Since June, I've been going through a lot of different sound cards trying to find a good one to use for my MS-DOS gaming PC. In the process, I've been recording their sound in a variety of YouTube videos with different games. I've done two games so far and I will keep adding more later on.

Game 1: Star Wars X-Wing, floppy disk edition and Collector's CD-ROM edition.

*UPDATED* 1- SoundBlaster sound option, floppy disk edition - ESS Maestro-2 PCI sound card used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29tx8ENWnY0

Not a bad sound, but the FM Synthesis is too high-pitched and if you're using the card on a fast computer, it hits false notes. The SoundBlaster part works very nicely, on the other hand. Call me stupid, but I actually like this higher-pitched FM Synthesis. Has a warmer sound to my ears than the real Yamaha YMF262.

To my knowledge, this sound card uses a software-emulated YMF262 (I can't say for sure as it truly does sound like it's being emulated via software than actually cloned within the Maestro-2 chip itself), and although OPL2 is passable, it doesn't do OPL3 very well. I didn't record the Collector's CD-ROM edition played with this sound card because some notes come out as loud buzzes when using 4-Op FM, and the Collector's CD-ROM edition of Star Wars X-Wing uses those notes a lot.

A strange thing about the Maestro-2 is how the sound pitch is considerably lower when playing games through pure DOS than through a Windows DOS box. This particular X-Wing clip was recorded with the game running under Windows, though unfortunately, I cannot get any sound from the SoundBlaster sound option under DOS, not with the original LucasArts driver nor Dvwjr's patched driver.

The ESS Maestro-2 is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

2- AdLib sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster AWE64 Value CT4500 ISA sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX4xx0wm5DM

If you don't install the Creative mixer, the sound lacks bass (and in this recording, the Creative mixer was not installed). Other than that, it sounds the way AdLib should sound, but some notes are different on the AWE64 Value CT4500.

At first, I thought this used a Yamaha YMF262 integrated within one of the ASICs on the sound card, but the truth is that this uses a cloned YMF262 made by Creative dubbed CQM. It's one of the better cloned YMF262s I've heard, but there are some better ones out there.

The SoundBlaster AWE64 Value CT4500 is SoundBlaster 16 compatible; it's one of the only SoundBlaster 16-compatible sound cards I've come across.

*UPDATED* 3- 4-Op FM music and SoundBlaster Pro sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - OPTi 82C929A ISA sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScGpMBdmVDM

Love the sound of the music. It is rougher than it should be, but I like this added roughness. The sound effects are also very clear.

Be advised: not all 82C929A-based sound cards will sound the same. The digital audio sounds the same, but the OPL3 will sound different depending on two factors:

1) If the YMF262 is the real Yamaha chip or a clone (LS-212 or DSP24)
2) If the quad op-amp amplifying the audio out of the YMF262 is an LF347, TL074 or TL084

This particular 82C929A uses a real YMF262 with an LF347 quad op-amp. The op-amp is what makes the audio as rough as it is. If your 82C929A has a TL074 or TL084, you shouldn't get rough bass notes. Also, some cards with the LS-212 and DSP24 may have very heavy high-pass filtering, resulting in extremely weak bass.

The OPTi 82C929A is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

4- General MIDI with SoundBlaster sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 CT4780 PCI sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgIvE3WWhnM

This is one of my favorite General MIDI sounds. I do find the digitized sound effects to be a little too clear for my liking (I prefer sound that's slightly muffled). Speech is fine, though. The one big problem is that the music is a little glitchy when the game starts, and you sometimes have to press ESC to bring up the mini options screen in the menus, then press ESC again to exit out of the mini options screen.

The entire SoundBlaster Live! line is SoundBlaster 16 compatible. Take note that if you use this sound card with the floppy disk edition of Star Wars X-Wing, you need to be in pure DOS to use any of the SoundBlaster sound options. If you use any of the SoundBlaster sound options under Windows 95 or 98, you'll get no sound whatsoever.

5- SoundBlaster sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster AWE64 Value CT4500 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkJLOWmYUAk

The sound got a bass boost using the Creative mixer for this video, so the bass is a bit heavier than it would normally be. Again, FM Synthesis is correct for the most part aside from some altered notes, but the digitized speech and sounds seem to be of lower quality than on the other sound cards I've used. The digitized sound is also a bit buggy, which will be demonstrated in the next video.

6- General MIDI with SoundBlaster sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster AWE64 Value CT4500 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdoB-IKHHc4

I don't like this sound simply because by default, it has a very heavy reverb effect that makes the sound very echoy. Some sounds produced using General MIDI are also too loud or too quiet. In this clip, the buggy digitized sound is demonstrated. Sometimes, after speech or the sound of a TIE Fighter passing by is played, there's no more digitized sound until you either complete a mission or pause and unpause the game either by using ESC or the P key.

7- AdLib sound option, floppy disk edition - C-Media CMI8738 PCI sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0srail1lsXg

I actually had this sound card sitting inside an old PC my parents bought back in 2000. And I must say, the FM Synthesis in this sound card sounds just like the real thing. The only difference I noticed is that the sound is more muffled.

From what I can tell, inside the CMI8738 chip on the sound card is a real YMF262, or one that's either emulated or cloned so well there's no difference between it and the real YMF262.

The C-Media CMI8738 is supposed to be SoundBlaster 16 compatible, however, I never got ANY of the digitized sound to work on this sound card at all, as demonstrated in the next clip.

8- 4-Op FM music and SoundBlaster Pro sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - C-Media CMI8738 and OPTi 82C929A used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA-4E0kEi2Y

For some reason, whenever I try to get any digitized sound out of the CMI8738, it either loops a little segment of the sound clip for infinity or plays the sound at double speed. This is why the OPTi 82C929A is used to produce the sound effects, and we all know already from the 3rd clip that it sounds good. And yet again, the music sounds just like true 4-Op FM. This sound card, unlike the OPTi 82C929A, does not have rough music. It's just muffled.

9- 4-Op FM music and AWE32 sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - SoundBlaster AWE64 Value CT4500 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG-p-bvHAHg

As usual, some notes in the FM Synthesis are different, which seems to make the music more subdued than it should be to my ears. The pitch of the sound effects is also lower than on some of the other sound cards I've used, but this is the correct sound pitch for X-Wing.

10- General MIDI music and AWE32 sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - SoundBlaster AWE64 Value CT4500 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kwZZypU21c

Most of the reverb was removed using the Creative mixer, and I prefer the AWE64's General MIDI like this. But I noticed a lot of notes start at one pitch, then the pitch becomes higher as the note plays. I don't like that.

11- AWE32 MIDI music and AWE32 sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - SoundBlaster AWE64 Value CT4500 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA_fx0N8TgI

This sounds very similar to the General MIDI at times, but I prefer the sound of the AWE32 MIDI over the General MIDI on the AWE64. Although I can't figure out how to reduce the reverb, as I think it's excessive.

12- SoundBlaster sound option, floppy disk edition - OPTi 82C929A and SoundBlaster AWE64 Value CT4500 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBBuGc-OkAs

For some reason, the OPTi 82C929A will only work with the SoundBlaster sound option in the floppy disk edition of Star Wars X-Wing if I either cause a conflict at I/O port 388 with my SoundBlaster AWE64 or use just the DOS drivers for the 82C929A. If I don't do that, the game will either boot to a black screen or output no sound. Also, you can't use the OPTi 82C929A on a computer with a CPU faster than 133MHz with Star Wars X-Wing or the music will be output as a mess of scrambled notes from the YMF262 unless you use Dvwjr's patched ADLIB_W.IMS driver. The sound is true AdLib here, and I must say that DOSBox does a very good job at emulating the YMF262 as the sound is pretty much identical in DOSBox minus filtering. And once again, the glitchy sound of the AWE64 is demonstrated.

You might want to turn down your speakers for the next one, as it will give you an earache:

13- SoundBlaster sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 CT4780 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsQbD33vtg

Quite possibly one of the worst sounds I've ever heard from any sound card I've used. I heard the SoundBlaster Live! had SoundBlaster 16 emulation, so I bought the first SoundBlaster Live! I came across and tested it out. Oh my GOD! This sound card made my ears bleed when I first heard the sound in Star Wars X-Wing. It sounds like a mixture of bad FM Synthesis and PSG, and the bass notes are so loud they overpower the rest of the sound! Horrible!!! Digitized sound and speech is fine, though.

After hearing this, I'm pretty sure this uses a software-emulated YMF262, and a very bad one at that.

14- 4-Op FM music and SoundBlaster 16 sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 CT4780 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5z8FjUlwd8

When I heard the 4-Op FM from the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 CT4780, it sounded much better than the AdLib. And in fact, it does! The percussion is very weird and the music sounds wrong, but this is much more listenable than the floppy disk edition using either the AdLib or SoundBlaster sound options. And the digitized sound is as clear as it always is on the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 CT4780.

After hearing this, something told me the SoundBlaster Live! line of sound cards uses 2 different emulators for the YM3812 and YMF262. Could this be the case?

15- AdLib sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster Vibra128 CT4810 PCI sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXObHZEY8u4

Sounds even more disgusting than the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 CT4780. Never mind bad FM Synthesis, this has no FM Synthesis at all! It instead uses Ensoniq's wavetable to simulate FM Synthesis, which sounds like absolute crap and a lot of notes are missing. Yuck! It completely ruins X-Wing's awesome music. To think I was going to use this sound card with my MS-DOS games. Good thing I didn't go with this sound card!

There exist a few different variations of the SoundBlaster Vibra128, all of which sound just as bad as my particular SoundBlaster Vibra128. These include the sound card the SoundBlaster Vibra128 was based off of, the Ensoniq AudioPCI, and several other early PCI SoundBlaster sound cards such as the SoundBlaster PCI64, SoundBlaster PCI128, SoundBlaster 16 PCI and SoundBlaster AudioPCI.

The SoundBlaster Vibra128 and its derivatives are SoundBlaster 16 compatible.

16- 4-Op FM music and SoundBlaster 16 sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - SoundBlaster Vibra128 CT4810 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua4F7ebOSWI

Good sound effects, but HORRIBLE music with that "simulated FM Synthesis." Couldn't Ensoniq have made better use of the wavetable to simulate FM Synthesis? This sounds like a last-minute addition, as it's not refined and sounds VERY bad.

17- General MIDI music and SoundBlaster 16 sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 CT4780 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlDZODRNQUo

Just like the floppy disk edition using the General MIDI with SoundBlaster option, but with better percussion and not buggy like on the floppy disk edition. One of the better sounds of X-Wing.

18- General MIDI sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster Vibra128 CT4810 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnAmGURTta4

Since the Vibra128 shares the same waveset as the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1, the General MIDI sounds exactly the same and sounds very nice. Except this sound card does not work with any of the SoundBlaster sound options, so there's no digital sound.

19- AdLib sound option, floppy disk edition - Crystal CS4235 ISA sound card used (built into the computer's motherboard in this case): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ej3fraayUA

Quite possibly one of the worst sounds I've ever heard off of an ISA sound card. The FM Synthesis is wrong in many spots and the gain is set so high, the sound distorts, and sometimes distorts so heavily, the sound will stop for a split second. Awful.

This is a SoundBlaster Pro compatible sound card, but its DOS support is complete garbage. I only got it to work ONCE with the Collector's CD-ROM edition of X-Wing, it works like crap in the floppy disk edition, and to make matters worse, it works whenever it feels like it. And under Windows 95, if you play a DOS game, you need to RESTART YOUR COMPUTER before you can use the sound card again. This is one seriously messed-up sound card. Either that, or my drivers suck.

20- 4-Op FM music and SoundBlaster Pro sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 CT1600 ISA sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9a42Yf11WU

The true SoundBlaster Pro. What else can I say? However, it's not flawless. Its main problem is the digital sound, which is of poorer quality than all the other sound cards I've used, however, it makes up for that by filtering the sound so much it adds an insanely huge amount of bass to the sound. It makes for some really nice sound out of the YMF262 and makes the low quality of the digital sound less noticeable.

Just be sure you get a good software mixer for the SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 CT1600 since with just the SET BLASTER line in AUTOEXEC.BAT, it will work, but the sound output will be very weak. In this particular clip, the Windows 95 drivers for the SoundBlaster Pro included with Windows 95 are used, which makes the SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 CT1600 output sound so loud it could clip at times. Quite possibly the loudest sound card I've ever used.

21- SoundBlaster sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster Vibra16 CT2260 ISA sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfmNlPG5-dw

This was rather unexpected for me: FM Synthesis is not filtered as heavily as the SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 CT1600. It's got more audible high frequencies than on the SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 CT1600, though the loud bass is there and the sound output is pretty noisy at times. When the sound card is first activated (you need to use drivers with this Vibra16; just using SET BLASTER in AUTOEXEC.BAT won't cut it), you will hear a ringing noise in the background, which goes away when sound plays, but there are times when either that ringing noise will show itself while you're playing in the right audio channel or right after some digital sound stops playing. Needless to say, this is the true sound of a SoundBlaster 16, and Though the quality of the digital sound is superior to the SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 CT1600, I prefer the heavier filtering of the SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 CT1600.

Another thing worth mentioning: unlike my SoundBlaster AWE64 Value CT4500, the SoundBlaster Vibra16 CT2260 appears immune to the "stuck PCM" bug I found on the AWE64. No matter how hard I try, I can't get the digital sound to stop working whereas on my AWE64, it happens fairly quickly.

22- General MIDI with SoundBlaster sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster Vibra16 CT2260 and Ensoniq Soundscape ISA sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouLYetSeZdo

I won't hide it from you: I'm a fan on Ensoniq's sound cards. I love the sound they put out, although in X-Wing, the General MIDI is a bit lacking, especially when it comes to percussion as the floppy disk edition of X-Wing has some pretty lousy percussion.

I could have used the Soundscape by itself, but its SoundBlaster support is absolutely worthless. First off, there's no FM Synthesis whatsoever on the sound card (again, like the Ensoniq AudioPCI, the Soundscape remaps the FM to the wavetable and sounds horrible). To make matters worse, the Soundscape is only compatible with the SoundBlaster 2.0. This means no Stereo SoundBlaster support. That equals fail, and as such, the SoundBlaster support on the Soundscape has been disabled.

NEW: 23- SoundBlaster sound option, floppy disk edition - SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 CT1600 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-JrjAI7dLM

More of the SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 CT1600's heavily-filtered FM Synthesis and slightly downsampled digital audio in action. What can I say about this card that hasn't been said already?

NEW: 24- 4-Op FM music and SoundBlaster 16 sound effects, Collector's CD-ROM edition - Avance Logic ALS4000 PCI sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8guSyk-k7TE

The ALS4000 is one of the best PCI sound cards I've ever used. The audio is very clear, though on this particular ALS4000, there's a high-pitched noise in the left audio channel whenever sound plays in a DOS game and any digital audio is lower-pitched than normal.

Although the OPL3 sounds no different from a real YMF262, the ALS4000 uses a clone of the YMF262 named ALSFM. It's a really good clone, although the Stereo sound is reversed on it, yet the digital audio's Stereo is not reversed.

Small note: the ALS4000 is sensitive to fast CPUs when playing the floppy disk edition of X-Wing with the stock LucasArts ADLIB_W.IMS driver. It is recommended to use Dvwjr's patched driver instead.

SoundBlaster support is actually rather weird on this card. SoundBlaster 16 support only seems to work under Windows 9x, but under DOS, SoundBlaster Pro is about as high as you can get. Very weird.

Game 2: Doom, v1.1 and The Ultimate Doom

NEW: 1- General MIDI music and SoundBlaster sound effects, The Ultimate Doom - Yamaha YMF724 PCI sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4GKyUiynaE

My first experience with Yamaha's XG synth, and it sounds GOOD. Although it doesn't sound as good as the DB50XG and DB60XG/XR385, it still sounds pretty damn good. Digital audio is also very clean and clear.

One thing to note with the YMF724: it too has issues with reversed Stereo sound, but only on digital audio. OPL3 and XG synth are fine.

The YMF724 is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

NEW: 2- SoundBlaster music and SoundBlaster sound effects, The Ultimate Doom - SoundBlaster 32 PnP CT3600 ISA sound card used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOIxbxID0iM

Doom demonstrates very well just how wrong and raw CQM can sound. Many of the notes are incorrect and the CQM itself seems unfiltered. Digital audio is very good, on the other hand.

A word of note: Doom supports OPL3 music via the set dmxoption=-opl3 parameter (it MUST be in lowercase to work), but it just doesn't work on the SoundBlaster 32 PnP CT3600.

The SoundBlaster 32 PnP CT3600 is SoundBlaster 16 compatible.

NEW: 3- SoundBlaster music and SoundBlaster sound effects, Doom v1.1 - SoundBlaster 32 PnP CT3600 used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ872mxYHbI

Although I already used the SoundBlaster 32 PnP CT3600 on Doom, if you listen to Doom v1.1, it doesn't actually drop notes as much as The Ultimate Doom does when using OPL2 music.

And of course, CQM still sounds wrong and raw and the digital audio is very good.

There are a few other sound cards I didn't get any clips from, but I'll give you my general opinion on them:

-OPTi 82C931 (ISA sound card): the FM Synthesis has some really strange volume issues. Whenever a note starts to play, there's a spike in the volume of the music. Basically, the music gets louder for a split second when a note starts to play. To top it all off, certain sound channels are too loud and others too quiet. Also, the FM Synthesis does not hold its notes like a real YMF262 (they just stop; they don't drag on for a little bit before stopping). It makes for some really strange FM Synthesis. The digitized sound is fine, however.

It turns out OPTi made their own "enhanced" version of OPL3 FM Synthesis known as OPTiFM with backwards compatibility to both OPL3 and OPL2 FM Synthesis. I've definitely heard better from these "enhanced" clones of the YMF262 (ESS' ESFM in particular).

This sound card is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

-HP AZT1008 with Aztech AZT2320 chipset (ISA sound card): produces FM Synthesis just like my C-Media CMI8738, but with absolutely zero filtering, so what you get is the raw audio of the YMF262, though there is a good bit of quantization noise out of the card's OPL3, much more so than a real YMF262.

This is another sound card that outputs garbage from its YMF262 if you use it on a PC whose CPU is too fast when playing the floppy disk edition of Star Wars X-Wing unless you use Dvwjr's patched ADLIB_W.IMS driver, however, it's less sensitive to fast CPUs as sound cards with discrete YMF262s, as this sound card can work with CPUs up to 750MHz before the YMF262 outputs garbage. The digitized sound is the clearest of any sound card I've ever used, bar none. Perhaps a little too clear, as some sounds in the floppy disk edition of X-Wing sound really strange. This sound card also tends to stop certain sounds too soon.

Speaking of the YMF262, this could use either a YMF262 integrated within the single chip on the sound card or a YMF262 that's been cloned so well it sounds no different from the real thing.

The AZT1008 is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

-Diamond Multimedia Monster Sound MX300 (contains an Aureal Vortex 2 chipset - PCI sound card): digitized sound is good, but the FM Synthesis isn't that great for 3 reasons:

1) The sound pitch is too low
2) It sometimes gets distorted
3) It sounds like it's heavily downsampled

Which leads me to believe this uses a software-emulated YMF262. It's not a bad one, but it's not good, either. The General MIDI on this sound card is also quite messy, as it seems like many notes do not play when they're supposed to. It does have a wavetable header, which I was surprised to see on a PCI sound card (this thing is actually as big as my SoundBlaster AWE64!) and a connector that looks like a floppy connector. What for? I have no idea.

This is a SoundBlaster Pro compatible sound card

-ESS AudioDrive ES1868F (ISA sound card): one of the better ISA sound cards I've used. It's not perfect, as the FM Synthesis has some incorrect white noise, but in general, it's a very good sound card. Digitized sound is a bit muffled and of slightly lower quality on this sound card, however.

This sound card uses a supposedly enhanced clone of the YMF262 dubbed "ESFM" and is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

-ESS Solo-1 (PCI sound card): essentially a PCI-based ESS AudioDrive. The sound is 100% identical on the Solo-1 compared to the AudioDrive.

The ESS Solo-1 is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

-SoundBlaster 16 WavEffects model CT4170: produces the same sound like the SoundBlaster AWE64 CT4500 and SoundBlaster 32 PnP CT3600. It uses the same slightly inaccurate CQM YMF262 clone and has the same "stuck PCM" bug, as I like to call it, from the AWE64.

-AOpen AW32 Pro (contains a Crystal CX4236B chipset and Crystal CS9233 wavetable - ISA sound card)

Just like the Crystal CS4235, the FM Synthesis is nothing to write home about. It does sound MUCH better than the horribly distorted mess out of the CS4235, but it's still less accurate than other sound cards with cloned YMF262s. The sound card does come with an integrated wavetable, and it's got a pretty nice (to my ears) waveset, but the MIDI output has some parasites in it. On the left audio channel, you can hear the CS9233 outputting some garbage along with the actual MIDI. It's faint, but noticeable.

Upon further testing, it seems the waveset used on the AW32 Pro is a modified version of the Roland Sound Canvas waveset. Doom sounded quite similar to how it would sound like when using Virtual Sound Canvas or Microsoft's software wavetable in DOSBox.

This is actually the only sound card I have with a Crystal chipset that works with the SoundBlaster sound options in the floppy disk edition of X-Wing using LucasArts' standard ADLIB_W.IMS driver. All the others output no sound.

The AW32 Pro is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

-Ensoniq AudioPCI (PCI sound card): Just like the SoundBlaster Vibra128 CT4810, which is based off this card, it sucks for FM Synthesis due to the complete lack of any FM Synthesis (simulated FM Synthesis sucks!), but it's a very nice card for MIDI. It does do two things differently from Creative's versions of the AudioPCI:

1) Soundscape support for MIDI and digital sound
2) No SoundBlaster 16 support, only SoundBlaster Pro and older

Although I was expecting to hear different sound from the Soundscape MIDI than the same MIDI I already heard on my SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 CT4780 and SoundBlaster Vibra128 CT4810.

-SoundBlaster 16 Value CT2770 (ISA sound card): This is one of those SoundBlaster 16s with the CT1747 combo YMF262/YAC512/ISA interface chip. It does have less issues with the floppy disk edition of X-Wing than a real YMF262, but it can still output garbage with the standard ADLIB_W.IMS driver depending on the computer it's used in. The CT1747 outputs the same sound as a real YMF262, although the sound appears to be a bit less filtered than on some other SoundBlaster 16s. Digital sound is a fair bit muffled on this one and it's also quieter than it should be. Like the SoundBlaster Vibra16 CT2260, the SoundBlaster 16 Value CT2770 is prone to ringing noises after digital sound stops playing, but happens much less often than on the SoundBlaster Vibra16 CT2260. This SoundBlaster 16 Value has DSP version 4.12, so it suffers from the hanging notes bug.

Unlike most older SoundBlaster 16s, this SoundBlaster 16 Value has very clean sound with only a very faint hiss at very high volumes.

-Audio Excel AV300 (ISA sound card): At first, I had absolutely no idea what this sound card was as there were unrecognizable markings on the sound card and absolutely no manufacturer information was to be found. The AV300 turned out to be a clone of the SoundBlaster Pro CT1330A complete with twin YM3812s (well, clones of the YM3812). And it's a damn good clone, let me tell you. The sound coming out of this thing is practically unfiltered, so what you get is 100% raw OPL2 FM Synthesis and SoundBlaster Pro digital sound that sounds very similar to a real SoundBlaster Pro with the audio filter disabled. And speaking of OPL2, the cloned YM3812s on the sound card are so well cloned there is absolutely no difference in the audio output (to the point of holding notes just as long as the real Yamaha chips).

The one problem with this sound card is the INSANE amount of background noise in the audio output. You could hear pretty much EVERYTHING that's going on in your computer from your hard drive being accessed to your CD-ROM drive's laser moving to your floppy drive's head moving, etc. You can hear everything, and there's a really loud hissing noise. Now, granted, I didn't use any drivers for the AV300, so the volume level was quite low, so it might sound better when the AV300 outputs louder audio.

In reality, the heavy noise is only there when using the sound card's built-in amp. If it's bypassed, there's considerably less background noise.

As mentioned, the AV300 is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

-Crystal CS4232 (ISA sound card): This is an odd one. When I first used this sound card on my IBM Personal Computer 300PL, the sound pitch was horribly off. It was WAY too high-pitched both for FM Synthesis and for SoundBlaster digital audio. This particular CS4232 appears to be rather sensitive to the frequency the ISA slots run at as there isn't a single crystal to be found on the sound card (it takes the frequency on the ISA slot). It does run at the proper sound pitch on the IBM Personal Computer 300GL, on the other hand, so that's not a problem.

As for the sound itself, it's typical Crystal: FM Synthesis is not 100% accurate to the YMF262, and again, unlike the CS4235, the FM Synthesis is not horribly distorted.

The CS4232 is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

-OPTi 82C930 (ISA sound card): This one is another oddity. The 82C930 HATES being used with DOS games under Windows 95 but works with no problems under DOS. Under Windows, the FM Synthesis is fine, but the digital sound is so faint it's barely audible. No such thing under DOS, and like the 82C929A, in order to get the SoundBlaster sound options to work in the floppy disk edition of X-Wing with the standard ADLIB_W.IMS driver, you must use the 82C930's DOS drivers only. If you use the Windows drivers, you will get complete silence.

As for the general sound quality of the OPTi 82C930, unlike on the OPTi 82C929A there is no distortion in the FM Synthesis at all due to the quad op-amp used to amplify the sound coming out of the YMF262. This 82C930 has a TL074 quad op-amp whereas the 82C929A I have uses an LF347 quad op-amp. Like with the 82C929A, the same op-amp/YMF262 combination applies. The 82C930 also has less filtering than any SoundBlaster I've used with true OPL3. Digital sound, while having the correct sound pitch compared to the 82C929A (it sometimes has a higher sound pitch for digital audio), is of inferior quality to the 82C929A and certain other clone cards (and SoundBlasters). The 82C930's digital audio is fairly muffled and the overall quality is about that of the ESS AudioDrive, which isn't too spectacular.

One problem with the 82C930 is reversed Stereo sound. Both the digital sound and FM Synthesis have reversed Stereo sound.

The OPTi 82C930 is SoundBlaster Pro compatible.

-MachOne EV1935 (PCI sound card): while I had no idea about what "MachOne" was supposed to be, I did remember the name "MediaChips," which was a name used by OPTi on some of their PCI sound card chipsets. Well, it appears OPTi also used the name "MachOne" as the EV1935 sounds exactly like my OPTi 82C931, which means it doesn't work with the SoundBlaster sound options in the floppy disk edition of X-Wing and the Stereo is reversed both with FM Synthesis and SoundBlaster Pro digital sound(the EV1935 is SoundBlaster Pro compatible). To top it off, like the 82C931, the EV1935 uses OPTiFM for FM Synthesis, which, as I mentioned when commenting on the 82C931, sounds weird as several notes cause volume spikes in the output of the FM Synthesis and the notes don't drag on for a little while after they stop. They just stop. Several notes are off as well, and to top it off, some notes come out distorted at high volumes. The EV1935 does have noisier audio output as well, as there is a lot more audible quantization noise than with the 82C931. If it weren't for the use of OPTiFM, the EV1935 would be a pretty good card, but OPTiFM really kills OPL2 and OPL3 with its volume spikes, distortion and odd way of ending notes.

And if you guys want to add in what other games sound like on different sound cards with different sound options, feel free to do so.[/b]