I believe both are Yamaha OPL clones, the ESS likely a little bit better. IMO there are better choices our there!

I agree with Maulwurf on his point that there are better alternatives.. but.. if you have just the two mentioned above available, I would say: It depends on what you wanna do with the card.

Let's compare the specs:

1. SB 16 Vibra16S (as of CT2890):

- Adlib, SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster 16 and SoundBlaster Pro (in mono) support.
- Chance for a genuine OPL3 (look for a Yamaha YMF-262M chip on your card!), otherwise the FM is built in, sounds hmm.. not original to say at least.
- Waveblaster Header, but buggy due to its 4.13 DSP
- Card may have an IDE CD-Connector
- A very quiet card, good SNR.

2. AudioDrive ES1868F:

- Adlib, SoundBlaster, SoundBlaster Pro (in stereo) support.
- No genuine OPL3 but a very good sounding ESFM alternative (OPL3 compartible)
- Waveblaster Header, no bugs
- Card may have an IDE CD-Connector
- SNR ratio depends on the on-card amplifier.. There's quite a range available, depending on the cards model. From noisy (many noname cards) to crystal clear (Terratec Gold)

Bottom line: Both cards are great for DOS games. If your Vibra16S has an genuine OPL3 I would go with this card.

Cheers,
Fabian

AFAIK the Vibra 16S definitely has the CQM chip. Fantastic compatibility though, so any game should just work. But not a Yamaha OPL chip...

I wouldn't have written it if I wasn't sure. The presence of a CQM doesn't imply that there is no OPL3:

http://www.amoretro.de/2012/05/creative-sound … 16s-ct2890.html

That's why I suggested to look at the actual card...

Cheers,
Fab

Yea that SoundForte bit made me say that. But I could be wrong!

I have some VibraS cards and they are noisy as hell. Even the old 1.5 and 2.0 Sound Blaster are quieter, so I don't agree with that link. I'm always careful with stuff that's on the Internet 😀

northernosprey02 could take a photo of that card?

This is not "stuff from the internet" but my first hand experience. The linked card is my card and it is quiet and nowehere near these noisy cards you are referring to.

I think my experience with more than 100 different retro sound cards lets me judge whether a card is noisy or not. 😘

But as I said in my initial post: There are variants. Creative cards often have variants, even within the same model number. So maybe I have the quiet variants and you have the noisy ones? Sounds fair to me 😁

I have a different card, CT2860, actually 2 of them, with a Vibra16S chip and OPL3. But they are very noisy. So your observations might be true for the CT2890, but not for all cards with the Vibra16S. And looking at your site it seems the CT2890 is the only Vibra16S you have tested.

I have a different card, CT2860, actually 2 of them, with a Vibra16S chip and OPL3. But they are very noisy. So your observations might be true for the CT2890, but not for all cards with the Vibra16S. And looking at your site it seems the CT2890 is the only Vibra16S you have tested.

I was always referring to CT2890. I do never generalize observations, that would be dumb and naive.

The CT2860 looks to be a different story, noisewise. I never tested it, but I trust your observations more than you trust mine (I can live with that, though).

I must admit that I overread the "SoundForte" bit.. so YES, it doesn't have the OPL3 but CQM as you wrote earlier.

In this case I would recommend the threadopener to go with the ESS AudioDrive unless it has more noise than the SoundForte card.

Yea I mixed it up with the Vibra 16C 😵

Let's wait for the poster to tell us what exact card he has 😀

I use a Vibra16S (CT2900) and like it - definitely real OPL3.

However, the Vibra 16S is CT2504. Picture coming soon, but the picture was bad because it taken from my phone

Mau1wurf1977's CT2860 is a strange Vibra-16S card because it has two amplifiers, The extra one being a TV-grade adjustable amplifier. It is a bad idea. I have this card too.

The Vibra-16S is just OK. It has one downside: varying faint ringing noises which come up and stick after a sample is played. You have to listen well to notice this.

The Vibra-16S chip has no FM capability on itself, and requires an OPL or CQM chip.

I never really "used" that CT2860 because it's so noisy. My favourite OPL3 card is my Sound Blaster Pro 2. And the 1.5 also sounds beautiful, especially in a quieter machine like a Socket 7 or Slot 1.

The picture:

Sorry for bad pic because I take that from the phone.

The only SB16 I have is a Vibra16XV. If I knew before how bad it sounds I would never laid my hands on it (well, I got it for free).
Bad frequency response, no genuine OPL, no wavetable header.
I would go with an ESS1868 or 1869, as long as they have the wavetable connector placed in a suitable position.
I have decent soundcards which I cannot use with my NEC XR385 due to odd/weirdly place WT header.
For an example of well placed WT header, take a look at Terratec 128i PCI or its OEM version TTSOLO1-N. Or one of these, has the WT connector placed well. http://www.ebay.com/itm/FX-16-ESS-AudioDrive- … d-/370525159432
Is not my auction, I just wanted to give it as an example.
Another card with well placed connector is Reveal Sound FX, the model with 4 CD-ROM interfaces and Opti 929 chipset. Have one of those, but is noisier and less compatible than my Sonata 163 with Yamaha 718 chipset.

You should shrink those photos or upload them to a service that does thumbnails.

swaaye wrote:

You should shrink those photos or upload them to a service that does thumbnails.

Signed!

I already testing ESS AudioDrive ES1686F (Compaq OEM), was not bad about MIDI. However it has some problem such no Windows sound heared and DMA error. How to fix them?

The pictured card actually has a relabeled OPL3. It has original quality, thus better than the ESS clone.