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Creative Waveblaster ct1900 value?

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First post, by ux-3

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I still have the original CT1900 Waveblaster along with the plastic distance holders. Since I have no real use for it, I am considering to sell it. What is the thing worth?

Reply 1 of 21, by elianda

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Well, I bought my CT1900 with an SB16 ASP CT1740 for 2.50 Euro.

Considering that it is a early Wavetable solution with some weaknesses especially in effects processing, my estimation would be around max. 5 Euro.
Still it is always difficult to judge with this old stuff, since the value for a real application is nowadays close to zero.

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Reply 2 of 21, by CHiLL72

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You might be able to get a bit more than that, I would estimate around 15 to 25 EURO.
The WaveBlaster has become somewhat of a collector's item and they are not up for sale too often.

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Reply 3 of 21, by Anonymous Coward

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Most of the Wave Blaster 1's I've seen sell recently go for more than $100. I think I even saw one sell for close to $200...without the box or extras.

There's not much point to ask here what things are worth. Go on eBay and do a search for recently sold items. That usually holds the answer.

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Reply 5 of 21, by firage

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Heh, they've gone up a bit in eight years.

Don't quite see the attraction, though. No practical reason they should even be worth as much as a DreamBlaster X2.

My big-red-switch 486

Reply 6 of 21, by Unknown_K

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Originals are collectable.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 7 of 21, by Radical Vision

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You can also look in ebay, after all there people put some insane prices..

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Reply 8 of 21, by Anonymous Coward

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Interesting. I wasn't paying attention to the date when I responded to the thread. I assumed it was a very recent posting.

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Reply 9 of 21, by Radical Vision

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Rofl the andmin will get mad bcuz of it...

Mah systems retro, old, newer (Radical stuff)
W3680 4.5/ GA-x58 UD7/ R9 280x
K7 2.6/ NF7-S/ HD3850
IBM x2 P3 933/ GA-6VXD7/ Voodoo V 5.5K
Cmq P2 450/ GA-BX2000/ V2 SLI
IBM PC365
Cmq DeskPRO 486/33
IBM PS/2 Model 56
SPS IntelleXT 8088

Reply 10 of 21, by Anonymous Coward

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I am was pretty sure I saw this thread near the top of the page. It almost makes me wonder if somebody responded before me and then retracted their post.

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Reply 11 of 21, by tyrell

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Anonymous Coward wrote:

Most of the Wave Blaster 1's I've seen sell recently go for more than $100. I think I even saw one sell for close to $200...without the box or extras.

There's not much point to ask here what things are worth. Go on eBay and do a search for recently sold items. That usually holds the answer.

What is the point of getting one of these cards at that price when you can have a very good AWE32 for the third of the price ?
I even got my AWE32 (CT3980) for 2€ in a flea market...
Excepted for the real collector, there's no added value.

Stephane

Reply 12 of 21, by dionb

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What is the point of getting any of the stuff we discuss here? A Raspberry Pi (or entry-level Core i3 system) can do pretty much anything remotely practical we discuss here. We're all 'real collectors' in that sense. Personally I'm not interested in wavetable daughterboards, but as they say, YKINMKBYKIOK - there's room enough for everyone's preferences 😉

Reply 13 of 21, by Deksor

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That is an oversimplified view, so far, PC emulation is lacking in many domains, and it's definitely not all perfect.

Also, you can't emulate using 5"1/4 floppy disks, the noise of an old HDD, the feel of a CRT (I much prefer my CRTs over the scanlines effect), or just messing with your hardware.

I'm not sure if the sound of AWE32 midi vs Waveblaster midi is equivalent, but if all you want is better midi than OPL, then there's nothing wrong of wanting the cheapest option.

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Reply 14 of 21, by jesolo

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tyrell wrote:
What is the point of getting one of these cards at that price when you can have a very good AWE32 for the third of the price ? I […]
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What is the point of getting one of these cards at that price when you can have a very good AWE32 for the third of the price ?
I even got my AWE32 (CT3980) for 2€ in a flea market...
Excepted for the real collector, there's no added value.

Stephane

If this was a Wave Blaster II, then I tend to agree that it doesn't really offer any better sound quality over an AWE based card (apart from a collector's point of view).
They both utilise the same EMU8000 synthesis chip and sound the same (despite the Wave Blaster II having 2 MB of samples stored in ROM as opposed to the AWE based cards' 1 MB sample ROM) - at lesst, according to what I've heard

A Wave Blaster I utilises a different synthesis chip and has a different sample set (4 MB in total) - whether it sounds better or worse is up to each individual to decide.

Reply 15 of 21, by squiggly

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I got a WB1 for about $60 years ago and it didn't sound so nice so I didn't use it again, in favour of my SC55. I recently got a DB50XG and it sounds way, way better than the WB1. It felt like there was something wrong with it, maybe there was.

Reply 16 of 21, by jesolo

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squiggly wrote:

It felt like there was something wrong with it, maybe there was.

No, that's just how it sounds 😀. It has no reverb or chorus, which gives its it "tinny" sound.
However, if you really want to hear a bad sounding "wavetable" sound card, try the Orchid Soundwave 32.

Reply 17 of 21, by dionb

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Deksor wrote:

That is an oversimplified view, so far, PC emulation is lacking in many domains, and it's definitely not all perfect.

Also, you can't emulate using 5"1/4 floppy disks, the noise of an old HDD, the feel of a CRT (I much prefer my CRTs over the scanlines effect), or just messing with your hardware.

Exactly. None of that is actually practically useful for anything. You enjoy it. I enjoy it. Lots of us enjoy it. But its value cannot be expressed in terms of utility. Nobody is going to get a higher salary, more food on the table or (definitely) have more free time left after messing around with old hardware. That's my point.

I'm not sure if the sound of AWE32 midi vs Waveblaster midi is equivalent, but if all you want is better midi than OPL, then there's nothing wrong of wanting the cheapest option.

Right now I have one of the better SB clones (Aztech card with AZT2316A) in my main retro system and nonetheless I find the quality, particularly of the music, awful. So I'm working on hooking up my partner's Roland FP-7 electric piano (with General Midi support) for MPU-401. Should get the cable tomorrow. For me, that's the cheapest option 😉

Reply 18 of 21, by elianda

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jesolo wrote:

No, that's just how it sounds 😀. It has no reverb or chorus, which gives its it "tinny" sound.

Actually it supports Chorus.

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Reply 19 of 21, by gdjacobs

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The CT1900 uses a Proteus chip and high quality sample set which makes it part of a line of very well regarded MIDI synths from E-MU.

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