At this point I can only hope Marmes and Keropi don't sell the guy a card on grounds of being American.

I got mine installed in my Win98 PC and I've been having a lot of fun figuring out what it can... haven't even played any games yet.

I skimmed the thread, so apologies if this has already been covered: what's everyone's favorite 2nd (more modern) soundcard to pair with the Orpheus II?

Steage wrote on 2024-08-20, 20:43:

I skimmed the thread, so apologies if this has already been covered: what's everyone's favorite 2nd (more modern) soundcard to pair with the Orpheus II?

I suppose this depends on what you mean by 'more modern'.

For DOS gaming, it pairs nicely with a Creative Labs AWE64. This adds native SB16 and AWE32 support, in addition to everything else the Orpheus II supports.

Beyond that, it could be paired with anything. I'm currently revising my Pentium 4 setup to incorporate four sound cards: Orpheus II, AWE64 Gold, Diamond Monster Sound MX300 (Vortex2), and an Audigy 2 ZS.

The goal is to cover all the audio options for both DOS and Windows 9x.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-08-20, 21:10:

Steage wrote on 2024-08-20, 20:43:

I skimmed the thread, so apologies if this has already been covered: what's everyone's favorite 2nd (more modern) soundcard to pair with the Orpheus II?

I suppose this depends on what you mean by 'more modern'.

For DOS gaming, it pairs nicely with a Creative Labs AWE64. This adds native SB16 and AWE32 support, in addition to everything else the Orpheus II supports.

Are there a lot of situations where the AWE32 and/or SB16 make a huge/any difference compared to what the Orpheus cards do? I’m fairly new to sound cards in general.

Socket5Alive wrote on 2024-08-21, 00:35:

Are there a lot of situations where the AWE32 and/or SB16 make a huge/any difference compared to what the Orpheus cards do? I’m fairly new to sound cards in general.

There are a number of games that use 16-bit samples. Some of them are listed in this thread, but I believe there are others: A List of DOS Games with 16-Bit Sound

For myself, I specifically installed the AWE64 for Crusader: No Remorse. The sound is noticeably better with 16-bit and I ran into sound issues with the FMV sequences using the Orpheus II. The FMV sequences in Crusader are very picky when it comes to sound cards.

USA Seller on eBay.

That same seller sells 32mb (16mb x2) for like $12 of the same RAM with tin plates like the Orpheus as mentioned early in this thread.

I am so happy to have an Orpheus 2LT with a DreamBlaster. I decided to skip the "regular" 2 with the integrated GUS because I was afraid of all of the complexities with the GUS drivers.

This thing is AWESOME. The DreamBlaster sounds absolutely stunning with General Midi games. The Adlib OPL3 mode is spot on, and I can even hear the same FM-synth artifacts I remember from play games like Silpheed as a kid.

And of course... the MT-32 support. OH... MY ... GOD. It's fantastic. Connected to my modern box running MUNT, it sent shivers down my spine. Games that I only ever heard once or twice in person on my friend's MT-32 in 1988 or in YouTube videos come to life with amazing, vibrant sound. No hum, no background noise, just pure beautiful sound.

I did almost nothing to configure this thing other than run the supplied "Orphinit" tool.

I'm very, very happy with this purchase!

glad you enjoy the card Stormer47 😀 thanks for the support!

Question for the Orpheus team: I have a Fractal Focus-G case with a microphone and headphone jack on the top; the cable to power these jacks has a plug labeled AudioHQ, but the exposed pinout seems to be compatible with the Orpheus II AC97 header. Big question, can I plug the plug into the Orpheus II AC97 header, hopefully that will work without damaging the board? 😄

If those cables in that case are ac97 compatible, you will have no trouble.

Marmes wrote on 2024-08-25, 20:25:

If those cables in that case are ac97 compatible, you will have no trouble.

Ok, Thank you very much 😉

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-08-20, 21:10:

I suppose this depends on what you mean by 'more modern'. […]
Show full quote

Steage wrote on 2024-08-20, 20:43:

I skimmed the thread, so apologies if this has already been covered: what's everyone's favorite 2nd (more modern) soundcard to pair with the Orpheus II?

I suppose this depends on what you mean by 'more modern'.

For DOS gaming, it pairs nicely with a Creative Labs AWE64. This adds native SB16 and AWE32 support, in addition to everything else the Orpheus II supports.

Beyond that, it could be paired with anything. I'm currently revising my Pentium 4 setup to incorporate four sound cards: Orpheus II, AWE64 Gold, Diamond Monster Sound MX300 (Vortex2), and an Audigy 2 ZS.

The goal is to cover all the audio options for both DOS and Windows 9x.

Thats sounds like a resource nightmare. I already had issues getting the Orpheus II alone to work.

CHA0SHACKER wrote on 2024-08-27, 17:40:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-08-20, 21:10:

I suppose this depends on what you mean by 'more modern'. […]
Show full quote

I suppose this depends on what you mean by 'more modern'.

For DOS gaming, it pairs nicely with a Creative Labs AWE64. This adds native SB16 and AWE32 support, in addition to everything else the Orpheus II supports.

Beyond that, it could be paired with anything. I'm currently revising my Pentium 4 setup to incorporate four sound cards: Orpheus II, AWE64 Gold, Diamond Monster Sound MX300 (Vortex2), and an Audigy 2 ZS.

The goal is to cover all the audio options for both DOS and Windows 9x.

Thats sounds like a resource nightmare. I already had issues getting the Orpheus II alone to work.

Resource management isn't so bad. It's just a matter of reserving the right IRQ and DMA settings in the BIOS for the ISA sound cards.

The bigger issue I'm running into is juggling a pair of optical drives and figuring out how to route CD-audio connections internally. CD audio connections were never designed for multiple optical drives and sound cards.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-08-27, 19:14:

CHA0SHACKER wrote on 2024-08-27, 17:40:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-08-20, 21:10:

The bigger issue I'm running into is juggling a pair of optical drives and figuring out how to route CD-audio connections internally. CD audio connections were never designed for multiple optical drives and sound cards.

I got a "Y" cable that was meant to connect two optical drives to a single sound card and hooked it up backwards to connect one optical drive to two sound cards. Seemed to work ok.

Really wish i was able to preorder before they sold out, this looks amazing! Will we see an orpheus 3 sometime in the future?

Retromafioso wrote on 2024-09-01, 01:43:

Really wish i was able to preorder before they sold out, this looks amazing! Will we see an orpheus 3 sometime in the future?

Here’s one available now on eBay. The card is amazing, if you’re on the fence.

REMOVED

Retromafioso wrote on 2024-09-01, 01:43:

Will we see an orpheus 3 sometime in the future?

Nothing I have heard or seen says that any such thing is in the works. I think they finally want to give the little old CS4237 a rest. Of course, I could be completely wrong; they don't report to me. 😉

Retromafioso wrote on 2024-09-01, 01:43:

Really wish i was able to preorder before they sold out, this looks amazing! Will we see an orpheus 3 sometime in the future?

because of min. order quantities (that are a round number) we have a few extra boards so you can still get on it

OrpheusIII will happen in the future - but it will take some time as it needs to be something good 😉

A shorter board with onboard memory, please. The Orpheus II is too large to fit into the case I would like to use it in.