For simple sound effects there is not much difference. The thing that changes the sound most is the output stage of the various cards and things like the filters on SB Pro.

If it goes for a game that mixes multiple sound effects the question would be if it is done in hardware or software.
In case of hardware a GUS or AWE is better, in case of software it depends on the algorithm. If it mixes to a 16 bit stream then a sound card that can play 16 bit samples is more suited.

The SB Pro's and earlier are limited to 8-bit digital sound, while SB16 compatible options support up to 16 bits. 8-bit sound gets you quite far in the DOS world, but there's also a bunch of material that does take advantage of higher quality samples and/or mixing. (A 16-bit card can in practice also sound worse, depending on the quality of each individual card's hardware design, different filtering, new bugs they introduced, etc.)

The digital SFX side of all AWE cards is SB16 type, also, so AWE is actually just another music option. OPL and CQM are Adlib type FM synths - very limited capability in the SFX role and rather for music only.

Creative wasn't a high-end sound card outfit. The quality between all the dozens of iterations of each of their models varies a lot. In the end you would probably get the ultimate sound quality for digital SFX from someone else's compatible product, if that was the sole object.

I'm not sure but is the OPL3/SBPro of the Audician 32 Plus 16bit? I think I remember reading that unlike a real SB Pro, it can do 16-bit at 44000Hz in stereo when the real deal could only do 8-bit and 22500Hz in stereo, 44000Hz in mono.

It's a nice quality card, but its Sound Blaster compatibility is limited to SB Pro = 8 bits. Its WSS compatibility might open SB16 equivalent options in some games and Windows.

Yeah, for digital sound only, just look for something that has SB16 support and has a high SNR ratio.

You probably want to stay with ISA unless you have a board that either has a PC/PCI/SB-Link header or works well with DDMA. See here for a bit more explanation of PCI cards and DOS:
PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...
Recommend a PCI Sound Card for DOS

For PCI, something that doesn't require EMM386 to be loaded and has a high SNR Ratio.

For ISA, I would probably go with a SB16/AWE32/AWE64 and either a SB PRO 2.0 or a card that supports SBPRO with a high SNR ratio and doesn't require EMM386. This rules out the Ensoniq VIVO 90.

For AWE64 cards, I would go with either the AWE64 Gold or the SB32 CT3670 model (SB32 card with the AWE chip instead of the EMU 8000 chip - Really just an AWE64 with simm slots).

I guess it comes down to which card has the best snr ratio that is SB16 compatible.
I remember reading here vibra 16's were better then sb16s in this aspect, not sure how they compare to Awe64's
and I'm not familiar enough with non creative cards enough to know if many fit into this category, Most I come across only do SB Pro.

Personally I just go with any old SB16 or Awe, I don't use headphones and don't notice how noisy the cards are

I think I'm just going to have to listen to gun fire and growls and more on the AWE64 and the Audician 32. I've done the music test but not the sound effects. There is also digitized voice to consider as well.

I definitely preffer GUS for effects nad Roland or Yamaha for music.

A PAS16 is capable of some very nice sounding FX and does 16 bit if supported properly, and the later ISA Crystal chipsets (CS423X) sound beautiful in both SB Pro and MSS mode in my experience.

Well, I made my decision. After recording sound effects from both (mostly Duke3D, Doom II, Heretic), I thought there would be something that sounded better when choosing AWE in games on the AWE64 vs. SBPro on the Audician 32 but the Audician 32 just sounded noticeably better and I'm not an audiophile. Once you add in the Dreamblaster to the Audician 32, you don't need the AWE64. The only exception would be if a game needed the memory the Audician32 takes up, which is small. At that point, an AWE64 in anolder build makes sense.

Thanks everyone!