Rating: 
Summary: worst sound card ever
Review: Bought this soundboard to upgrade a computer with a built in soundboard. This boards sound quality was worse than a.m. radio. It also made loud pops when the computer shut down. I removed the soundboard and went back to using the built in soundbard. I also put it in another computer to make sure that it was not conflicting with something. Same story for the second computer. Sent it back to Amazon for a refund.
Rating:
Summary: worst sound card ever
Review: Bought this soundboard to upgrade a computer with a built in soundboard. This boards sound quality was worse than a.m. radio. It also made loud pops when the computer shut down. I removed the soundboard and went back to using the built in soundbard. I also put it in another computer to make sure that it was not conflicting with something. Same story for the second computer. Sent it back to Amazon for a refund.
Rating:
Summary: This thing is a piece of junk!
Review: Do not waste your time or money. If you have or plan on having XP, then keep looking. This card has been nothing but headaches.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Sound
Review: I got this sound card as a gift and it is great! Installation went smoothly and the sound is great on the CA-4100 4.1 surround sound speakers.
Rating: 
Summary: No problems here...
Review: I had this card already installed with my computer from new, running Windows 98SE. I recently upgraded to XP and found, like other reviewers, that the driver no longer worked. However, the Hercules site had the right driver which I was able to download and install easily and it now works fine once more.
Rating:
Summary: No problems here...
Review: I had this card already installed with my computer from new, running Windows 98SE. I recently upgraded to XP and found, like other reviewers, that the driver no longer worked. However, the Hercules site had the right driver which I was able to download and install easily and it now works fine once more.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible Customer Service
Review: Playback quality is very good; however microphone record is extremely poor with lousy volume response,and background noise. There is absolutley NO customer support available at the web site, and telephone support is only abailable 9-5 Eastren time which makes access difficult for anybody in the US who works a full time job. After leaving work early to contact customer support, the technician had no knowledge of possible causes or remedies, and had no experience with the MUSE XL. I was promised a phone call and/or email with further information. No word and that was over a week ago. I would NEVER buy a Gamesurround product again.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible Customer Service
Review: Playback quality is very good; however microphone record is extremely poor with lousy volume response,and background noise. There is absolutley NO customer support available at the web site, and telephone support is only abailable 9-5 Eastren time which makes access difficult for anybody in the US who works a full time job. After leaving work early to contact customer support, the technician had no knowledge of possible causes or remedies, and had no experience with the MUSE XL. I was promised a phone call and/or email with further information. No word and that was over a week ago. I would NEVER buy a Gamesurround product again.
Rating:
Summary: I'ts GREAT!!!!!!!
Review: the card is great, support I3DL, EAX 1.0 , EAX 2.0 A3D 1.0 and the instruccions of sensaura (macroFX etc...) great driver's support,excelent sound (as LIVE!) and the 5.1 feature is AMAZING!... and ALL! of this only for few dollars!
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent budget solution
Review: The Hercules MUSE XL is based on the C-Media CMI-8738 chip. This is a budget chip as you would expect for a budget card. The CMI-8738 is actually capable of 5.1 channel sound and SPDIF (digital) input and output, but in this Hercules implementation, you get only 4 channel sound and no digital input or output. Again, this is a budget card, so Hercules seems to have forgone the extra features in favor of getting the basics done well.The sound is very good. The sound is free of distortion and the higher frequencies are noticeably more clean than my on-board integrated AC97 audio (an ECS motherboard with an Avance audio chip). For example, in the racing game "Rally Trophy", I noticed that the gear whine sounds are now more apparent and I finally can hear sound effects like the wind blowing. This card should present a good upgrade to most integrated audio solutions, which are probably even more budget-driven than this card. If you are using this card with a 2-speaker setup, be sure to open the installed mixer and change the setting from "4 speakers" to "2 speakers" - the default is for "4 speakers" and the sound will be quite strange without rear speakers connected in "4 speakers" mode. The CMI-8738 is based on Sensura 3D positional audio, so it supports all the popular formats for your games: Microsoft DirectSound 3D, EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0, A3D 1.0 and I3DL. Although there is no hardware MIDI support, the package includes the software-based Yamaha S-YXG50 to support MIDI, which is probably good enough for most users since hard-core MIDI users undoubtedly will purchase higher-end cards. Although the box does not specify compatibility with Windows XP, the latest drivers available at Hercules' official website do support Windows XP. The MUSE runs just fine on my Windows XP setup. The software package includes several demo titles, many of which are time limited or function limited - you probably already have full-function alternatives for most of these titles, but if you do not, the package will get you started on popular functions like ripping MP3's. The game port works. Not much more to say here. Under my older Windows 98SE installation, the drivers seemed quite stable, but I experienced frequent "page fault" errors from the mixer when shutting down Windows. This may be more due to remnants of sound drivers for my integrated audio and I experienced no more problems after disabling the mixer. In my current Windows XP setup, I have yet to experience any problems related to the MUSE XL.
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