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Sound Blaster Pro 2 CT1600 Revisions

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Reply 40 of 104, by FGB

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I don't worry about it. Just wanted to point out that revisions with the 1336 instead of the 1336A should be earlier.

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Reply 41 of 104, by PeterLI

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CT1600/10/20/80/90/2600: great sound cards IMO. Excellent for DOS gaming. 😀

A few years ago I spent a lot of time updating the article on WP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster.

Reply 43 of 104, by jesolo

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:
Different model, but might be of interest. […]
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Different model, but might be of interest.

dscn2288-1_orig.jpg

It's the OEM version of the SB Pro 2 - refer the Wikipedia section of the Sound Blaster Pro 2: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster

Reply 44 of 104, by James-F

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Robin4 wrote:
i got 5 of these cards in my collection / stock pile […]
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i got 5 of these cards in my collection / stock pile

1x 059234
2x 069237
2x 089414

Any subjective impression about self noise differences among the revisions?

jesolo wrote:

It's the OEM version of the SB Pro 2

DSP v3.02, CT1336A, looks like an OEM version of a later 06 revision.


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Reply 45 of 104, by firage

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James-F wrote:

As for the DAC in the SBPro2, it is not a single chip like on the SB16 but a bunch of 3403 and 4053 ICs.

As for the DSP versions, it looks like 05 introduced v3.02 till revision 08, where prior to 05 the DSP was v3.01.

You don't think the DAC is inside the DSP chip?

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Reply 46 of 104, by kixs

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FGB wrote:
kixs wrote:
Found a picture of my 2600: […]
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Found a picture of my 2600:

r30OdtJt.jpg

Anything special about it? 😉

Nothing but the fact your CT2600 is a CT1600 in reality. One of the older revisions with a 1336 instead of a 1336A 😵

I guess I wasn't paying attention to what I typed 😉

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 47 of 104, by keropi

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I get some annoying "micro-clipping" with open cubic player ... could be a config error but what I tried did not help. mixrate=22050 , 8bit mixing , etc
I can't find how to properly configure it damnit 😵

I also got my first freeze with the CT1600 when exiting ... weird

edit:
games seem fine, turrican2 for example is great . could be a cubic player issue.

Last edited by keropi on 2016-09-30, 20:08. Edited 2 times in total.

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Reply 48 of 104, by James-F

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firage wrote:

You don't think the DAC is inside the DSP chip?

I don't. edit: But I might be wrong.
Looking at the SB2 CT1350 (or SB1 or SBPro1 for that matter) it is pretty much the same configuration with some 3403 and a bunch of resistors.
Looking even earlier at the Covox Speech Thing DAC, it is just a bunch of resistors.
Don't forget it was the earliest days with very simplistic single purpose R-2R 8bit DACs.

https://www.ikalogic.com/8-bit-digital-to-ana … -converter-dac/
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/el … tronic/dac.html
http://www.tek.com/blog/tutorial-digital-anal … %80%93-r-2r-dac

Last edited by James-F on 2016-12-16, 05:52. Edited 6 times in total.


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Reply 49 of 104, by PhilsComputerLab

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Turrican 2 has an option for 44 KHz, can you select that with the Sound Blaster Pro 2?

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Reply 51 of 104, by TheMobRules

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Does anyone know if there was a PnP version of the Sound Blaster Pro 2? I bought an SBPro (my first sound card) around 93-94 and vaguely remember it being PnP or at least having some form of PnP support. But all the pictures I've seen of these cards have jumpers for the port, IRQ, DMA. Maybe I'm just confused.

I'm asking this because I've been trying to determine exactly what model of the card I had, which I studpidly threw away because "I have an SBLive! now, I won't need this junk anymore". The card and packaging was kept in near mint conidtion for years, until it literally ended up in a dumpster. 😢

Reply 52 of 104, by James-F

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Turrican 2 has an option for 44 KHz, can you select that with the Sound Blaster Pro 2?

Duke3D also has a 44.1kHz option but the actual samples are nowhere near that, they are actually 11kHz if I'm not mistaken.
The sampling rate selection acts more like a lowpass filter frequency control on the SB16, thus making the sound less or more filtered (moving the dynamic brickwall filter).
It does not actually make the 11kHz samples suddenly sound like a true 44.1kHz samples.
Think of modern games or music, that's how a true 44.1kHz 16bit sounds like.

Last edited by James-F on 2016-09-30, 20:28. Edited 1 time in total.


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Reply 53 of 104, by firage

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James-F wrote:

Looking at the SB2 CT1350 (or SB1 or SBPro1 for that matter) it is pretty much the same configuration with some 3403 and a bunch of resistors.

OK, that's interesting. The SB16 still has the same number of 3403's and resistors next to the CT170x codec, seemingly just missing those multiplexer things.

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Reply 54 of 104, by James-F

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There is definitely some integration in the CT170x DAC chip on the SB16 but the principle remains the same.
If they were to lay all the 16bit resistor networks on the PCB like the SBPro, the card would be at least twice as long. 😀

On the SB2 a whole forest of ICs was replaced with a single DSP chip.
I think the purpose of the DSP is to decode the audio information and deliver the correct 1's and 0's bit values to the DAC.

Bus Interface -> DSP -> DAC -> Mixer -> Output.
It's a little clearer on the SB16 block diagram:

SB16 block.png
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TheMobRules wrote:

Does anyone know if there was a PnP version of the Sound Blaster Pro 2?

Definitely not, it's all jumpers.

Last edited by James-F on 2016-10-01, 08:41. Edited 4 times in total.


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Reply 55 of 104, by PhilsComputerLab

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James-F wrote:
Duke3D also has a 44.1kHz option but the actual samples are nowhere near that, they are actually 11kHz if I'm not mistaken. The […]
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PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Turrican 2 has an option for 44 KHz, can you select that with the Sound Blaster Pro 2?

Duke3D also has a 44.1kHz option but the actual samples are nowhere near that, they are actually 11kHz if I'm not mistaken.
The sampling rate selection acts more like a lowpass filter frequency control on the SB16, thus making the sound less or more filtered (moving the dynamic brickwall filter).
It does not actually make the 11kHz samples suddenly sound like a true 44.1kHz samples.
Think of modern games or music, that's how a true 44.1kHz 16bit sounds like.

You told me this three times already 😀 I'm just suggesting some games to actual test rather than assume and dismiss them straight away.

T2 does sound much nicer with the 44 KHz option on an AWE64 Gold. I don't know what the actual sample rate is though.

I agree that sound card options can't be trusted. Lots of games have an option for Sound Blaster Pro, but don't give you any Stereo for example.

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Reply 56 of 104, by James-F

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I have tested Turrican 2.
The stereo is randomly reversed each time I replay the intro song with the YMF719.
I wonder if it is the same with a CT1600.
Start games, press 1, esc, 1, esc, etc... listen from which channel the music starts.

Also, the game freezes with 11kHz sampling rate.
You have to play the first level for a few seconds.

Last edited by James-F on 2016-10-01, 10:39. Edited 1 time in total.


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Reply 57 of 104, by PhilsComputerLab

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Yup it does that will all cards, the random L / R I mean!

I just tried the SB, SB Pro and SB 16 options with 11 KHz on the AWE64 Gold. They all work, sound quite poor of course.

The SB 16 option only works for me when selecting the high DMA 5.

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Reply 58 of 104, by keropi

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What is the purpose of the JP2 row of pins behind the audio jacks? Why there are 2 pins jumpered like that ?

zjv3uq.jpg

I don't know if it's related but I am getting freezes with Open Cubic Player. When this occurs the mod continues to play normally - keyboard controls are frozen - until it ends and the next one starts. Then the pc just waits frozen. When the freeze occurs suddenly the micro-clipping goes away and the mod plays with a clean sound.
I was not getting that when I was using the CT2230 - using the same reserved resources.

Could it be a revision thing? I am using the card with a SS7 mobo with a 233mhz mmx p1. Maybe that's why later revisions have their own dedicated clock?

Last edited by keropi on 2016-10-01, 15:28. Edited 2 times in total.

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Reply 59 of 104, by PhilsComputerLab

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keropi wrote:
What is the purpose of the JP2 row of pins behind the audio jacks? Why there are 2 pins jumpered like that ? […]
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What is the purpose of the JP2 row of pins behind the audio jacks? Why there are 2 pins jumpered like that ?

zjv3uq.jpg

I think that's a Creative test / diagnosis header of some sort. They (Creative techs) would remove the jumper and hook up their own testing connector. Just a guess though 😀

If you investigate you will likely find some the inputs and outputs on those pins.

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