the turtle beach card is quite common [so yes give that away]. the sq2500 was i believe the highest spec vortex2 so ought to be the best to use. the m80 has that daughterboard and might be more period correct for a p2.

you could use the sq2500 and put the db on it.

edit - removed incorrect text

Actually the Monster Sound M80 uses a pair of chips running Aureal A3D 1.0 algorithms. There's a Diamond mystery chip and an Analog Devices DSP. This is how A3D was implemented before Aureal got Vortex 1 and 2 out. Diamond's Vortex 1 card is the Sonic Impact S90.

Vortex 1 and 2 look the same aside from model number. They are even pin compatible so the cards look the same/similar.

Keep the Aureal card.

After investigating the theme I bought myself a new old stock Aureal SQ2500 from pc-1.ru. Nice one with metal jack connectors, DB header and a TOSLINK optical digital output.

Thank you, guys!

bristlehog, that's where I got my diamond and aureal cards 😀 Both are old stock and look new 😀

А можно ссылку на форум, откуда картинка?

I'd pick the Aureal, too. The SQ2500 is basically the same as the much rarer SQ3500 only without the daughterboard attached. Aureal planned to offer the daughterboard as an upgrade for the SQ2500 but that plan got shelved when they ran out of money after the lawsuit from Creative. If you ever find a daughterboard loose, you'll have the card to attach it to and have the rare SQ3500!

sliderider,
Wow! That's cool! By the way, do you know what the two male connectors in the upper right corner do?

And is daughterboard shipper with M80 any good? Mine is supposed to be 2Mb (or have I got it all wrong? I wish I could see the thing now)...

Sent you PM with forum link.

Here's the VOGONS theme where aleksej said that he counts Dream 4Mb DB one of the best. But 2Mb and 1Mb versions seem to be more sucky. And some of them were also glitchy. Alas, pc-1.ru is currently out of Diamond Monster Gold cards with 4 Mb addons. Maybe for good...

You will have to let us know what you think of the M80's DB.