leileilol wrote on 2018-01-02, 23:38:

AD1816 might be the worst. Some of those OPTi/CS423x WSS-compatibles were pretty bad too (even if they sound great on paper, some of them had the worst dacs and amplification)

And while it's not techincally a card.....of all the modern motherboad audio hardware, i'd have to say nVidia nForce3 is the worst.

AD1816 is kinda legendary in how terrible it is. Both PCM and FM are atrocious.

analog_programmer wrote on 2025-01-23, 09:40:

songoffall wrote on 2025-01-23, 07:14:

Let me respectfully disagree; Sound Blaster Vibration 128 PCI, the card you are referring to, I don't believe it's a bad card, let alone a "worst of the worst" card.

And then, it depends on what you expect from a sound card. Imagine if I installed an ISA card and started complaining that there is neither EAX nor A3D support.

The Ensoniq based PCI Sound Blaster was a stopgap between SB16/AWE cards and SB Live! cards.

Well, the topic includes "the worst soundcards you've ever owned" and I'm pretty sure that I've never owned some failed or broken soundcards. So, (for me) this SB Vibra PCI 64/128 thing or whatever model it was is the worst card from what I've ever had as a soundcards.

That makes you quite lucky then 😀)

When I was looking for a SB16 card to buy, had to go over a spreadsheet to see which model had which bug - with SB16 you're looking for the lesser evil.

Sure Vibra 128 PCI has bad FM; but there's only one model (with two irrelevant modifications - the power amp chip might be absent, but who cares), and no bugs that I know of. + good wavetable sound and MT-32 emulation.

ES137x cards only have one good thing going for them: they often are a source of BA4565 op-amps (4560s with improved bias current). Those op-amps are unbelievably versatile and good for both single and dual supply.