Features:
- Set up your PC like a home theater for gaming, multimedia, and music production
- Play and record music in full duplex stereo
- Supports Microsoft DirectSound 3D, DirectMusic hardware accelerators, and older DOS games
- Built-in Yamaha XG synthesizer with 2 MB MIDI hardware Wavetable
- Acid DJ 2.0 software lets you choose from over 600 royalty-free loops and samples
Description:
Nearly every computer game produced these days has some form of built-in 3-D sound to enhance gameplay, but you won't be hear it if your sound card doesn't support 3-D audio standards. For the price of a new game, you can replace your old sound card with a Maxi Sound Fortissimo and hear what other gamers have been raving about for years--convincing 3-D audio from standard computer speakers. The Maxi Sound Fortissimo doesn't support every audio standard, but it does cover the major formats. The card can handle DirectSound 3D, EAX, A3D 1.0, and Sensaura Interactive positioning. All are popular gaming standards. Be aware that enabling advanced formats like EAX and A3D can slow down your games a bit, depending on the speed of your computer's main processor and video card. This will only impact slower PCs, so most users won't have to worry about it. The sound card uses a PCI connection and is plug-and-play compatible, so installation was a breeze. It comes with software for testing the card's advanced features, but most are demos or feature-limited versions of full-blown products. At this price, it really doesn't matter, though. One nice add-on was a copy of Acid DJ 2.0, which we used to create some simple tunes using the included sound loops and instrument effects. All the 3-D sound-compatible games we tried sounded great on our four-speaker setup and when played through headphones. The card sports two speaker outputs (for front and rear), a microphone input, and a line-in input. It also has a S/PDIF optical digital output jack, which is hard to find on sound cards costing twice as much (no optical cable is included). Finally, there's a game port for connecting joysticks, wheels, or even MIDI instruments. One of the more useful applications bundled with the card is Guillemot's Media Station, which acts as a central point for playing CDs, MIDI files, and wave files. It also includes a mixer so users can get the most out of their speakers. The Maxi Sound Fortissimo isn't the most advanced 3-D sound card on the market, but it should nicely suit the needs of casual gamers and novice music makers. --T. Byrl Baker Pros:
- Supports many popular 3-D audio formats
- Optical digital output
- 4-speaker support
Cons:
- Doesn't support the most advanced 3-D audio standards
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