First post, by Burrito78
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Prelude: Yes, it has to be a Sound Blaster 16 or "better" ISA card for me.
First try: Sound Blaster AWE32 (CT3980)
They said it had practically no HNB. It has the HNB, but it does happen rarely. Its still a no-go, sorry.
The card has very light filtering, its tuned for a flat frequency response (because its a workhorse for a digital audio workstation / tools for musicians and music creation).
Therefore its not suited for DOS gaming. Too bright sounding, too many artifacts from the FM synthesis and clicks & pops are pronounced. Old DOS games were made for old soundcards, therefore have little bass. On this card they have none.
The card measures flat in Windows 95 so it had no problems with ageing components, btw.
Also FM synthesis (the OPL3) is too quiet in relation to PCM sounds. The wavetable has no bass too on this board.
All in all - no fun is to be had with this card. I have to assume all AWE32 are like that.
Second card "DMA clicking b-gone?": Sound Blaster 16 Vibra (CT2940 version with OPL3 chip)
This card sound awesome! Deep bass, clear highs. No noise at all. Like a breath of fresh air. It sounds too good. DMA clicking is absent or very, very low but accentuated by the analytical nature of this card. You will hear every little OPL3 artifact with this one. Its sounds basically like Dosbox. Therefore its not a real retro soundcard.
Also it produces distortion which can’t be fixed by the Mixer software. This is an absolute no-go. If i design a sound card, i have to make sure that it can never be distorted by normally working programs. Try Epic Pinball, turn the volume up in the game A LITTLE BIT over 50% and it starts to crackle like a little bitch.
If its OK for you to check every games volume setting all the time and you can live with the occassional clipping/distortion, then this card is fine for you. Otherwise, stay away.
Very fun card, until it isn’t.
3rd card, getting closer: Sound Blaster 16 (CT2910)
This card is very, very nice. Good bass, good filterling (authentic, slightly muffled sound), DMA clicking is present but since the card isn’t very analytical its bearable. The CT1703-TBS DAC on my card is practically noise free. There is no high volume distortion at all. HNB should be very bad on these cards without CT1747 so use an ISA midi card like Roland MPU-401/AT or a Music Quest clone - if you need GM, that is.
OPL3 is handled by YMF289 and therefore not 100% authentic at all times. Since i wanted reference OPL3 playback, the card had to go too. 🙁
4th and final?: Sound Blaster 16 (CT2230)
Same as CT2910 but OPL3 FM synthesis is handled by the CT1747 and therefore 100% reference quality. DAC is CT1703-A on my card and noise free. Everything good said about the CT2910 above is also true for this card.
The CT2230/CT2290 or similar cards are now my go to Sound Blaster 16 and i can only recommend them to anyone still looking for good cards without many problems!