Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo 4
by Philippe Ramelet
Published on December 9, 2004
Is the Hercules Fortissimo 4, with the new ENVY24 chipset and several functionalities, the new reference for middle range sound cards?
Characteristics
Hercules renews its most popular line of sound cards with the Fortissimo 4 after average results of the recently released Fortissimo III 7.1. The Cirrus Logic chipset has been replaced by the ICEnsemble ENVY24 HT (VIA’s sound division). We already encountered this chip in several sound cards like the Terratec Aureon Sky, Space, and some of the M-Audio products like the Revolution 7.1. The ENVY24 HT capabilities are equivalent to any modern chip; it plays at 24 bits/ 192 kHz, records at 24 bits/ 96 kHz and supports 5.1 and 7.1 multichannel formats. Dolby Digital EX is decoded via Power DVD Pro EX. One advantage of the Fortissimo 4 over Creative Labs sound cards is that it’s equipped with four separate outputs for 7.1 sound. It’s also equipped with an optical S/PDIF output.
For 3D sound the Fortissimo 4 controls up to 64 DirectSound 3D voices and uses the Philips’ QSound engine (already included in Acoustic Edge sound cards) and supports EAX 1.0 and 2.0 environments. This choice follows the purchase of Sensaura by Creative last December 4th. At least this will give the QSound engine a small push.
The price of the Fortissimo 4 will put this sound card in direct competition with the Creative labs Audigy LS and Terratec Aureon 7.1 Space.
For 3D sound the Fortissimo 4 controls up to 64 DirectSound 3D voices and uses the Philips’ QSound engine (already included in Acoustic Edge sound cards) and supports EAX 1.0 and 2.0 environments. This choice follows the purchase of Sensaura by Creative last December 4th. At least this will give the QSound engine a small push.