First post, by jasa1063
- Rank
- Oldbie
I got this sound card with the purchase of a NorthGate Slimline Cache 33 386 computer from Free Geek Twin Cities. I had a Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum back in the 1990s and I was anxious to use this card in a future build. I just installed the card in a K6-III+ build with a FIC VA-503+ motherboard. There were some initial problems due to oxidation in the volume knob, audio jacks and joystick/MIDI port. A little DeOxit 5 took care of that in short order. I got the latest DOS drivers from the Vogons Driver library and used the bundled drivers included in Windows 98SE, so far everything is working well. I would have really like to have Korg Wavetable board, but using a DreamBlaster X2 was a great alternative. There are few minuses with this board.
- There is no Pro Audio Spectrum backwards compatibility
- There is no 16-bit audio in DOS
- The Sound Blaster Pro implementation lacks mixer control
- It takes a 6K device driver for Sound Blaster compatibility
Despite these few drawbacks, I really this card. The Sound Blaster Pro emulation is really good and the inclusion of real Yamaha YMF262-M for FM synthesis is a real plus. The audio quality in Windows 98SE is extremely good. This makes me want now get a Pro AudioSpectrum. I will be on the look out for a good deal on one.