Hercules has emerged in the sound card market as a viable, high quality option to the Sound Blaster dominance.  We’ve reviewed two of their high-end cards, the Game Theater XP and the DigiFire 7.1, with both cards offering excellent performance and stability across all of our test platforms.  The Fortissimo III 7.1 extends the Hecules line, bringing quality multi-channel sound cards into the lucrative mid-range marketplace.  Face it, not everyone is willing to spend upwards of $100 on a sound card, with the exception of course being the true geeks among us.  For most people, a simple card will do, with price being the driving force behind most purchases.

The Fortissimo III 7.1 brings a host of new features to the Fortissimo line, with the most notable being the new 8-channel 7.1 audio support.  Most people, even non-audio types, know the idea behind 5.1 surround sound.  The standard setup includes a center channel, front right, front left, surround left, surround right, and a subwoofer, giving us 5.1 channels of audio happiness.  As you might guess, 7.1 ups the speaker count to 8, with the inclusion of two additional speakers designated as rear surround.  The specifications of this card are nearly identical to the DigiFire 7.1 we reviewed here, as both cards are essentially the same with the exception of the added Firewire support found on the high-end DigiFire 7.1.  As more and more people move the PC from the bedroom or office, and into the living room as an entertainment system component, audio performance has become an important factor.  Even the casual user will find the expanded audio capabilities of these cards useful, with the populatity of DVD-ROM drives in the modern PC.

Our review sample is a retail package Fortissimo III 7.1, and includes the PCI sound card, a MIDI/Joystick bracket, and driver/software disk.  Like other Hercules prodcuts, the PCB of the card is done in blue, which is a nice touch for the guys with window cases.  Before we explore the performance and features of this card, let’s take a quick look at the specs from the official Hercules web site, with a little cut and paste action:

You may notice that this card is also powered by the Cirrus Logic Sound Fusion CS4624, which is only a four-channel audio chip.  Like the DigiFire 7.1, the Fortissimo III employs not one, but two CS4624 chips, delivering the 8 channels required for 7.1 operation.  Close inspection of the PCB reveals the two chips, side by side in the image below.