Not quite Maximum sound, Guillemot
Written: Apr 29 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good price, surround sound, optical out
Cons: Driver problems, No Win2k support, can't handle high frequency sound, dodgy microphone in
The Bottom Line: Despite appearing well featured, the Maxisound Fortissimo falls short in almost all departments. Same time and get a Sound Blaster Live! 1024 or Platinum if you want digi out.
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| con_mcb's Full Review: Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo |
After downloading some new drivers for my SB AWE 32, the sound went to hell on my computer. It was so terrible, I frankly don't want to talk about it.
The card was 6 years old and had certainly had a good innings so I strode in a my local Tempo store and bought the Maxisound Fortissimo. It has surround sound support, Optical out Hardware acceleration and basically looked like a great card. It was also amazingly cheap.
After installing and configuring the card for the rest of that day, my confidence and optimism about my new card quickly diminished. I was still plagued by a number of sound problems and also, it was hardly picking up any noise from my £80 microphone, rendering my much loved dictation program useless.
Discouraged but not defeated, I turned to the internet and specifically guillemot's website to get the new drivers. After a horrendous installation of the new drivers, the sound quality improved but sadly was still unsatisfactory at high frequencies. The mic, too, still wasn't working well. I attempted to get hold of Guilletmot through phone and e-mail, but never received any reply. Could it simply be a dud card? I took it back to Tempo and returned to test another one. Same Problems. Dissatisfied and defeated, I took the card back again and bought an SB Live! 1024 and have enjoyed perfect sound ever since. With good mic pickup.
Now, It could have just been a conflict with my machine, but the card certainly appeared (to me) to be utterly useless. Despite the major problems of bad sound and bad pickup, other minor factors add to make this a un-recommendable. Namely the optical output that can't differentiate between tracks and dodgy midi/gamepad port config that refused to recognise either of my Gravis gamepad Pro's. I hate to be negative, but this was altogether a disturbing and baffling soundcard experience.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 50
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Epinions.com ID:
con_mcb
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Location: Berkshire, England
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
19 year old Student from UK. Interests include Sport, music, computing and partying.
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