If you want general MIDI support don't even bother with a sound blaster.

I've played with plenty of them over the last couple of years and none of them are brilliant. Well, the AWE64 is good, with good sound quality and a working MIDI interface (although no internal daughterboard connector) but it doesn't have real OPL synth so older games may sound a bit off. If you want to use the AWE's internal wavetable for General MIDI games then you have to deal with AWEUTIL under DOS which is a horrible pain. Some games support AWE directly but I'm not really a fan of its sample set, a good Roland or Yamaha synth sounds MUCH better.
AWE32 has too poor sound quality to bother with.

If you don't want General MIDI then I reccomend a CT2800 or CT2900 - they have good sound quality and a real OPL3 on them.
They are semi-PnP (they just seem to get the settings you initialise them with, they don't work with CTCU or CTCM).

Of the cards you have, the CT1740 and CT2230 don't have the hanging note bug. However I found them both to be noisy, with background hiss and crackles when playing sounds. The CT2230 is better in this regard but not as good as the CT2800.

The CT2960 does have the hanging note bug. I don't believe this model has a real OPL3 chip on it, although it might be integrated in one of the Creative chips. More likely it uses Creative's CQM synth.

Of the other cards, the MediaVision Jazz16 is supposed to have good sound quality and I believe its compatible with Sound Blaster Pro. Not sure about FM synthesis though. I have a Pro Audio Spectrum 16 with a real OPL3 on it but its only compatible to Sound Blaster, not Pro or anything newer.

No such thing as "best" card maddmaxstar 😀

It sounds like you are happy with the Sound Blaster 16 and that's perfectly fine. Well all have our "favourites". For me it's the Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 for very old games that only support Adlib and no MIDI and AWE64 GOLD in combination with MIDI.

I also like the 1.5 because of the Game Blaster / CMS compatibility.

I'm not much into clone cards, for me it's Creative and Roland and I'm a happy camper. But not to say that there aren't good clone cards, there are plenty and testing them all is a hobby by itself 😀

If your Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 doesn't work it might be simply faulty. These cards "just work". Just set the jumpers and run the game.

I use a 1740+DB50-XG on my main dos pc, no hanging note bug and never failed me... it is noisy but that's retro noises 😁

I've got another card I found here called an "Ahead Sound Origins A007". It has a weird "Diamond Technologies" main IC that I've never heard of, but it does have a genuine Yamaha OPL3 onboard.

The main thing I was wondering was, what's the best Sound Blaster 16. I don't know alot about the differences between generations of SB16, though the Vibra's just look quite anemic in comparison to the earlier models, I've usually avoided them, but when you collect Retro Hardware (as everyone here knows) they just sort of appear.

As for the SBPro2 not working, I tried to use it in my 386sx, but when playing sound (I tested it with Woldenstein 3D) the synth notes were all off key, so I put my SB 2.0 in instead. I'm gonna try it anyway, but just sounds to me like something on the card went bad or something. Could also be that it didn't like that board.

I think I'll use the CT1740 (if only for the volume dial) unless I can get the SB Pro to work. If it's gonna be noisy, it may as well use one that looks cool. If I could one day ever find a Roland or even an AWE, then there would be no contest here. 😜

Just curious, why do you find the volume dial so important? I'd much rather use a set of powered speakers with volume controls at the front instead of reaching around the back of the machine to reach the sound card's volume dial. Plus with powered speakers you can bypass the sound card's amplifier and use line out for better sound quality.

CT2800/CT2900 is my vote for best SB16 but it doesn't have a volume dial. You can always use the software mixer though 😀

The Volume dial is more of a retro thing, having it there would be old school. I didn't think of using the line out jack - or the added resistiance incurred by using a potentiometer dial in series with the audio line. Might be something worthwhile doing.

Other than that, are there any real differences between CT1740 and CT2230 other than the CDROM controller and volume dial/line out option?

I think functionally they're basically the same. The 2230 does have the later DSP version, for what its worth, and has slightly cleaner output.

One other thing to check is in mixerset.exe, if you have bass and treble controls. I believe the Vibras are missing this control, but I'm not sure if earlier models are missing it too.

Oh good thing you mentioned mixerset. Often you can improve the situation by reducing the master volume a little, but maxing out FM and WAV. Not saying it's like night and day, but it can make things a little bit better.

[Semi-off topic] I think Creative hit the marketing jackpot with the name "SoundBlaster".

Well, good news I guess. I popped in my Sound Blaster Pro 2.0, and it seemed to work better in the 486. I tested the sound capabilites, digital sounds and music appeared to be working OK in Wolfenstein 3D, but some of the synth notes seemed off. I tested the card with the *very busy* track in the AdLib Jukebox, and sure enough some of the sounds were missing (like the subtile phone ringing). So I took the card out, cleaned the contacts with a white rubber technical eraser, and now it's working perfectly, sweet!

Then I tried playing Monkey Island - that experience is detailed in the DOS section.

So I think based on all the good things everyone says about SB Pro 2.0, I'm going to leave it this way. However, when I pulled all my SB16 cards and had a look over them, I noticed some things about them.

The CT1740 had a seperate Yamaha OPL3 chip. The CT2230's are physically larger (one with all the CDROM options and one with just the Sony connector and less components on the card) have "OPL" written on the main IC of the card - I would think that means that the OPL3 chip is integrated into the main chip. Would that make any quality difference between the CT1740 having a seperate OPL3 and the CT2230 with an intergrated OPL?

And the Vibra16's (CT2960, and the other is a CT4170) have no OPL markings, so I'd assume that means they're using the Creative OPL3 clone.

And speaking of Yamaha chips, I picked up another sound card today at a flea market for $4 with a Yamaha YMF719 chipset. I've heard that Yamaha retained faithful compatiability to the OPL3 with their newer chipsets, is this one any good?

retro games 100 wrote:

[Semi-off topic] I think Creative hit the marketing jackpot with the name "SoundBlaster".

Yeah, I'd say they did. Thanks to the success of the original Sound Blaster (Perfect Adlib compatibility, PCM sound AND a Joystick Gameport? No way!) they made a household name like "Playstation", "Big Mac", "Coca-Cola". Maybe that's overdoing it.

I know when growing up in the 90's being around computers and it was all about "I want a Sound Blaster!" or "Does it have a Sound Blaster?" "Do you have a Sound Blaster?" Having a SB16 was badass because it was "Cooler" than a clone sound card and most games were written for it. I always wanted one back then, all I had was a Bravo Sound 16 with an Opti 82C930 chip, which still sounded good but was a pain in the ass to configure.

It's not as big or popular as they used to be, half the kids today probably don't know what a "Sound Card" is... But the brand is still around, and Creative is one of the last companies making discrete soundcards, like their new Recon3D PCIe.

The CT1740 had a seperate Yamaha OPL3 chip. The CT2230's are physically larger (one with all the CDROM options and one with just the Sony connector and less components on the card) have "OPL" written on the main IC of the card - I would think that means that the OPL3 chip is integrated into the main chip. Would that make any quality difference between the CT1740 having a seperate OPL3 and the CT2230 with an intergrated OPL?

Yes this is correct. If you see a card with a CT1747 chip on it, that chip is believed to contain a real OPL3 core integrated into it. I'm not sure about the effects on sound quality, as I didn't find the CT2230 to be brilliant in this regard anyway.

And speaking of Yamaha chips, I picked up another sound card today at a flea market for $4 with a Yamaha YMF719 chipset. I've heard that Yamaha retained faithful compatiability to the OPL3 with their newer chipsets, is this one any good?

Yes, the YMF719 is an excellent card, it is what I use in my 486 with an attached XR385 daughterboard. Once you set it up correctly in the mixer and disable the 3d sound enhancements the sound quality is brilliant, and it has a true OPL3.
After fiddling around with various Sound Blasters/AWEs with my MIDI devices, I gave up on them andwent with the Yamaha, and I couldn't be happier with it.

The best SB16's I found: CT2940 and CT2950 with OPL3-L (not the ones with CQM) Paired with a seperate midi interface card.

The CT2800 is OK too, but it has some sound artifacts, if you listen very well.