Good find...that is one very interesting and awesome sound card.

FGB wrote:

@carlostex: You forgot the Maestro 32/96 .

Not really, i didn't include the 32/96 due to lack of real OPL3, although i admit the dual MPU-401 capability is quite interesting-

Cloudschatze wrote:

Et voilà. Another soundcard you're not likely to find anytime soon!

MediaTrix' AudioTrix 3D-XG uses the YMF715E chipset. By default, the YMF715E output is routed through the attached DB60XG for effects, but the design allows for a number of different routing options, including the ability to configure separate 1/8" jacks for the YMF and DB output.

OK, i believe that one does make YMF chipset justice! How good is the card sound quality wise? How does it compare to an AWE64 Gold for instance?

OK, I see.. I thought your list was just about the praised cards because you wrote:

Several cards are being praised let's resume the most praised:

If a genuine OPL3 is a must the card is out - of course (But has been praised nontheless... 🤣 )

Ok so the YMF-71x doesn't have a fancy PCB layout and software... but it still sounds good to me. What is the problem with the layout, noise? I have not had a chance to list to it in a really quiet environment or with headphones yet. If it is picking up external noise perhaps adding a ground plane along the full card... with say copper foil tied to the cards ground plane?

why no love for the mighty nvidia nv1 😁

Roland LAPC-1. I'm surprised nobody mentioned that one yet.

Crap, I can't really only have one, so I'll break it down by interface.

ISA: AWE32 CT2760, assuming I have a computer case that can even fit this behemoth of a sound card.

Real OPL3, no need for obscure adapters to upgrade to 32 MB (28 MB effective) sample RAM, and specially supported by most of the DOS games I play. The only thing is that the amped speaker-out is horribly noisy, so I have to use the line-out, even on headphones. Works surprisingly well.

Maybe I'll even make use of that ASP/CSP if I can figure out how to enable it in the CD release of TFX, which normally uses a redbook CD audio soundtrack instead.

PCI: Any Aureal AU8830 Vortex 2-based card. Ideally, it would be an SQ3500 Turbo, but good luck finding one of those!

It's all about that A3D, of course. Aureal was lightyears ahead of everyone else for gaming audio when they decided to leverage binaural HRTF mixing over headphones, and to some extent, speakers. That's something Creative wouldn't really utilize until the X-Fi generation, and I bet CMSS-3D Headphone relies heavily on acquired Aureal tech as much as it does Sensaura tech.

And now we're stuck mostly emulating home theater speaker systems with worse positional audio than games released over a decade ago because that's all FMOD Ex and Wwise will do without a plugin like AstoundSound. Go figure.

PCI-Express: X-Fi Titanium HD. Maybe the X-Fi HomeTheater HD if I can get my hands on one and feel the need for HDMI audio.

Hardware OpenAL, which means ALchemy works better in some really finicky cases, CMSS-3D Headphone support (which I still think sounds better than THX/SBX Pro Surround and is the only thing that really compares to what Aureal did with A3D 2.0 + AU8830 to my ears), unusually STABLE drivers with the TiHD, and nice, clean analog output. Can't really ask for much more than that.

Unsurprisingly, my retrogaming P4 rig runs THREE sound cards: AWE64 Gold for DOS (only because I can't fit the AWE32 in its current case), Turtle Beach Montego II for Win9x, X-Fi Prelude for XP. SB Pro emulation's disabled on the Montego II for obvious reasons.

@Fabian

I saw those Mozzart ones on the flea market, but the guy wanted too much for it. I don't rush. I am sure that i will find an adequate MiroSound sooner or latter.
Thanks for the in detail explanation of what i wanted to know 😁

Those MediaTrix cards looks premium as hell. I wonder how rare they really are.

Also i would backup AWE32 CT2760 (or CT3900) as well. It has everything for games. Plus i don't see where do people get the whole noisy cards thing, must be dried out caps on their end.

Orchid Soundwave32. It's funny actually. I've got a lot of cards now, SB16s, AWEs, ESS, etc. I've got more hardware than I can play with, parts to build a dozen computers from 386 to Core Quad. But once in a blue moon I feel a certain nostalgia and dream of good times I had in winter 2010 when I only started to play with retro hardware on a crappy 386SX it took a month for me to set up (it's really easy now, I have no idea why I could not do it). Back then I had no sound card at all and my former school teacher asked me to install XP on her PC giving a box of goodies in return. Most part did not work and I hardly remember the whole list anyway, but there was a SoundWave32, quite a rare card that could do Sound Blaster very well and emulate MT-32. MT-32 mode was too slow on 386 in most cases, but there was magic in it. It's funny how while having all these options somewhere deep inside I only want that card.

FGB wrote:

OK, I see.. I thought your list was just about the praised cards because you wrote:

Several cards are being praised let's resume the most praised:

If a genuine OPL3 is a must the card is out - of course (But has been praised nontheless... 🤣 )

You're right we praised the Maestro 32/96, which is in fact an awesome card, but since the thread title is about only one card i would say that the card with best AdLib, SB Pro, SoftMPU compatibility and of course output quality will win.

carlostex wrote:

OK, i believe that one does make YMF chipset justice! How good is the card sound quality wise? How does it compare to an AWE64 Gold for instance?

In the Sound-on-Sound review of the 3D-XG, the analog output is stated as being "slightly better" than that of the AWE64 Gold. That said, I primarly use the digital output from the AWE64 Gold, which I presume to be superior to the analog output provided by the AudioTrix 3D-XG.

That really is an awesome card, Cloudschatze. If it wouln't have the 2MB soundset I'd vote for it.. but of course yes, there's another synth attached and you can always use external modules..

It seems to me that this thread is becoming a "Which is the most awesome oldschool soundcard ever manufactured" rather than actually "which one would you wanna live with if you could only have one".
High compatibility and "simply works" would win out over awesome feature sets as far as I can see. If I hadn't disliked FM so much, I would probably have said that the SB Pro 2 would be the ideal choice, but because from my experience the newer ISA SB cards work just as well with all but the most stubborn DOS games, aside from not having hardware FM, so due to cleaner output, they'd win in my book.
There are certainly a lot of very nice and interesting cards being listed here though, and in the original topic had been "If you can have all the soundcards you'd want, which ones would you wanna try to get", then there are lots of worthy candidates listed here 😀

The main problem to recommend the "one card" is that different gamers have different demands. Like I wrote in one of my previous posts my recommendation highly depends on the games that are supposed to be played. If one plays older games FM matters much more than in games where a General Midi option is available.
We can see it when Stojke lists his recommendations... For him, decent FM sound is a must. I think he is right. But of course other people don't care about decent or genuine OPL sound and would be more happy to have some mighty wavetable synth on the card... and as we see it's much harder to find a card that covers most of the demands from both the FM and the General Midi fraction.. Air gets tight there and that is the reason that more exotic (=hard to obtain) cards come into discussion.

The problem with the SB Pro 2 is that you cannot have 16-bit sound in windows or when playing an MP3. Neither does it have an MPU-401. There are other cards that cover the SB-Pro 2 feature-set (through officially licenced spec) and then some. The advantage which remains for the SB Pro 2 is its jumper config.

I would not consider the Audiotrix Pro the final winner if only because they implimented SB 2.0 Mono compatibility and no 'Pro' Stereo. This depends on the Mediatrix chip and has nothing to do with the CS4231. Maybe for pre stereo games (386 and older) it would be most desirable.
Did not know it could do intelligent MPU-401 😀

Both these cards are around here. I install them briefly once in a while, and then to swap them for a more capable card. The silly thing is that the 1995..1997 one chip solutions look cheap, but IMO they do best these beautifully crafted (and named) cards from a few years earlier.

SB Pro has L and R swapped.

gerwin wrote:

I would not consider the Audiotrix Pro the final winner if only because they implimented SB 2.0 Mono compatibility and no 'Pro' Stereo.

SBPro compatibility is available in Windows, or in a Windows DOS box; just not DOS proper.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

SB Pro has L and R swapped.

There are at least eight revisions of the SBPro2. Which are you using?

I've got two 1680s. Now I don't remember if these had the swapped L and R or if it was a SB Pro compatible card like the Audacian. Still it is something one should be aware off and double check.

I agree with gerwin and i now swap the Audiotrix Pro by the AudioTrix 3D-XG

As of now main contenders:

- Turtle Beach Tropez Plus
- AudioTrix 3D-XG
- Acer Magic S23

This is just a wild guess but i imagine the YMF-715 chipset should have better SB Pro 2 compatibility than the Crystal 4232 chipset. That being said it could be the Tropez Plus might also have better analog output than the AudioTrix 3D. But if the AudioTrix 3D is slightly better than an AWE64 in analog the AudioTrix seems to have very good balance.

A card that is AdLib, Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro 2 compatible, features real OPL3, good analog output, MPU-401 capable through gameport is a must, IMHO. A wavatable header isn't even that important to me, as i prefer external modules. But if it has one also...

Too bad the Maestro 32/96 does not feature a true OPL3, the dual MPU-401 function is really neat.

Et voilà. Another soundcard you're not likely to find anytime soon!

Wow! that looks like an amazing card and thanks for the link to the review for it. I've never come across an AudioTrix card before, so I'll definitely be on the look out for one.

High compatibility and "simply works" would win out over awesome feature sets as far as I can see. If I hadn't disliked FM so much, I would probably have said that the SB Pro 2 would be the ideal choice, but because from my experience the newer ISA SB cards work just as well with all but the most stubborn DOS games, aside from not having hardware FM, so due to cleaner output, they'd win in my book.

😀 I think that's half the appeal of these older soundcards, they were so varied and people grew to love/hate all these differences between them. The SB Pro 2 is arguably the most compatible soundcard, but the output is terribly noisy and bass heavy. A lot of people grew to love that card because it was what they had at the time and played many games with it. The fact that they had stereo sound and and an FM synthesizer far outweighed the noisy output and 8 bit resolution.

Fast forward to today, with all the different retro soundcards available at far cheaper prices than when they were new (well, most of them anyway) people have become far more picky as to what they expect from them. As Fabian mentioned, some people could care less about true OPL and others despise CQM, some want a wavetable others not and so on. Modern onboard HD audio and X-Fi's etc are really boring in comparison, there's almost nothing to separate them save perhaps for the noise on the output.

There have been a few surprises with all the soundcards I've come across, another pretty good card is the Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro II and it's variants:

http://www.amoretro.de/2011/12/aztech-sound-g … -16-pro-ii.html

Very clean sound, no noise/hum, true OPL3, wavetable header, WSS, very good compatibility. The one drawback I've come across is that 8 bit playback in DOS isn't the best, it seems almost slightly distorted/scratchy. WSS, OPL and 16 bit playback is top notch. It seems to be down to the AZT2316 controller chip rather than the Crystal CS4231 CODEC as most cards with an Opti controller chip and CS4231 CODEC don't seem to have this problem.

Fabian, thanks for your fantastic website, it has some seriously good info and recordings on these soundcards.