I would go for the real OPL3.
You don't need those Mitsumi/Sony/Panasonic CD-ROM interfaces, do you?

Grzyb wrote on 2023-03-31, 03:00:

I would go for the real OPL3.
You don't need those Mitsumi/Sony/Panasonic CD-ROM interfaces, do you?

Yes, I don't need it, I bought this card for SB PRO compatible and connected wavetable modules.

they really are 3 different circuit board layouts. i'd be inclined to let price be your guide. the genuine opl3 is nice, but there's no timing crystals on the board that i can see (unless the 2 very narrow cylinders below the codec chip) and only 1 cdrom connector. i'm only speculating, but i'd assume there'd be little discernable difference between the genuine/clone opl3 chips and dacs on these 3 boards assuming no wildly out of spec components.

i used to run a 82c930 card with a ymf262 opl3 and it was nothing special. it was effortless in dos, but a latency nightmare under windows.

First one. It is likely least noisy since it has a ground plane. Genuine Yamaha chips are a nice bonus. That looks like a Philips card so that is a plus as well since the other two look like typical noname cards.

Thanks for your suggestions, I chose the first one, it's $23 including postage, After 3 days of waiting, I have received the mail package, it works great, after comparison check, it's the OEM version of Acer Magic S20.

Nice 😀 It does look like the best card in my opinion and I was wondering, it looks like it has two regulators - is that an 7805 and 7905? That's nice for running it on later systems and possibly(?) better for sound quality.
It's also really nice that it's got a volume control and what looks like a set of selectable Speakers/Line-Out jumpers.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2023-04-08, 01:51:

Nice 😀 It does look like the best card in my opinion and I was wondering, it looks like it has two regulators - is that an 7805 and 7905? That's nice for running it on later systems and possibly(?) better for sound quality.
It's also really nice that it's got a volume control and what looks like a set of selectable Speakers/Line-Out jumpers.

Yes, there are two regulators, KA7805 and L78S09CV, there are 2 sets of jumpers for setting the speaker output or line output of the left and right channels.

Great choice of a card!

Just throwing this in here, if you're not already aware of it:

https://github.com/JKnipperts/OPTi82c929_Driver

schmatzler wrote on 2023-04-12, 23:12:

Great choice of a card!

Just throwing this in here, if you're not already aware of it:

https://github.com/JKnipperts/OPTi82c929_Driver

Excellent! Thanks for the link, I will test that driver during the week. I have a couple of OPTI 929 cards, picked up along the way, trying to find the perfect ISA sound card. They're stashed in the average card pile, worked with most games but had issues with others. Hopefully this driver will improve their compatibility rate.

stanwebber wrote on 2023-03-31, 04:04:

there's no timing crystals on the board that i can see (unless the 2 very narrow cylinders below the codec chip)

The two very narrow cyclinders are timing crystals, indeed. The other cards also have two crystals in similar locations, so I don't see a relevant distinction between the cards regaring the crystals. Possibly the bigger crystals provide slightly less jitter because of higher inertia, but that's nothing you would be able to notice at the quality level of a consumer PC sound card.

zwrr wrote on 2023-03-31, 02:56:

...because it has a real Yamaha OPL chip.

Just because the OPL chips dont say Yamaha on them does not mean they are fake... Yamahas OPL Patents/licensing ran out in 1994 and the chipmakers made the same chips just not saying Yamaha on them. Thats why they sound exactly as the original. Because they are. And as the Cards are from around 1995 the chips are just real OPLs and not clones fakes or something else.
Most of the time reproduction opl chips sound different is because the sound card producers cheaped out on sound filtering or proper ground / amplification.

So you dont need to search for a Chip that says Yamaha on it to get a perfect experience.

The first card is Acer/Aopen. The PCB is clearly of better quality. It's probably an Acer Magic S20.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2023-04-17, 02:13:

The first card is Acer/Aopen. The PCB is clearly of better quality. It's probably an Acer Magic S20.

You're right, but it's slightly different from the retail version of the Magic S20.

it has an IDE interface that the retail version doesn't have.

I think it's an OEM version of the S20.

Could be. Maybe for IBM? Do you know of any other names that used Acer parts? Maybe for a German brand? This is the first time I've seen Acer hardware with German in the silkscreen. Perhaps that white sticker is the model number.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2023-04-17, 14:02:

This is the first time I've seen Acer hardware with German in the silkscreen.

FYI: The German in the silk screen is the German equivalent to the FCC compliance statement that is also printed on that card.

I thought the first one was Philips made card because I have this. But the Philips seems to be OEM version of the Acer card. Nice to know.

What’s the difference between the pca50 and pca70?