First post, by Great Hierophant
- Rank
- l33t
Early sound cards, including the Adlib, Game Blaster and Sound Blasters (first generation 16s) had an onboard amplifier to drive headphones or passive speakers. They did not offer a set line level output, to get something close to line level, you had to turn a dial or wheel on the back of the card.
The first generation of Sound Blaster 16s allowed you to disable the onboard amplifier, the result being a line out signal. The second generation and virtually every single Sound Blaster ISA card thereafter had one jack for the speaker out and one for the line out. You used the speaker out for headphones and passive speakers, and the line out for powered speakers, mixer or amplifier. The Gravis Ultrasound cards also follow this line, except for the Ultrasound ACE. Its "line out" is really an amplified out with the volume controlled by software.
The Game Blaster has RCA jacks and a stereo mini-jack. While the manual tells you to use the RCA jacks with an amplifier and the mini-jack with headphones or speakers, but types of connectors give an amplified out signal. I believe this is also true for Roland's ISA cards with audio out and IBM's music feature, all of which have a pair of RCA jacks and a mini-jack, but no volume wheel.
The Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold does not have an onboard amplifier, so its RCA jacks are line out level.
As for other cards, many of them only have one output, presumably line level. I do not know if they have an amplifier that is controlled by software or have no amplifier.
So, was there a adhered to standard for line level output for cards that truly supported it back in the day?
For sound quality, it is generally better to avoid the low-quality amplifiers used on most cards and use your own amplifier.
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