A rather groovy looking PCI sound card, the Fortissimo is based on a black circuit board (or at least the review board we got was, but it's the standard green in the press picture). It's a compact unit based around a Yamaha chip, the YMF744. The installation went painlessly, and a nice touch is the quick install guide, a step by step leaflet included in the package.

Supported sound standards are impressively wide-ranging, with MS DirectSound 3D, full EAX support and Sensaura capabilities too. In fact the only thing this card doesn't deal with is A3D - technically it supports version 1.0, but not the current A3D 2.0 standard which is far superior.

In terms of features the Fortissimo is as beefy as an Italian Tenor, considering its price. It has an impressive software control panel, which can configure the output between 2 or 4 channels, and add effects such as echo and reverb.

On the back of the card there are two line outs, one line in and a mic socket - the standard configuration - but also present is a S/PDIF digital output. A 128 voice wavetable setup (64 of them in hardware) and DLS (downloadable sound, which means that developers/programmers can put sounds up on the Internet to be directly downloaded into your card) round off the feature list.

All in all, it's an impressive all-rounder, particularly at this price point. With Sensaura and EAX in the mix you can't go far wrong for 3D sound, combined with neat features such as DLS and a proper digital output and you've got a smart sound card pitched at a more than reasonable price. Don't expect much in the way of a software bundle though; a copy of Acid-DJ mixing software and that's your lot.