Price: $149.99
Website: www.hercules.com
One year ago, new sound cards were as common as blue-footed boobies in Alaska (tropical birds don't tend to survive well in sub-zero temperatures). All eyes were on the graphics industry as NVIDIA, 3dfx, and ATI vied for attention. Meanwhile, with Aureal's demise, game developers were dedicating little time towards 3D audio implementations. Let's face it, would we still be drooling over games like Unreal Tournament if they were rendered in 256 colors, yet offered fantastic 3D audio? We can see you shaking your heads from here, folks.
Thankfully, other technologies like DVD and MP3 players have reaffirmed the need for quality sound cards and several companies have stepped up to the challenge. Creative Labs, with their EMU10K1 DSP have, for the most part, dominated the market for the past two years. Philips also introduced their Thunderbird DSP, which offers the ability to create 5.1 discrete channels from a stereo source. Additionally, Philips' Acoustic Edge introduced vast connectivity at a reasonable price - something that distinguished the card from its competitors. Finally, Crystal released their CS4630 (SoundFusion) DSP, capable of 6-channel analog output. Turtle Beach and VideoLogic were the first two manufacturers to capitalize on the CS4630, delivering the Santa Cruz and SonicFury, respectively.
The most recent party to enter the freshly frenzied sound card foray is long-time video card manufacturer Hercules. Notorious for quality video cards, the Hercules/Guillemot sound card line has lacked serious power - power being an attribute that is historically synonymous with the Hercules brand name. Determined to remedy the situation, Hercules has become the third manufacturer to partner up with Crystal to offer a CS4630-equipped sound card. Christened the Game Theater XP, Hercules' latest creation expands on the connectivity options proffered by Philips' Acoustic Edge and includes an external rack. Bundled with Cyberlink's PowerDVD 3.0 software, we can see how the Game Theater XP would cost about $50 more than competing cards. Is the Game Theater worth the added expense though? As with the majority of high-end products, the decision lies in the differentiation of wants and needs.