Hello tikoellner, congratulation for getting a PAS16! It's a wonderful card.
Does the distortion affect the thunderboard part or FM synthesis, aswell ?
I'm just asking, because they share the PAS' amplifier. Maybe the caps were gone bad.
Besides, are you using an AT or ATX PSU ? The PAS16 needs the -5v rail, as far as I remeber.

Jo22 wrote:

Hello tikoellner, congratulation for getting a PAS16! It's a wonderful card. Does the distortion affect the thunderboard part or […]
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Hello tikoellner, congratulation for getting a PAS16! It's a wonderful card.
Does the distortion affect the thunderboard part or FM synthesis, aswell ?
I'm just asking, because they share the PAS' amplifier. Maybe the caps were gone bad.
Besides, are you using an AT or ATX PSU ? The PAS16 needs the -5v rail, as far as I remeber.

Thank you Jo22.
I am using classic, old AT PSU, 150W. I guess -5v problem is only related to ATX PSUs (?)
Forgive me my ignorance, but I didn't know it does anything else than FM synthesis. Could you please explain what thunderboard part is?

When you run the installer and the lady talks to you, does she talk sped up, like very fast? Is that your issue? Because if it is, then you need the -5V.

But FM music (try Wolfenstein 3D, Prince of Persia) should sound fine I believe.

She talked quite normally. And it was FM music that sounded bad. I tried Tyrian and Transport Tycoon as well. There are just 4 caps onboard so replacing them is quite straightforward, maybe that's the way to go.

tikoellner wrote:

Thank you Jo22. I am using classic, old AT PSU, 150W. I guess -5v problem is only related to ATX PSUs (?) Forgive me my ignoranc […]
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Jo22 wrote:

Hello tikoellner, congratulation for getting a PAS16! It's a wonderful card. Does the distortion affect the thunderboard part or […]
Show full quote

Hello tikoellner, congratulation for getting a PAS16! It's a wonderful card.
Does the distortion affect the thunderboard part or FM synthesis, aswell ?
I'm just asking, because they share the PAS' amplifier. Maybe the caps were gone bad.
Besides, are you using an AT or ATX PSU ? The PAS16 needs the -5v rail, as far as I remeber.

Thank you Jo22.
I am using classic, old AT PSU, 150W. I guess -5v problem is only related to ATX PSUs (?)
Forgive me my ignorance, but I didn't know it does anything else than FM synthesis. Could you please explain what thunderboard part is?

You are welcome! ^^
Yes, I also think the -5v problem is only related to ATX.
To be honest, I never tried the card in a system without -5v..
The Thunderboard was a sound blaster compatible card made by MediaVision.

It was made around the same time as the original PAS and was intended to be used along with it.
And when the PAS16 came out in early '92 (before the SB16, btw.), it had it built-In.
So the PAS16 is really a 3in1 card (PAS16 native DAC, SB DAC, OPL3 synth).
This is something I like about that card. In games that support it, you don't have to bother with SB issues.

Btw, the funny thing is that a few early games support the PAS16,
but only use the SB DAC and OPL3 (like Knights of Xentar, for example).
I guess that because for a short time it was the only popular OPL3 card available on the market.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

When you run the installer and the lady talks to you, does she talk sped up, like very fast? Is that your issue? Because if it is, then you need the -5V.

But FM music (try Wolfenstein 3D, Prince of Persia) should sound fine I believe.

Wow, didn't know the lack of -5v might cause something that funny! 😁
Was running it for years in a 286-12 (even worked fine in Win 3.1 standard mode)..
The newest thing I had it installed was an old Compaq which I think was a socket 5 or socket 7 system.

Update.

I think I have found the reason.

It seems that PAS16 has an extremely amplified output. What is more, it is set to around 80% by default. Yep, the card is EXTREMALLY loud and it almost blew my haadphones.

What is more, in my case the mixer does not save the settings (I don't know why), so I ended adding some line to autoexec (PAS SET VOLUME TO 35).

The distortion is much less noticable now, if any at all.

This, however, seems a bit unwise that the software sets volume to 80% by default, while the built-in amp doesn't seem to be able to handle this level of amplification.

Generally, the card lands in the drawer, as I don't find it any improvement to SB16, in any terms. Good to have PAS16 anyway.

tikoellner wrote:

It seems that PAS16 has an extremely amplified output. What is more, it is set to around 80% by default. Yep, the card is EXTREMALLY loud and it almost blew my haadphones.

Sound cards from that era often had a combined line-out/speaker/headphones jack, which could also be used to drive unpowered speakers.
So yes, they can be VERY loud, outputting over 4W.

tikoellner wrote:

Generally, the card lands in the drawer, as I don't find it any improvement to SB16, in any terms. Good to have PAS16 anyway.

Well, I can think of a few advantages over the SB16..
First, the PAS16 has a quality microphone input (it can handle dynamic microphones).
Second, you can have several of them in one computer (up to 4).
Also, the Windows driver is fully functional in true standard mode (kernel286); SB16 needs at least a 386.
And it can co-exist with other cards, such as Sound Blasters.
In OS/2 you can use both DACs simulanously (DOS / WIN-OS/2, OS/2).
Software configurable, but no Plug'n'Pray. 😉
Clean audio stage (tried line level output ?)
16Bit (?) DAC vs 12Bit DAC (CT17xx).
No hanging-note bug in its MPU-401.

Also note that the PAS16 did initially compete with the SB Pro. The SB16 came afterwards.

For more information have a look a this (includes games list):

The Pro Audio Spectrum Frequently Asked Questions List

Another really cool feature of the PAS16 is that it can automatically 'sniff' the PC speaker commands from the ISA bus and output it via its mixer.
The SB Pro can do it, but only via analog means: you have to run a wire from the motherboard's PC speaker connector to the SB Pro's mixer.

Jo22 wrote:

The Pro Audio Spectrum Frequently Asked Questions List

Haha, some of that stuff is totally fanboy 😀
Look at "5) How does the PAS-16 compare with the Gravis Ultrasound?"
Completely ignores the fact that the GUS is a wavetable card, capable of 32 digital channels. GF1 vs OPL3 is a pretty easy victory for GF1. It also fails to mention that the GUS was compatible with MT-32/Sound Canvas via MegaEm.
They went through a lot of effort to make the PAS-16 look better than a GUS 😀
The two can't really compare. The PAS-16 was one of the best SB-clones out there. But the GUS was a new generation. Besides, the original GUS was aimed at music playback. They figured most people wouldn't need the 16-bit recording feature anyway, so a daughterboard makes sense. Of course they later released the GUS MAX which had full 16-bit 48 KHz recording on a single card.

Scali wrote:

Another really cool feature of the PAS16 is that it can automatically 'sniff' the PC speaker commands from the ISA bus and output it via its mixer.
The SB Pro can do it, but only via analog means: you have to run a wire from the motherboard's PC speaker connector to the SB Pro's mixer.

You're absolutely right, I totally forgot about this! 😁
Another cool feature I missed: It comes with Voyetra's OPL3 driver!

Man, I just love that card. Maybe I owe it my sanity.
Never had to fight the usual SB issues back in the day.

Scali wrote:

Haha, some of that stuff is totally fanboy :) Look at "5) How does the PAS-16 compare with the Gravis Ultrasound?" Completely i […]
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Jo22 wrote:

The Pro Audio Spectrum Frequently Asked Questions List

Haha, some of that stuff is totally fanboy 😀
Look at "5) How does the PAS-16 compare with the Gravis Ultrasound?"
Completely ignores the fact that the GUS is a wavetable card, capable of 32 digital channels. GF1 vs OPL3 is a pretty easy victory for GF1. It also fails to mention that the GUS was compatible with MT-32/Sound Canvas via MegaEm.
They went through a lot of effort to make the PAS-16 look better than a GUS 😀
The two can't really compare. The PAS-16 was one of the best SB-clones out there. But the GUS was a new generation. Besides, the original GUS was aimed at music playback. They figured most people wouldn't need the 16-bit recording feature anyway, so a daughterboard makes sense. Of course they later released the GUS MAX which had full 16-bit 48 KHz recording on a single card.

Ha, yes I noticed that! Made me smile. (^_^)
To be fair, the author probably wasn't much interested into demoscene stuff or even aware of it.
It was written in 1992 -the PAS16's year of release-, so he was likely excited and looking at it
from the perspective of a business man, musican or MPC user (Multimedia PC).. But yes, looking backwards from now this comparison is just ridiculous.
Anyway,the rest of the list is quite fine, I think. He put a lot of effort and useful information (specs, settings, problem solvings) into it.

Jo22 wrote:

No hanging-note bug in its MPU-401.

Alas, if only that were true...

Due to an undersized FIFO buffer, the PAS16's MVD101D chipset chokes under moderate MIDI workloads, exhibiting dropped/hung notes to a degree that the card is rendered near-useless for MIDI intent, gaming or otherwise. Furthermore, unlike similar issues experienced with various SB16 models, this behavior isn't attributed to a sharing of interrupts and FIFO buffering for both MIDI and PCM playback, and therefore occurs irrespective of any other card activity (or lack thereof).

Too bad I got PAS16 version which has no line out, so I'm stuck with 4W headphone amp.

Cloudschatze wrote:

Due to an undersized FIFO buffer, the PAS16's MVD101D chipset chokes under moderate MIDI workloads, exhibiting dropped/hung notes to a degree that the card is rendered near-useless for MIDI intent, gaming or otherwise. Furthermore, unlike similar issues experienced with various SB16 models, this behavior isn't attributed to a sharing of interrupts and FIFO buffering for both MIDI and PCM playback, and therefore occurs irrespective of any other card activity (or lack thereof).

Hells kitchen! All ISA sound cards disappoint in some way if you look closely enough 😢

nop, I'm happy with my isa sound card 😀