My list would look like this:

- CT2290. I have a similar CT2230, and I really like it. OPL3, few bugs in MIDI, relatively clean sound output. I often see people on Vogons claiming that these cards are among the best SB16s
- CT2890. I don't have this exact model (I have an OPL3 CT2940), but Vibras tend to have good sound quality, and true OPL3 is somewhat rare for them. However, they often do have hanging note bugs (depends on the DSP version, but I'm fairly sure this is the case with yours, too)
- SM-718. Some people like the SB Pro2 compatibility (as opposed to regular SB16). Also, OPL3, bug-free and has an OK software MIDI synth under Windows
- one of the ESS-based cards. Probably, Edison Gold. They sound nice, and they are really easy to set up under pure DOS. So it's a tie between this and Yamaha. Also, AFAIK, neither of your ESS cards has true OPL3. Some very early Edison Gold revisions had it, but otherwise it's ESFM (which is OK).

My Edison Gold has OPL3, it's a cloned chip though, so it's a keeper 😀 Thanks that really helped.

Definitely dump the ALS. I'd test the SB16s and only keep the best sounding one. I suspect you'll prefer the CT2290, but definitely let your ears do the choosing.

I thought you have like 40+ cards 😉 As you have six cards, I wouldn't sell any. You can always switch and mix them and play around with. They also don't take a lot of space.

kixs wrote:

I thought you have like 40+ cards 😉 As you have six cards, I wouldn't sell any. You can always switch and mix them and play around with. They also don't take a lot of space.

Ha... I should count how many sound cards I have. I think I have 4 bins full of them. PCI and ISA cards are separated out into different bins as well as Creative PCI cards are in their own bin.

And I have some really rare/expensive ones that don't go in the bins. And boxed ones don't go in the bins either.

I would keep the Edison and the Yamaha based card and probably the Creative cards as well... but I hoard.

kixs wrote:

I thought you have like 40+ cards 😉 As you have six cards, I wouldn't sell any. You can always switch and mix them and play around with. They also don't take a lot of space.

Gotta respect that. I basically can't part with any cards I have because:

a) they can one day become a spare that I need for some project
b) I always have this itch that may be I'm missing something, and this card has a cool feature that I'll read about later. That's all probably because once I've passed on an offer of a nearly free Turtle Beach Tropez card. I looked at the photo, saw a Crystal chip and thought "huh, I have a Crystal card and it's a crap SB clone, this one probably is too, so why bother". When I realised my mistake it was already too late, of course 😀 I've been about a month or two into the hobby at the time. That experience definitely contributed a lot to my hoarding

I'm having errors with my only ISA card, a Sound Blaster Vibra 16 CT2960. If you could sell me a similar card, I would be really grateful. My first and only 486 was only acquired last week, and I'm trying to get it set up, and the only thing having problems is my sound card.

I would dump the Best Union MF-1869 REV:2.1 ES1898F (No OPL3) and keep the ALS120.
I always liked the really cool ALSRACK software that came with the driver

The player had a spectrum analyzer and was animated 😁

Well the card is actually an ALS007 now that I checked it if that makes a difference.

Im also going crazy trying to figure out which DOS/Win3.x drivers I should install for which Sound Blaster I have: CT2290 CT2890 and CT2980 so if you can tell me which card needs what I would be grateful.

appiah4 wrote:

Im also going crazy trying to figure out which DOS/Win3.x drivers I should install for which Sound Blaster I have: CT2290 CT2890 and CT2980 so if you can tell me which card needs what I would be grateful.

For DOS/Win3.11 they aren't really model-specific. Just download the Basic disk and CTCM.

Thanks for the driver advice.

Through no fault of my own I ended up obtaining another ISA sound card, the Zoltrix Audio Plus 6400 3D PnP (CS4232+CS4289)

At this point I may as well do recordings with each card on some weekend as a pet project and compare clone OPL3s vs Cyrstal vs ESS vs CQM for a couple of games..