Totally agree on your judgement regarding the speech synthesis and "amiga level audio capability" statements.

I'll try to get some info on the number of cards produced/shipped and a possible relation to the "Entertainer" board from Microprose (I actually have a second contact which might have info on the Entertainer). I think I asked about the number of cards produced a while ago, but never got an answer ... keep in mind I've been mailing with the contact that gave me the card for almost 6 years with some mails getting lost or being answered long after I sent them (like months to years).

It works!

Sounds great, quality improved over SSI-2001 replica. No switching noise, no hum, pure SID sound.
Also I've pulled another MOS6581R3 from Commodore 128 and found that my 6581 (R2) was also faulty: working but distorted filters.
DuoSID with 6581R3 (1 nF caps) + 8580R5 (22 nF caps) in stereo configuration on the same port work just perfect, producing amazing sound.

There some minor issues with the board.
Oscilloscope shows slow ramp down on address and data buses of SID after 74HC245 latches, that means that I have to try to lower values of pull-down resistors, not a big deal.
Another thing is that onboard 2 MHz and 17.735 MHz oscillators don't work. Both produce about 100 MHz... Something is wrong. But there is simple default circuit, it will work some day. From ISA 14.31 MHz (as before on replica) everything is working.
Doing some recordings right now.

^^ Great work! Looking forward to your recordings, and replacing my two-ISA slot setup with one of these bad boys!

Wow looks great 😀

did you make this pcb @ home ? 😳

matze79 wrote:

did you make this pcb @ home ? 😳

Those "test" board are the same as you can make at home. But I order those from another town, 2-sided, milled, but no via metallization or solder mask.
And I do "manual metallization" and soldering all the parts.
Mounting bracket is also made of PCB material (two pieces soldered together).

j^aws wrote:

Looking forward to your recordings

Well... I've recorded 152 files so far, that's 3.33 GB in FLAC for 8.5 hours of music.
I've made the torrent with all files recorded from DuoSID. Keep in mind, that SID player plays files in native PAL speed, but SIDs are working on NTSC clock, so pitch is higher. 😀 Can not run on PAL clock yet because my generators don't work yet.
MOS8580R5 on the left channel, MOS6581R3 on the right one.
Also I've found some "_2SID" files that make use of two SIDs, but current alpha version of SID player crashes on those. 😒
Some tracks in MP3 can be found here. Like...
Arman Behdad (Snickers) - Airscape Ride
Juha-Matti Hilpinen (AMJ) - Selfmade Executable
Marcin Kubica (Booker) - Lemmie Eat the Rastertime

Overall, the sound quality is very good, no hum, no switching noise, very crisp sound. And two SIDs working in parallel produce some neat pseudo-stereo effects.

^^ I love those graphs. BTW, that is an enormous amount of recordings - much appreciated. However, I can't seem to get the links working - I get a °this site can't be reached' error message?

j^aws wrote:

I can't seem to get the links working - I get a °this site can't be reached' error message?

That's strange. Probably some weird ISP/government block is happening. I can open every link with no problems either from my home PC or my phone.
I will try to upload torrent to another location.

^^ Thank you; the links are working now. And the pseudo-stereo works well with that combo of SIDs. Can't wait to pick-up the finished card - amazing work.

shock__ wrote:

Totally agree on your judgement regarding the speech synthesis and "amiga level audio capability" statements.

I'll try to get some info on the number of cards produced/shipped and a possible relation to the "Entertainer" board from Microprose (I actually have a second contact which might have info on the Entertainer). I think I asked about the number of cards produced a while ago, but never got an answer ... keep in mind I've been mailing with the contact that gave me the card for almost 6 years with some mails getting lost or being answered long after I sent them (like months to years).

I've tried to contact Ken Lagace, to get some answers on the entertainer, but never got an answer

Is there an available working MS-DOS SID player for this card yet?

if you have one PCB left... i really would like to get one 😀

Stojke wrote:

Is there an available working MS-DOS SID player for this card yet?

Sorry, I lost my SSI-2001 replica and had to dismantle the test system before finishing DOS port, so the current version of the player is win9x-only and should work on P1MMX-class CPU. And, if my memory doesn't fail me, there should be very old build made by bristlehog (I helped too) that supports DOS, but has higher system requirements, less stability and features.

A little update on DuoSID board.
A factory board prototype is ready, but I still didn't get generators for other frequencies.

Wow stunning board 😀

it looks amazing! kudos once again Fagear!
Are these 2 connector on the right sides of the SIDs ground connectors?

keropi wrote:

it looks amazing! kudos once again Fagear!
Are these 2 connector on the right sides of the SIDs ground connectors?

Thanks!
Well, those connectors are attached to ground, but those are in fact little heatsinks for +5V regulators. 🤣

This is awesome!

I really like the idea used for brackets, I'll possibly use the same method for one project of my own. This card looks really nice ~

Tiido wrote:

I really like the idea used for brackets, I'll possibly use the same method for one project of my own. This card looks really nice ~

Me, too. Reminds me of one of my father's DIY projects. He once built a case for a ham radio out of PCB pieces.
What's also an interesting idea is one of these ISA card holders (or how these were called).
One of it was installed in my PC/Xt clone to hold the ST506 controller card.
These are neat for "half-size" ISA cards, since these holders do not require a bracket of a specific height.