First post, by Shreddoc
- Rank
- Oldbie
I've been getting back into retro PC sound devices this year. Quite an expensive time to be starting the hobby - at the top end, certainly! But also many cheaper options which provide a very good experience too.
Being from a small remote country, the purchasing and shipping options are very limited. The original supply was never here, and so the retro open market is tiny. Actual stores and emporiums hardly exist, even online is scarce. It forces one to adapt to the open international market, such as ebay and amazon, for many retro items, despite the prices being a lot higher than people in the UK/US/Germany/etc would pay.
It makes for quite a list, looking at what a buyer like me must pay immediately (e.g. Buy It Now + international shipping) if there is an immediate need. I will attempt to list the main candidates in current approximate $US. The source is simply my non-official estimation of current/recent ebay and other common sources.
(^^above this level, are freaky-priced things I don't want to think about....^^)
250++ MT-32
250+ GUS
210 Aureal Vortex 2 (somewhat corrected below - cheaper cards perhaps 80)
150 SC-55
110 Creative ISA (SBPro2)
60 Creative AWE (Basic 32 or 64)
50 Adlib (remake)
40 Yamaha 719 ISA
25 Basic Creative PCI
20 Yamaha 724 PCI
20 Basic ESS Audiodrive
10 Basic CMI PCI, etc
What do you think? Hope I haven't forgotten anything major, but it's late here so I probably have...
The main things that get my attention in terms of the current prices are the MT-32, and the Aureal Vortex 2, both of which seem to have approximately doubled in asking price over the past year, in this very limited, international open market.
I have obtained most on the list already.... except the top 3. <laughs, cries, laughs, cries, ....> Thank goodness for MUNT, but the Aureal Vortex 2 is a tougher nut to crack, let alone the GUS which is already in probably-too-rare-to-bother-hoping territory.
In conclusion, for hobbyists in many of the world's regions, it would today cost about US$1250+ to obtain the full range of common retro PC sound devices.