Even though its against the rules, I can trade mine AWE64G for a NEC 60XG, or i can give it for free if you want it REALLY bad 😀
I remember when i wanted this card badly.

KT7AGuy wrote:

vetz: If you've got a source for an AWE64 Gold for not too expensive, I could sure use one and would greatly appreciate it. […]
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vetz:
If you've got a source for an AWE64 Gold for not too expensive, I could sure use one and would greatly appreciate it.

NJRoadFan:
If you want to sell yours for a reasonable price, I'll gladly buy it. However, at this point in time I think you'll find that there are some folks on eBay willing to pay some crazy prices. I would go for it if I were you! 🤑

sliderider:
I never had the pleasure of running an AWE32. Now, your post has me intrigued and considering the possibility. This soundcard would be going in a box that would not likely see any DOS action. How is the AWE32 for running in Win98SE? Is it as simply PNP as the AWE64 is?

I see a couple of AWE32s on eBay right now with 2MB of extra RAM on them. What do you think of those in a Win98SE system?

Mine is a AWE32 PnP, so the PnP part works just the same. The big complaint that most have with the AWE64 is that the CQM does not sound remotely as good as a genuine OPL based card. There is one model of AWE32 that has CQM and that is CT3990 but apart from that one the AWE32's have genuine OPL.

The AWE64 allows for a greater number of voices, but the CPU has to devote some of it's time to assist with playing sounds and music and the sounds produced don't sound as good as using soundfonts. My AWE64 got relocated in a clean up and I have no idea which box it's packed away in so doing a side by side comparison is out of the question for the time being.

There are an assload of AWE64 Golds on Taobao for peanuts.

Mental note: Buy all of them and sell on eBay for 100 dollars each.

I never could really follow the Hype about the AWE32 or 64. This might be related to the fact that I already had at this time a Guillemot Maxi Sound 64 Home Studio (Dream SAM9407 based card).

Also applying effects to Inputs or FM-Synth is no unique feature of AWE cards...

Anyway, if the people still follow the hype and go for AWE64 for $100 I could buy three EWS64XL for this...

I think most people like AWE32/64 for the same reason we tirelessly hear of Voodoo2 and Matrox. They were popular / renowned / seemingly super desirable back-then / etc.

I dropped a AWE64 Gold off for recycling years ago. Ooops! 🤣

elianda wrote:

I never could really follow the Hype about the AWE32 or 64. [...]

same here, I personally avoid them completely 😁
I do like their earlier ISA cards though and anything after the pci64/128 cards....

Maybe the gold content is driving the price the same as it's driving old CPU's???

What, the plating on four audio connectors? Don't be ridiculous.

The only real advantage the gold version ever had for me was that it comes with 4 MB RAM instead of the 512 KB or 1 MB of the "pedestrian" versions.

The AWE64s are nice "beginner" cards, as they are small, have clean sound, everyone knows how to set them up, they only cost a few doll- oh, wait a minute 🤣

5u3 wrote:

The AWE64s are nice "beginner" cards, as they are small, have clean sound, everyone knows how to set them up, they only cost a few doll- oh, wait a minute 🤣

Aside from aspects like PnP perhaps being a pain, AWEUTIL being nasty, pre-SB16 support being iffy, and Soundfonts not working with DOS.... At least AWE64 drops the SB16-AWE32 flawed daughtercard header and saves additional headaches! 😁

5u3 wrote:

What, the plating on four audio connectors? Don't be ridiculous.

The only real advantage the gold version ever had for me was that it comes with 4 MB RAM instead of the 512 KB or 1 MB of the "pedestrian" versions.

The AWE64s are nice "beginner" cards, as they are small, have clean sound, everyone knows how to set them up, they only cost a few doll- oh, wait a minute 🤣

I'm just fishing for an explanation, however unlikely it may sound. I think maybe the two listings shown were probably anomalies. Whenever there's only 1 or 2 of something on ebay at a time the prices go higher because the bidders have nowhere else to go. If there were 5 or 6 of them like there normally is, you probably wouldn't see more than 1 or 2 of them go over $40.

I guess the problem is that most are missing a broader overview about available soundcards. So AWE has more features as SB Pro or SB16, but other cards have MPU-401+GM+Soundfonts already in DOS. Ok third party cards are usually not SB16 compatible, but the few DOS games that really utilize 16 bit digital support also WSS (or GUS).
If you want to go for separate wavetable a card like a Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro 16 II is a cheap and easy alternative. SB Pro, WSS, Waveblaster header, no hanging notes and even a real OPL3. Just using an AWE to plug an external wavetable is somewhat overkill considering the alternatives.
The superior SNR of the AWE is also coming up often as argument while there are other late ISA sound cards that have an even better SNR. I can hardly hear a difference for the better ISA sound cards, so other features are getting more important. Just think about things like more polyphony f.e.

elianda:

Thanks for the info! What are some other good ISA alternatives to the AWE64 Gold? Are there better options out there?

KT7AGuy wrote:

elianda:

Thanks for the info! What are some other good ISA alternatives to the AWE64 Gold? Are there better options out there?

I have tested a few and one card I really like is a Yamaha based card. I think it's call the "Audician" or something. You can purchase it new from eBay with box and driver disc 😀

Only issue is the really poorly placed wavetable header. So you need to built a cable to connect it.

While I have played with heaps of other cards, I always come back to Creative. They aren't perfect, but the more you play around with retro parts > It's all a compromise 😀

That Audician 32 card sounds pretty cool. I might get one just to check it out since it is dirt cheap!

F2bnp wrote:

That Audician 32 card sounds pretty cool. I might get one just to check it out since it is dirt cheap!

Totally. Just such a shame with the wavetable header. Maybe there are smaller / thinner alternatives, but IMO the NEC 385 is such a good match for this card...

$100 for an AWE64 Gold?

That would easily cover the cost of a new case for my retrogaming build that can fit the behemoth that is the AWE32 CT2760...but in my experience, anything I sell doesn't even come close to fetching the highest eBay prices, if it sells at all.

Speaking of which, that's probably one big advantage of the AWE64 line over its AWE32 predecessors: it will actually fit in most computer cases.

To get a high price, take good pictures, explain it well and have a buy now price. That's what all the "pros" do. The article might have to be re-listed several times, but that's how it works if you want that high price.

I've seen it so many times, especially if the seller has several articles.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

To get a high price, take good pictures, explain it well and have a buy now price. That's what all the "pros" do. The article might have to be re-listed several times, but that's how it works if you want that high price.

I've seen it so many times, especially if the seller has several articles.

It also helps when there's not 10 others listed at the same time yours is.

Yea and around xmas / NY people like to spend money as well.

Hmmm...looking at my E-Mu Creation Studio (AWE64Gold+8MB memory module) gathering dust, I might sell it off too - with box, cd and all. And currently I need the money too..... 😀