people are working hard to finish their 7.1 speaker system and the package should be ready for release in the very near future. So we decided to attach a 5.1 speaker system to the DigiFire and power that baby up! To be able to hear the sound coming out of channel 7 and 8, we used a couple of older stereo speakers. This creates a virtual 7.1 speaker set to work with :)

So how does the card handle stuff like :

- GAMES?
Although the DigiFire doesn't support as many effects as the Creative Audigy sound cards (reviewed here), I really think you gamers out there will get a good feeling when using a card like the one we're discussing today. The card supports the popular gaming effects of today and tomorrow. Things like DirectSound3D, EAX and A3D have no secrets for this mofo. When there's a monster behind your back, the sound of that monster comes from the rear speakers …

- DVDs?
As I told you before, the DigiFire 7.1 comes bundled with PowerDVD PRO EX, the slightly modded version of the popular DVD playback software application. This allows the card to support the universal Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital EX 6.1 and 7.1 industry standards. And that's what you hear when you play DVDs on a rig with this sound card. The sound quality is amazing and crystal-clear at all times. The 7.1 audio makes it feel like you're inside a movie ;) Really cool stuff! Unfortunately not all DVD movies already support the 7.1 industry standards but those who do can be found on this website. In the near future, more and more movies will become available with these superb realistic 7.1 standards.

- MUSIC?
Playing an MP3 through the DigiFire went totally as planned. We got clear sound quality with no clicks, hiss or pops whatsoever. And our P4 CPU didn't even have to work a bit. MIDI-lovers can enjoy the power of the Yamaha S-YXG50 wavetable software synthesizer which has really good and realistic sound banks!

Page 4 : Conclusion

Conclusion

Good

- 7.1 / 8-channel Surround Sound
- Crystal-clear sound quality
- Blue PCB (I love that one :D)
- Dolby Digital EX
- FireWire ports
- Software & Drivers

Bad

- The use of the 'Older' CS4624 DSP
- No wide range of 7.1 speaker systems available at this time

Hercules have themselves another mighty fine sound product with this DigiFire 7.1. I personally guarantee that all you games and DVD movie freaks will love this sound card. In fact, everyone who appreciates an excellent audio quality and surround sound should love this product. Whether you have a 2.1 or 5.1 speaker system, this sound card will be able to fulfill all your audio needs! On top of all that, the card also has 7.1 8-channel surround sound support for future speaker systems. It's always nice to have hardware that doesn't get old in like 2 weeks. The software and drivers offer fast and easy access to the settings of the DigiFire features in your favorite OS. To be honest, I've never seen such good-looking and drivers before. The addition of the two external IEEE1394 or FireWire ports will certainly please all you people out there who own DV equipment or some kind of hardware that needs a FireWire port. The DigiFire 7.1 is a great card, but if you don't need the FireWire capabilities, I suggest you go with the Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 sound card which is identical to the DigiFire card except for the lack of IEEE1394 ports. You can save about $20 by listening to this advice ;)