I dislike Vibra, WavEffects and PCI. I like the original SB16s: CT1740, CT1780, CT2230, CT2290. There are more original SB16s out there though. Check the Wikipedia article.

I also highly recommend the CT2230. Easily the best SB16 out there IMO.

I like the vibra cards with the actual opl on them but I seem to be in the minority

There are several different Vibra Chips: Vibra, Vibra Pro, Vibra 16S, Vibra 16C, Vibra 16XV. The Vibra Pro CT2502 Chip combined with OPL3 is a good one. 16S is acceptable. Don't know about the Vibra original, don't care about the C and XV.

Mine is the Vibra 16C, I got it for a pittence off ebay so I thought I'd throw some cash at getting a real sound blaster. Thanks for the advice guys. 😁

borgie83 wrote:

I also highly recommend the CT2230. Easily the best SB16 out there IMO.

+1

CT1770 is a good card as far as I know. It has SCSI and turns gold if left exposed to sunlight 😀

I'll second what PeterLI and others have said and add one of my own, the CT1750 - Multi-CD version of the CT1740:

Has good, bassy sound when compared with the Vibra 16C CT2960 that I also have.

The CT2230 or 2290 seem to be the most loved SB16's.

Some CT29xx cards with a real YMF262 and based on Vibra chipset apparently have good SnR characteristics.

I, for one, really love my CT2940 with OPL3. It's got a very nice sound to it, and I'd say it's almost as good as my CT1740. Other models in the CT29xx range that have genuine OPL would probably be the same.

Out of curiosity, I checked out the CT2940 and I noticed that the CT1978 chip comes in 2 versions. CT1978-TAP and CT1978-BAP. What's the difference? I also looked at several images and couldn't see any with an OPL chip. Does the CT1978 contain OPL/CQM? Lastly, anyone had any experience with the hanging note bug using this card?

I use a CT2230 and am happy with it, but the Vibra16S (with OPL3) is also a decent card and is designed to use with a Goldfinch card, the addition of which makes for a great AWE32 setup for very little money. The Vibras have the hanging note bug though.

borgie83 wrote:

Out of curiosity, I checked out the CT2940 and I noticed that the CT1978 chip comes in 2 versions. CT1978-TAP and CT1978-BAP. What's the difference? I also looked at several images and couldn't see any with an OPL chip. Does the CT1978 contain OPL/CQM? Lastly, anyone had any experience with the hanging note bug using this card?

Here's my CT2940. I've circled the two Yamaha chips (YMF289-B, the OPL synth itself; and the YAC516 or 513 - can't remember exactly - DAC). Also, the CT2940 without OPL (unfortunately) seems to be the more common of the two. Not sure what the difference is between the TAP and BAP. I don't remember ever having the hanging note bug with this card.

Had a look on eBay for a CT2940 containing the yamaha chips you circled but all 17 listings don't have these chips at all unfortunately. Wanted to purchase one to do a comparison with my CT2230.

borgie83 wrote:

Lastly, anyone had any experience with the hanging note bug using this card?

I've kept my CT2940 as my "hanging notes testing card" because the hanging note problem is much worse on this one than on any other SB16 card I ever owned.

Yesterday I picked up a SB Ct2940 from a local PC/Electronics shop. I bought one off ebay some time ago for my Pentium Socket 7 machine, but it was missing something this one has... 😀

Just purchased a CT2940 with OPL from eBay so I'm going to test it out once I receive it.

I'm curious though, what are the 5 chips on the left hand side of the card? I've noticed that they're featured on some OPL versions as well as non OPL versions yet missing on some versions as well. Example; Sutekh94's CT2940 has them yet Dave343's does not.

On the original topic.

Depends on purpose. older cards might not have the hnb, but they are much, much noisier than the 2940. This is obvious when using hi fi headphones or a good amp with fitting speakers. Lack of bass etc can be compensated outside the card, noisy analogue output cannot be so easily amended.

borgie83 wrote:

I'm curious though, what are the 5 chips on the left hand side of the card?

These are there for the IDE interface.