Which games are you intending to play? FM synth isn't great on the Terratec (I own the Highscreen Sound Boostar 3D 16/32) , but compatibility with SB Pro2 and MPU401 is a plus.

Or you could look for something with an OPL3 chip / Integration on-board, again, depends on the game.

Hello PD2JK,
Mostly stuff from 87 to 97, no specific game. Most games I like usually have MT-32 or general midi or sound canvas support. I could pair the terratec with the SC-55 to get general midi and (not so great) MT-32 emulation, and there’s the option of the wave board to add a mcCake…

Maybe a step back:

What you need to know about DOS sound is that software talks directly to hardware (no drivers or hardware abstraction layers other than as part of some games eg. Miles Sound System), and that the hardware has different, distinct functionalities which can differ per card - as can how well the card / the chips on it perform those funtionalities.

The basic functionalities are
- (PCM) digital audio (best-known is the Soundblaster standard, but there are more)
- FM-synthesis (AdLib, also referred to by the name of the chip, OPL2/OPL3)
- MIDI MPU-401 interface (either simple UART or intelligent)
- Sample-based wavetable synthesis (MT-32, General MIDI etc)

Additionally these functionalities can be offered in pure hardware (no init needed at all), in hardware with software initialization, or in software with so-called TSR drivers. In particular the latter can limit what does and doesn't work, particularly with games in the early 1990s that don't use DOS extenders and are so dependent on very large amounts of conventional memory (or use weird memory modes, like Ultima 7).

So to judge a card, you need to figure out which of these features you need, and then see how a card does at each of the relevant features.

You say you want 87-97. That is basically the entire scope of DOS sound from the first AdLib card to the last big sample-heavy 16b DA, wavetable and CD audio games. That is a very, very broad scope. I would suggest in this case that you want good FM synth, intelligent mode MPU-401 (for the MT32) and at least Sound Blaster Pro 2 digital audio (with 16b SB16 nice-to-have).

Looking at this card, and the AD1816 chip on it, you find information like this:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/terratec-pro … dia-base-1.html

So:
- awful FM
- good SBPro2 (same DMA clicking bugs as the original...)
- bug-free MPU-401 MIDI (no intelligent mode)
- no nasty TSRs needed, except SoftMPU for intelligent mode emulation for MT-32

In other words, apart from the FM it's a good card, but nothing special. So, it's up to you how important you feel it is, and whether you can live with what it offers.

Here's a comparison with an SB16 :
https://youtu.be/0PtjKWv0ZyE?feature=shared

I think that's OPL3 (later SB16 have Creative's own clone called CQM which is not very highly regarded), and you can hear the difference.

Here, I'll make it easy for you.

The Audigy has no Windows 3.x drivers at all. It will not work.

There's nothing stopping you having multiple cards in the same system. Have the Base-1 for DOS and Win3.x, use the Audigy for Windows (and potentially for SB16 emulation in DOS). It even does FM synth, although hardly better than the AD1816, just different.

Still not the perfect combination, but far better than limiting yourself to AD1816 in Windows (or trying to get Audigy to do all your DOS stuff).