This comprehensive review of the Hercules Game Theater XP Soundcard is brough to you by The Guru of 3D. Check out his post for all the pics as well. This is the ultimate in PC gaming –check it out below…
Today we will be looking at a new and very complete sound kit from none other then Hercules. Targeted to bring us a valuable products that money can buy and follow up of Guillemot’s Maxi Studio ISIS is the Game Theater XP,it should be able to compete with Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Hercules. With a shiny PCI soundcard and extra breakout box with accompanying connectors it might just do that..
Hercules seems to be looking for some decent competition with the SoundBlaster Live! series,with their new Game Theater XP (GTXP). Featuring a unique external rack,a lot of inputs and outputs just like the live Drive!,and of course one of the most important aspects,excellent sound quality.
Key features for us gamers are:
•A revolutionary gaming sound card with a powerful rack
•Experience surround sound on regular headphones,4 or 6 speakers
•Connect joysticks,wheels and gamepads on the USB and game port and start playing!
•Hardware MP3 decoding and 3D audio effects playback
Targeted at the gamers the soundcard is based on the crystal CS4630 chip,a very powerful DSP sound-chip. 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 products like Santa Cruz and SonicFury. To ensure maximum compatibility with 3D Sounds API’s and Positional sound the soundcard is compatible with standards like Microsoft® DirectSound-3D Hardware accelerator,EAX 2.0,A3D 1.0,I3DL2,Sensaura’s MacroFX,MultiDrive,ZoomFX and EnvironmentFX.
Will the everlasting fame of the Live! dominating the globe be accounted for ? Might this be the soundcard we’ve all been waiting for ? Let’s check it out ..
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Minimum system requirements:
•Windows® 95/98,Millennium Edition and 2000
•Intel Pentium® MMX 233MHz and higher or compatible
•PCI 2.1 slot
•16MB RAM
•CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
•Headphones or amplified speakers.
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
USB hub feature:
•Windows® 98,Millennium Edition and 2000
•Available USB port
•Technology continued
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS –Will you even read this part ?
Data TransferPCI 2.1 bus
Audio Processor (DSP)New generation Crystal CS4630
Audio Converters• 18-bit ADC/20-bit DAC For high audio quality at sampling rates of up to 48kHz
Full Game and Audio Compatibility• Microsoft® DirectSoundâ 3D Hardware accelerator,EAX™ 2.0,A3D™ 1.0,I3DL2,Sensaura’s MacroFX™,MultiDrive™,ZoomFX™,EnvironmentFX™,allow for interactive positioning on 2 or 4 speakers or headphones.
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
PCI Card Connectors • DB44 connector to rack
• 1/8″*Aux Line-In jack
• Internal:MPC connectors for CD-Audio and Aux2-In.
Front Connectors• 1/4″Headphone output jack with volume control
• 1/4″Line-In 2/Mic-In toggle jack with microphone gain control
• 1/4″to 3.5mm adapter provided
• RCA Line-In jacks (left and right)
• Game port &2 USB ports (1 and 2)
Rear Connectors• 1/8″Main stereo Line-Out jack
• 1/8″Surround stereo Line-Out jack
• 6 gold-plated Line-Out RCA connectors:(Main Left and Right/Surround Left and Right /Center/Subwoofer)
• 2 additional USB ports (3 &4)
• DB44 connector to PCI card
• Digital S/PDIF Input (Co-axial &Optical) (32kHz,44.1kHz,48kHz)
• Digital S/PDIF Output (Co-axial &Optical) (Set to 48kHz)
• MIDI-In/MIDI-Out DIN connectors (MPU-401 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)
So,what’s in the box ? well .. enough to keep you busy for a while!
•Game Theater XP PCI sound card and external rack
•2-meter cable to link sound card to external rack
•Headphone adaptor
•Installation CD-ROM
•Installation guide
•Free bundled software:
Gameloft package (utilities to play online and game demos including Rogue Spear,Midtown Madness,and others)
•Sensaura Virtual Ear™ (3D sound positioning configuration utility)
•PowerDVD™ (DVD player –Certified Dolby
Digital™ Decoder with 2/4/6 channels –Dolby® Headphone Technology)
•MusicMatch™ Jukebox (complete digital audio solution –unlimited MP3 encoding) •Yamaha Soft Synthesizer™ S-YXG50™
•Sonic Foundry® ACID™ Xpress (25 free loops)
•Sonic Foundry® SIREN™ Jukebox press (20 free MP3 rips/encodes)
•Koolkaraoké Lite™ software (up to 20 free songs)
•Magix® playR™ jukebox
Essential the Game Theater XP is a PCI soundcard that is connected to an external rack that can be placed in the surroundings of the desktop PC. A connection between those two is established through a properly shielded cable with DB44 connectors. On that same cable a USB connector can be found to connect to the USB hub that is build in the external rack.
The Rack itself is a small dream and comes very close,if not better,to Creative’s Live! Drive. Shall we do a round of connectivity ? Brace yourself. On the front of the rack we can connect 1/4″Headphone output jack with volume control,1/4″Line-In 2/Mic-In toggle jack with microphone gain control,1/4″to 3.5mm adapter provided. RCA Line-In jacks (left and right)and a Game port &2 USB ports (1 and 2).
That was only the front fellow guru’s .. On the rear end of the rack we can find additional connects like 1/8″Main stereo Line-Out jack,1/8″Surround stereo Line-Out jack,6 gold-plated Line-Out RCA connectors:(Main Left and Right/Surround Left and Right /Center/Subwoofer),2 additional USB ports (3 &4),DB44 connector to PCI card,Digital S/PDIF Input (Co-axial &Optical) (32kHz,44.1kHz,48kHz),Digital S/PDIF Output (Co-axial &Optical) (Set to 48kHz),MIDI-In/MIDI-Out DIN connectors (MPU-401 compatible).
Digital Audio Connectivity:Digital Outputs connect to external Dolby Digital® decoders,digital speakers and other home audio equipment with digital input.
Basically you can connect anything analog or digital to the rack. I really enjoyed seeing a Optical S/PDIF in- and Output!
The soundchip –CS4630
Excuse me .. did you say CS4630 ?
The Cirrus Logic 4630 is (the Digital Sound Processor aka soundchip) is a high performance upgrade to the CS4624 PCI audio accelerator. With support for legacy compatibility modes,the CS4630 enables real mode DOS compatibility within PCI-only audio subsystems. This device,combined with application and driver software,provides a complete system solution for hardware acceleration of Microsoft’s DirectSound,DirectSound3D,DirectInput,and Wavetable Synthesis. WDM drivers provide support for both Windows 98 ® and Windows 2000 ® . The CS4630 is based on the Cirrus Logic CrystalClear™ Stream Processor (SP) DSP core. The SP core is optimized for digital audio processing,and is powerful enough to handle complex signal processing tasks such as Sensaura 3D,6-channel output,and hardware wavetable synthesis. The SP core is supported by a bus mastering PCI interface and a built-in dedicated DMA engine with hardware scatter-gather support. These support functions ensure extremely efficient transfer of audio data streams to and from host-based memory buffers,providing a system solution with great performance and minimal host CPU loading.
Product Features
•420 MIPs SLIMD ™ DSP architecture with increased internal memory for greater performance
•Hardware acceleration for Microsoft DirectSound ® and DirectSound3D ® Positional Audio
•Sensaura™ 3-D,2- or 4-channel audio
•EAX™ 1.0 enhanced environmental audio standard
•Unlimited-voice wavetable synthesis with effects including DLS support
•Acoustic echo cancellation hardware acceleration for NetMeeting™
•10-band graphic equalization
•High quality hardware sample rate conversion (90+ dB dynamic range)
•PC/PCI,DDMA,and CrystalClear Legacy Support (CCLS ® )
•PCI 2.1 compliant PCI interface
•Full-duplex,128-stream DMA interface with hardware scatter/gather support
•PCI power management (D0 through D3cold ),APM 1.2,and ACPI 1.0
•Power Management Event (PME#) generation within D0-D3 cold
•Dual AC ‘97 2.1 codec interface
•Asynchronous digital serial interface (ZV Port)
•S/PDIF digital input and output support for PCM and AC3 encoded 5.1 channel formats
•DirectInput ™ joystick and MPU-401 MIDI in/out
•3.3 V / 2.5 V power supply (5 V tolerant I/O)
•PC 98 and PC 99 compliant
•CS4630-CM 128-Pin MQFP
•Hercules –Game Theater XP
Six-channel output is getting a true hype at the moment and ever since the latest generation of sound cards has made six-channel audio possible,manufacturers have had to move a single audio codec design to incorporate two audio codec’s. Normally there is a four-channel codec accompanied by a two-channel part for a total of six channels. Now this makes the Game Theater XP so very interesting is that is utilizes dual CS4294 codecs and each of them support four channels. You have made it to this website so you can probably count well and have a normal IQ then should notice new possibilities way beyond 6 channel decoding here …For example,should the DVD AC-3 standard move towards for example 7.1 channel surround sound standards then the Game Theater is capable of adapting the new standard without any problems. Right now the extra channel is used to provide the independent volume control for the headphone output on the front of the rack.
The Game Theater XP will allow gamers to discover new sound sensations and possibilities. It becomes a real “sound station”with a powerful DSP for excellent 3D sound gaming experience that can be outputted to headphones or to 2 speakers,to 4 speakers or even to 6 speakers –leaving the computer’s CPU free for other tasks.
CPU utilization –of course we measured CPU Utilization an for this we used Adio Winbench software from Ziff Davis.
Audio WinBench 99 will take you deep into the heart of your PC’s sound system,with objective and subjective tests to measure CPU usage,hardware voices,3D positioning,and more. Audio WinBench 99 runs on Microsoft Windows 98,Windows 98 SE,Windows NT,Windows 2000,and Windows Me.
Audio WinBench 99 is a ZD benchmark that focuses on the audio subsystem of a PC. It’s tests give you both an overall comparative measure and a subjective measure of a PC’s audio subsystem’s performance. As a result,Audio WinBench 99 contains a mix of automated tests and interactive tests. The automated tests use a Direct Sound and Direct Sound 3D. All these tests measure the amount of CPU that the sound subsystem uses for common operations,such as playing sounds at 22 kHz and 44.1 kHz,8 bit and 16 bit from both static buffer and streaming buffer.
As you can see,this soundcard is near perfect when it comes to CPU utilization. Where the SB Live! will show a few percents utilization the results are in almost all instances nihil.
3D Positional Audio Support with Sensaura –This HRTF 3D audio technology places sources in the X,Y and Z planes for true 360° positional effects that appear above,below and all around you. DSP accelerates 32 hardware and 16 software DirectSound3DTM streams. Compatible with A3DTM 1.0,EAXTM 1.0/2.0,I3DL2,MacroFXTM,MultiDriveTM,Virtual EarTM.
2,4 or 6-Speaker Digital Surround Sound –Home-theater surround sound through headphones or multiple speakers. Immersive 3D gaming and DVD audio with 2,4 or 6-speakers and headphones (playback of Dolby Digital movie soundtracks from DVD requires a compatible software DVD player/encoder with provision for 6 speaker output).
For Effects Processing the software is equipped with an excellent 10-band graphic EQ with presets and peak meters. Digital effects with versatile dual-bus effects routing mixer will allow you to fine-tune your sound.
Sensaura tchnology
Integrated into the software and hardware is Sensaura 3D positional technology. Among them are several pieces of software to refine soundquality to you personal flavor.
MacroFX
Sensaura MacroFX™ creates ‘near-field proximity effects’as experienced in real-life when objects move very close to the listener,such as bees buzzing around your head or bullets flying past your ear. To see a more detailed explanation of this technology you can click here and view the appropriate research paper in Acrobat file format.
ZoomFX
Sensaura ZoomFX™ simulates the acoustic energy from large sound emitting objects. This provides ‘big sound realism’and is useful,for example,for an extended railway train passing a stationary individual.
Read the ZoomFX research paper by clicking here. This file is in Acrobat format.
EnvironmentFX
EnvironmentFX acoustically renders 3D audio environments. Up to 26 different pre-set environments are provided such as underwater effects,sewer-pipe and so on. This technology fully supports Creative Labs EAX 1.0,EAX 2.0 and also I3DL2 as prescribed by IA-SIG.
View the EnvironmentFX research paper and find out how this technology increases the realism of the gaming experience. This file is in Acrobat format. Click here.
MultiDrive
Sensaura MultiDrive™ is the worlds first true,3D multi-speaker technology. MultiDrive seamlessly integrates front and rear sound hemispheres,ensuring a truly immersive and robust 360 degree horizontal and vertical sound field.
For a more detailed explanation of Sensaura MultiDrive click here and view the research paper. This file is in Acrobat file format.
Virtual Ear
For both headphone and speaker listening,it is important that the HRTFs used in the signal processing are as close as possible to the listener’s own head and ear characteristics.
Virtual Ear Technology enables the listener to ‘tune’the Sensaura HRTFs so as to optimise this match for the ultimate listening experience,bringing reality that little bit closer.
BassFX. This effect enhances bass sounds in the mix,thus compensating for the poor bass response of some low-quality headphones and speakers. It achieves this by reducing the dynamic range of bass sounds whilst simultaneously adjusting the balance between bass and mid-range sounds.
More compatibility ..
The Game Theater XP is equipped with a MIDI Wavetable Synthesizer –A 8MB DLS synthesizer with scalable DSP/Host load sharing. 64-voice hardware polyphony. Yamaha Soft Synthesizer S-YXG50 offers 676 instrument sounds and 21 drum kits.
DVD enthusiasts hail the king
DVD guru’s will find in Game Theater XP an excellent solution for PCs equipped with a DVD drive:Dolby Digital decoding on up to 6 independent gold-plated RCA outputs (5.1 channel AC3™ format) and S/PDIF pass through support for Dolby Digital™,DTS™ formats and Dolby™ Headphone Technology for superior quality surround sound. As a great bonus you’ll notice that Game Theater XP is provided with Power DVD™,which enhances high performance video playback and is one of the best species of DVD software available.
Of course we tested 5.1 output,after a little driver-upgrade we where convinced. Nothing can beat 5.1 output while watching a DVD. Sound was perfectly decoded and we really enjoyed the high quality. The fun part is that you can hook up the external rack to a Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder after which all you can say is ooh and aah ..
Music and MP3 –Got a somewhat slow PC ? Do you hate it when a MP3 file starts to sound crackling and is giving you hickups if you try to multi-task ? Well,you are in luck the DSP can do MP3 decoding accelerated in hardware,which leaves the computer’s CPU free to perform other tasks. Remember my little story on CPu utilization ? On the software side,MusicMatch Jukebox downloads,records and plays digital MP3 music,Siren Jukebox Xpress is a digital music management system and is also a playback software tool for MP3,WMA and WAV files and finally,Yamaha XGstudio provides a digital interface to play MIDI files. We used a 1200 MHz AMD Athlon processor and found that with MP3 acceleration enabled the Media Player consumed zero seconds of processing time. If you disable MP3 Acceleration in the control panel the decoding will be handled by the system and it takes about 4 seconds. The slower the system,the longer it’ll take.
The Drivers –It seems that Hercules is really motivated to get some good drivers on the market,and they should. This product is competing with Creative labs and one of the reasons for their success has always been their eye-candy drivers. The GTXP has loads of options and is visually very teasing. We tested most options and even EAX 2.0 seemed to be working perfectly. The only downside if the card/drivers is the lacking support for A3D 2.0,however,don’t worry about that one. Sensaura 3D positional sound is making up for it ..
The Guru’s Verdict …
Concluding –We really enjoyed what we saw today ! The CS4630 DSP that powers the Game Theater XP really makes this kit very flexible. We enjoyed the quality of sound it produces,we like the CPU utilization and of course the multitude of 3D Surround Sounds API. Then there is the external rack,I simply love it. It’s well produced,stirdy and has all the connectors you’ll ever need. Furthermore,you can hook upto 4 USB devices on the rack. A nice and welcome addition indeed. I have to make one minor issue though,the integrated USB hub is not powered by an adapter but it’s gently pulls the necessary AMP’s from the PC. If you connect some serious power consuming devices to the rack then this _could_ be a problem.
The Game Theater is definitely not the cheapest buy for any gamer,still for most gamers it is a fantastic addition to their PC! Not everyone needs all the I/O options the GT offers,if you don’t you’d probably won’t go for this product. Personally I can’t have enough of them though. The enthusiastic gamer will definitely enjoy this product as it can compete with the Live! Platinum 5.1 very well.
And hey .. did I mention the price for this product ? For about $150 US you can get it at your local PC-shop. That makes it cheaper than the SoundBlaster Live! Platinum.
We award this the Game Theater XP with our golden editor’s choice award for a innovative,stable,high quality and very versatile soundkit. We loved it!
Features:
For hardcore gamers:
•A real sound station for game fans:Including both a PCI sound card and a powerful external rack,the Game Theater XP is the most powerful,innovative and easy-to-use solution ever offered to gamers.
•Multiple USB and game port accessible on the front panel lets players plug in several game peripherals simultaneously for multi-player gaming. Connect joysticks,wheels or gamepads and start playing!
•The external rack includes a high-speed 4-ports USB hub,compatible with all USB devices.
•A powerful Digital Signal Processing (DSP) accelerator for unparalleled 3D sound experience on 2 or 4 speakers leaves your computer free for other tasks.
•Included in the extensive suite of high quality software bundled with Game Theater XP,Sensaura Virtual Ear™ brings gaming reality one step closer allowing you to custom configured 3D gaming sound sound effects to your own ears The GameLoft package offers all of the utilities a gamer would want in a single pack to play online and join the online gaming community. It includes several games demos allowing to play on GameLoft.com:Rogue Spear,Midtown Madness,and more!
For DVD enthusiasts:The ideal solution for PCs equipped with a DVD drive:
•Experience surround sound on 2,4 or 6 speakers (5.1 channels) with PowerDVD™’s certified Dolby Digital™ decoder.
•Using standard stereo headphones,you can enjoy unparalleled Dolby 5.1 surround sound with PowerDVD™’s certified Dolby® Headphone technology.
•Dolby Digital™ and DTS™ formats supported by PowerDVD™ on the digital outputs of the Game Theater XP (Coaxial or Optical).
For music fans:
•Convert any kind of audio source to MP3 and play back your tracks using Cirrus Logic’s SoundFusion® DSP MP3 decoding accelerated in hardware without straining your PC.
•Connect your USB MP3 player to the USB port for high-speed downloads.
•Load digital audio files onto MiniDisc™ or DAT thanks to the Optical and Co-axial Digital In/Out.
•1/4″Mic pre-amplifier input jack for connection of a high-quality microphone.
•Connect your MIDI keyboard to the complete MIDI interface (MIDI-In / MIDI-Out DIN connectors).
•Game Theater XP is compatible with all popular music applications:Cubase VST™,Cakewalk™,Logic Audio™ and others.
http://www.guru3d.com/review/game-theater-xp/