I thought this would be about the HGA monochrome graphics card. 🙁

Thats too retro for me 😀

Stojke wrote:

Should i get either of these sound cards or use the Audigy/Live cards i already have?

I would stick to the Audigy as it supports at least EAX 3.0 and uses less CPU power compared to the SB Live. Crystal SoundFusion (CS46XX) based cards are nice too, but they only offer EAX2 (and a limited set of A3D functions I think). The Audigy is much more versatile, has better MIDI support and better support for positional audio in games.

For A3D and EAX you really want to just use a card based on one of the 1st party chipsets. Live/Audigy or Vortex 2.

With EAX you also want to use the Live/Audigy VXD drivers because I've found the WDM drivers don't always produce correct effects in old games.

A Yamaha SW1000XG you say? I find you taste in midi cards to be awesome, kudos!
Do you have it or plan to get one?

Hehe, i love Yamaha sounds so much, they are everything I've heard on arcade machines as a child 😀
Really nostalgic and awesome.

Well, i actually do have it, boxed, two of them, but its still in Slovenia at my friends brother, they don't want to ship it just like that due to it not being 100% safe to ship or something, I don't know what reason. So I'm still waiting. Am also waiting for CPUs for the motherboard also bought in Slovenia.

Hopefully his uncle will resolve it soon as we arranged.

I almost managed to buy an DX7, PLG 150 DX, expansion card for it, but it got sold before i managed to get the money. It went for 100 euro.

I see, well i will save this audigy than. Its a platinum pro edition with all expansion connectors and gold plated contacts. I also have Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro with external bay, but i think thats an overkill for the machine of that age.
Also, how about this card > Turtle Beach Santa Cruz?

2 of them! 😮 that's 2 more than what I have 🤣
Had a Santa Cruz but did not use it much... supposedly it has great audio quality
If I was in your place I would use a Live! or Audigy, hardware EAX is a must have IMHO 😀

Santa Cruz has good quality, great control panel and does eax 1/2 afaik.

Also has a daughter board header.

Haha, well technically one is of my friend who only wants to sell it 😁
I just want to enjoy some good sound.

Also, i can get Santa Cruz for 1$, so knowing it has good features, why not 😀

Santa Cruz is a CS4630 SoundFusion based soundcard and featurewise more or less the same as the Game Theatre or the Terratec SiXPack. It's supposed to have a cleanly designed analog section, though.

correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Santa Cruz's EAX support software based?

I see, google searching also confirmed EAX is software emulated. I've found this too:

11. SC 20 bit playback - clearer sound even with 16 bit sounds (SBLive 16 bit)
2 2. SC 18 bit record - 4X better resolution (SBLive 16 bit)
3 3. SC hardware MP3 playback (SBLive software)
4 4. SC hardware graphic equalizer (SBLive software)
5 5. Both support all of the major API's.
6 6. Reviewers are mixed when it comes to which is better at EAX. I think it depends on which game.
7 7. SC doesn't hog the PCI bus like the SBLive so no crackling, popping, lockups.
8 8. SC doesn't contribute to the 686b data corruption bug.
9 9. SC software (control panel) has a much smaller windows footprint than the SBLives Livewire software.
10 10. SC actually updates it's software (Latest drivers are 5 months old and the latest Sensuara (3d part) drivers are a few days old and make EAX support much better)
11 11. SC is cheaper than most versions of the SBLive.

SoundFusion chips should do *something* of 3D audio playback in hardware, the driver package contains files and microcode associated with Sensaura3D. Wild guess: the reverb effects are done on-chip, the rest including EAX emulation in software.

also bear in mind the santa cruz seems not much good for dos:

Aureal Vortex 2 / TB Santa Cruz aka Videologic Sonic Fury unter DOS

Well, i can always change sound cards depending on game, thats the least of my problems. I just want to explore new levels of audio and hear the differences 😀
Also, bought the Santa Cruz for 2$.

As for DOS, i have other machines for that. Too bad NT4 isnt much, so i cant use my Dual Socket 5 Pentium rig to its full potential.
I am building an 80486 system, in phase of collecting vital parts (mo bo).

So far, the best sound card ive had was the Gravis Ultrasound max and Turtle beach Pinnacle.

Hey guys, sorry for reviving this old thread, I'm hesitating to buy a Hercules Game Theater XP SP355 Crystal CS4630-CM for $28 USD. Is that too much? Does this bring something new to the table (I already have an Audigy 2 ZS and a Live! 5.1). Im interested cause of the bay with all those fancy connectors. Any experience? I cant find a single video abou it on youtube. Is 9x compatible?

matcarfer wrote on 2020-05-23, 04:02:

Does this bring something new to the table (I already have an Audigy 2 ZS and a Live! 5.1).

In my experience, Sensaura gives you more accurate positional sound in games like Thief, System Shock and Unreal Tournament, compared to the Live and the ZS. This is especially true if you use headphones.

Granted, I don't have that particular card, but its Sensaura implementation is supposedly one of the best.

Sensaura works best with surround speakers I think. It's A3D that works best with headphones.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-23, 04:27:

Sensaura works best with surround speakers I think.

I used Sensaura mostly with headphones and sometimes on plain, cheap 2.1 speakers and the positional sound was still amazingly accurate. Leagues above the Creative cards on the same setup.

It's A3D that works best with headphones.

Sensaura emulates A3D 1.0 very nicely and it can partially do A3D 2.0 using chaotic wavetracing. Relevant topic: Best Sensaura Implementation