The Hercules Game Theater XP
Is this the next level in gaming sound ?

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 ..