The former is one of the better Vibras out there, being a Vibra it has a very low noise floor and has a genuine OPL3, but its MIDI is bugged. As an OPL3 card, it is perfect. The second is an Opti 82C931 card, this is a very cheap OEM chipset (on a rather cheap OEM card with poor noise levels), it has poor OPL3 clone integrated to the chip (unlike the Opti 82C930 and 82C929 chips that lack one, and are often found alongside a genuine or clone OPL3 chip) but it's MPU-401 is not bugged so it is a better option for using with a Wavetable daughterboard or MIDI device.

82C931 OPL3 example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju-3c5tXNqY

Pick your poison.

thank you very good answer, something I was kind of expecting as there is never a straight forward choice but it confirms me hunch, keeping the vibra 16 I think is the way to go for me. Doing it the hard way usually gives a better reward.
Time to order or try make a -5V converter

treeman wrote:

thank you very good answer, something I was kind of expecting as there is never a straight forward choice but it confirms me hunch, keeping the vibra 16 I think is the way to go for me. Doing it the hard way usually gives a better reward.
Time to order or try make a -5V converter

If you are in the USA, it is much easier to just order an adapater for the -5v.

Look up seller "antronst" on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/usr/antronst

I've ordered a bunch of ATX to AT adapters with -5v from that seller. Can't beat the price either. You can also get ATX to ATX with -5v added.

Edit:.. didn't notice that you already referenced one of that seller's listings.

Do you even need -5v for either of those cards?

I do not think Vibra cards need -5V..

yes I actually found the adapter link from a post you did a year ago cyclone3d so thanx for that!

Yeah you guys are right all I did is check if there is a 5th pin on the isa slot looking from the back. I have another similar card that had issues with a atx converted and the 5th pin was present but nothing is more accurate then actually trying it out. I will hook up the atx psu and try it out but chances are ill be ordering that adapter.

Unfortunately I am in Australia but most stuff for retro I have to order from Usa Europe or China anyway

actually while we are on the topic I pulled out the isa card I. recently lost functionality on my 386 system when switched over to atx as well. Its a vibra 16 too!

and yes I just did notice some rusting in a few places so will clean it.

so perhaps this will give the previous 2 cards a better run for their money? how is this vibra card compared to the first one?

from my reading on vogons I was under the impression that 5th pin being present (pic2) means it draws -5v which both the vibra cards have but opti doesn't

That is a very peculiar Vibra 16S, I've never seen a non-PnP one.. They usually cone with a CT1705 chip for PnP functionality, yours is a straight up non-PnP Vibra with an OPL3 chip, quite possibly one of the least noisy ways to get true OPL3 non-PnP Sound Blaster 16 sound on the ISA bus, it is a very nice card for older systems (486, 386, etc).

great! I think we have a winner then. its going in my 5x86 amd system which is dos only so good match.

I'll put it see what happens but most likely will need the -5v adapter