sliderider wrote:

And as usual, the Vibra cards just suck. 😜

All the CT4xxx Vibra cards are uninteresting.
but the Vibra Pro chipset stands out in a positive way.

gerwin wrote:

sliderider wrote:

And as usual, the Vibra cards just suck. 😜

I tend to disagree, it depends on which vibra chipset.

Well, they sound horrible in this video.

The Vibra Pro is not in this video btw.

Nice link! After carefully listening to all of the samples, I would still not part with my CT3980. Somehow I get the feeling that the SB16 needs a bit treble-tuning. Also, bass lvl can be set very nicely on AWE too. The only problem is the noise, but that also stops being a problem once the volume is turned up a bit 😜

gerwin wrote:

The Vibra Pro is not in this video btw.

Which part numbers are the Vibra Pro?

CT3600 SB32 and CT2940 SB16 for example.

The title of this topic is "SB16 sounds better than AWE32".
I want to comment that many SB16's have an AWE32/SB32 brother with the exact same chips, but with an additional EMU Synthesizer. If we are not talking about that EMU thing, it is not so much about AWE32/SB32 vs SB16, but about the chips used.

I own the CT-3990 model myself. I love using the AWE32 in Descent! For some games though, I'll just switch over to Gravis Ultrasound. I don't know why, but certain games like Doom or blood just sound more "crisp" to me on the Gravis. Maybe it's a placebo effect. I wouldn't part with the SB though. I always wanted one as a teenager.

gerwin wrote:

CT3600 SB32 and CT2940 SB16 for example.

The title of this topic is "SB16 sounds better than AWE32".
I want to comment that many SB16's have an AWE32/SB32 brother with the exact same chips, but with an additional EMU Synthesizer. If we are not talking about that EMU thing, it is not so much about AWE32/SB32 vs SB16, but about the chips used.

There's also the separate issue of sound quality specifically with OPL2/OPL3 FM Synth, which can vary substantially with different SB cards. (from real OPL chips with varying quality analog circuitry to flaws in the later CQM clone implementations used by creative -albeit the early OPL3 clones/ASICs used in some SB16s and AWE32s are very good, perhaps even better than discrete OPL3 in some cases -and then there's some really horrible OPL emulation/clone hardware in the SB Live and apparently some AWE64s as well -though most 64s are typical CQM fare with more modest discrepancies)

Sample-synth quality is a totally separate issue from that though. (and sometimes totally software dependent too -in the cases of AB cards doing only simple PCM/DMA sound and relying on software mixed sample synth, more like the default General Midi driver in Windows)

I'm thinking best bet if you want AWE32 is to pair the SB16 from the video with a Goldfinch board. The booming bass on that card is incredible. The AWE32 card doesn't come close to matching it.

Regarding this comparison I am a bit curious about the following details:

Were the amplifiers for Line-Out (or internal gain on later cards) set to the same value for all cards?

Have you measured the frequency response with a sinus waveform from the digital part first?
(This also might get a result regarding noise amplitudes if you look at the background in FFT)

Are you sure you can break down the results to a specific CTxxxx type of card? Maybe even identical CTxxxx types vary greatly?

What about aging effects of the electronics of the card, like drying capacitors etc. ?

I like that the componentry side of things was mentioned. This does make a huge difference in the way the card sounds.

I installed new capacitors in the OpAmp stage of a Sound Blaster 16 Value, replacing the ancient and surely drift-heavy electrolytics with fresh Panasonic FC and FM's. These are not the best choice, but I wanted a fresh set of caps to liven the card back up. Using my MDR-V700's (24-Ohm) the card now sounded much more powerful. It actually seemed a bit bass-heavy, to be honest.

My plan is to start on a different SB16 and replace the two large 470uF output caps with bipolar electrolytics and bypass them with films. Also, I will replace the two 1uF electrolytics on the input side of the TEA2025B with polypropylene films. (Metallized or otherwise)

I've replaced signal caps on an SbLive! In the past with great results, even causing the sound to be more black (free of noise/hiss) by replacing all the 10uF filter caps along the bottom of the card with fresh, low-impedance electrlytics.

Very nice mate! Keep up the good work 😀