Now that all the specs, pictures and features of this card are laid out on the table, lets hear how this card actually stands up to some serious testing, Hot Hardware style.

The Hot Hardware Test System Mid-Range Intel Pentium 4 System

     Asus P4B533-E Motherboard
     Intel Pentium 4 1.8 GHz
     256MB Micron PC2100 DDR
     ATi Radeon 8500LE 128mb DDR
     Hercules Digifire 7.1
     Pioneer 16x DVD-116

     30 Gigabyte Samsung HD

     Windows XP Professional
     Cambridge Soundworks FPS1800 Speakers with Subwoofer

 

Performance Did You Hear That?

GAMES: UT2003, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Grand Theft Auto 3, Ghost Recon, Baldur's Gate II...

Switching over from a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Digital, we were able to not notice a subtle difference in sound quality. Spatial and 3D effects were both crisper and cleaner then before. This added depth to games such as Ghost Recon. Stalking quietly through a hall, hearing every quite foot step, water drips, wind blowing, then all of a sudden a barrage of bullets and frag grenades would tear through the speakers. Games like Medal of Honor truly enveloped us with impressive sound. This was most evident during the storming of Omaha Beach. The sharp "pa-tink" of bullets ricocheting off the the metal and the deep rumbling of the explosions really added to the ambience of the game. Throughout all the games we tested we experience no sound flaws, stutters or crackles with the exception of one, GTA III. When a large amount of activity was taking place in the game we would occasionally get a small amount of white static noise that would disrupt certain effects, while the other ones came through fine simultaneously. Considering that this only occurred in GTA III, and looking at that specific game's track-record, we concluded that this was due to game limitations, not the card.

WINAMP v3.0 & Windows Media Player:

In this phase of the testing we listened to quiet the mixture of both high bitrate Mp3's ( > 192kbps) and audio CD's that ranged from the hard pounding bass of Crystal Method, to the soft relaxing music of Chopin.  All the music came crossed with very crisp highs and deep filling bass.  At one point we actually shook one of our pictures off of the wall. Think we had the music turned up just a little bit to loud?  This wasn't a sound card performance feature, just a little over-zealous demo testing.  ;-)  Tossing in one of our favorite CD's, Dave Matthews Band - Live in Chicago, we were truly amazed with the sound quality.  Songs like "All Along The Watchtower" filled our room with sounds of acoustic guitar, slap bass, violin, sax and drums.  During the last part of this testing the we decided to send the card on a bit of a road trip.  I decided to hook the Digifire up through the sound system I DJ with and rip out some tunes for a little while. Nothing like sound being pushed through high end speakers by a couple thousand watts.  The Digifire held up just fine here.

DVD PLAYBACK - Power DVD EX Pro:

Using PowerDVD EX Pro 4, we sampled a variety of movies, but mainly; Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, and The Fifth Element.  Yet again the sound was astounding. Hearing the individual casings from the M-16 hitting the ground while RPG explosions shock the walls of the lab. The sounds from The Fifth Element Superbit Edition scene, where the Alien Diva sings were truly jaw dropping. There is such a dynamic range of crystal clear sound in that scene... truly impressive. Unfortunately, we were only able to listen to movies with the quadraphonic speakers.  If we were able to listen to the movies with 5.1, let alone the supported Dolby Digital EX 7.1 surround sound, this experience would have been that much more impressive we are sure.

Overall the Digifire 7.1 definitely lives up to the previous standards set by earlier Hercules sound cards. Sporting more features then one can shake a stick at, this card can handle just about anything. True, this card is the "flag ship" model in Hercules's line of audio cards, so it does have more extras then the average consumer will ever use, but the true audio geek will be in "option heaven".  Coming in at a very respectable $79.99 USD (when compared to other top of the line sound cards), this card is surely going to give Creative Labs a run for its money. The addition of two FireWire ports was also a very smart move with more and more home media moving onto the computer (digital camcorders, cameras etc). The only draw back to this is the separate bracket/slot, that takes yet another precious spot on the back of ones case, if they wish to make use of the MIDI/Game Port. 

Toss in some very swank software, a little literature and some fancy looking authenticity certificates and you have the whole of the retail package. It was nice to see Hercules continue their "trademark" blue PCB.  Though this does not actually effect the performance of the card it does match nicely with our case.  In the end, for delivering such an exciting product with such a complimentary package of extras, we'll give the Hercules Digifire 7.1 Digital Sound Card a 9 on the Hot Hardware Heat Meter.

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