CT1320A picking A LOT of ISA bus noise \ VOGONS

CT1320A picking A LOT of ISA bus noise

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First post, by tikoellner

Posted on 2016-07-12, 20:19

tikoellner Offline

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Hi,

I have put my newly acquired Sound Blaster 1.0 (CT1320A) in my new 386 build. It works great and I very much like the idea of being able both to use OPL2 or CMS mode with this card. It sounds so differently.

The thing that worries me is that the card seems to be picking up A LOT of noise from ISA bus.

Do you know how this can be solved? Could it be caused by dried out capacitators? Or is this the nature of this card itself? (I can hardly believe it is)

I know it's not the PSU, as I have previously used it with my 486 build and noticed no such problem whatsoever...

Reply 1 of 4, by Robin4

Posted on 2016-07-12, 20:31

Robin4 Offline

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I think that the old capacitors on these old soundcards do have a contribution of that popping and hissing sounds the card is making.. But dont expect to get crystal clear sound out of such card..

Back in the days the cards did also make those sounds, but the volume of that where much lower or not really there. And capacitors are like some kind of filters.. If they worn by age these filter capacities are going to be lower.. And dont forget capacitors back in the day where from lower quality then those you can get these days..

If i would getting the same problem i would considering to replace them. Because they wont really survive another 25 years. Or perhaps the card can have some damage if one of the capacitors is in really bad shape.

~ At least it can do black and white~

Reply 2 of 4, by tikoellner

Posted on 2016-07-12, 22:01

tikoellner Offline

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Thank you, I will get the card recapped. I am not expecting to get it sound really clear, but I think it can do much better than now.

Reply 3 of 4, by Jepael

Posted on 2016-07-12, 23:51

Jepael Offline

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The card is very noisy, you can hear a typical sound when a program initializes the DSP.

Again, I don't think it would get much better by recapping it. The noise may be partly due to using zener diodes as voltage regulators for analog components.

Reply 4 of 4, by PeterLI

Posted on 2016-07-12, 23:55

PeterLI Offline

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All CT13** cards are very noisy by default.

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