VOGONS


First post, by keenmaster486

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I'm looking for a card to use in my upcoming 286 and 486 builds. I don't really want PnP.

I already know about the whole Creative lineup.
So what about other brands? ESS, Crystal, Yamaha etc.? I know they made clones but which of them were non-PnP and jumper-configured?

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Reply 2 of 7, by jheronimus

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There are early ESS cards with jumpers and even OPL3, but I've only ever seen one such card for sale:

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For 286 your best bet may be some no-name clone of an earlier SoundBlaster. Here's my Mediasonic SoundCommander (?), for example:

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Reply 3 of 7, by cyclone3d

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A few of the older Aztech Sound Galaxy cards are non-PnP as well.

See here for a mostly complete list of part numbers.
http://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/Audio_Cards

You will have to research specific part numbers.

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Reply 4 of 7, by badmojo

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There are countless options! Choosing retro sound cards is one of my fave things to do!

A PAS16 is a good option for PCs of that era. ES688 based Audiodrives can have a real OPL3 as mentioned above. ES1688 don't but are more common and usually aren't PnP in my experience.

The Yamaha YMF701 instance of their OPLSAx chipset isn't PnP, where the later ones are. Hard to find the 701 though.

Personally I use a Sound Blaster 1.5 in my 286, mainly for the CMS support, and a PAS16 in my 486 - great sounding card and nice software in Win3.1

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Reply 5 of 7, by PhilsComputerLab

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Check out the ESS AudioDrive, even the later ones. The PnP card I have, in a non PnP machine it lets you use command parameters instead 😀

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Reply 6 of 7, by appiah4

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jheronimus wrote:

There are early ESS cards with jumpers and even OPL3, but I've only ever seen one such card for sale:

20140513_656535.jpg

I own and use on in my 486 build:

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Pretty decent card overall, but lacks OPL despite being ES688. Oh, and the IDE controller really helps on a board with no IDE controllers.

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Reply 7 of 7, by jesolo

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cyclone3d wrote:
A few of the older Aztech Sound Galaxy cards are non-PnP as well. […]
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A few of the older Aztech Sound Galaxy cards are non-PnP as well.

See here for a mostly complete list of part numbers.
http://www.os2world.com/wiki/index.php/Audio_Cards

You will have to research specific part numbers.

I'm also a fan of the Aztech based sound cards.
However, the list in the above link is incomplete.

Personally, I would go for any Aztech card with the AZT-2316 based chipset. They are less noisy than the earlier models, are still non PnP, provides very good Sound Blaster Pro II compatibility and has a real OPL3 synthesis chip onboard. Avoid the ones with the AZT-1605 chipset, since they don't support Sound Blaster Pro digital sound playback (only Sound Blaster 2.0 mono).

For older PC's (like a 286 or a 386), you could also look at the first generation models, like the NX Pro, NX Pro 16 & Basic/Pro 16 (I38-MMSN810). These models still has the low pass filter "built in" and are therefore very good Sound Blaster Pro clones. Only downside is that these are a bit noisier, but not more than a real Sound Blaster Pro.