Reply 55680 of 57462, by Ozzuneoj
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zuldan wrote on 2025-01-09, 00:01:Very interesting. The rear view of the green PCB actually says SQ2500. It's identical to my card. Re: Vortex2 OPL3 Project […]
Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-01-08, 23:44:That is a VideoLogic Sonic Vortex, which is again the same PCB design with the AU8830A2, but it isn't a retail Aureal branded Vo […]
That is a VideoLogic Sonic Vortex, which is again the same PCB design with the AU8830A2, but it isn't a retail Aureal branded Vortex 2 SQ2500.
As far as I know, the actual Aureal SQ2500 retail cards that came in Aureal boxes all use a blue PCB with those funky tapered pastel colored outputs and a coaxial SPDIF jack, as shown in this old review:
http://www.dansdata.com/sq2500.htmI don't believe any of the cards with a TOSLINK optical connector in that location were ever sold in those boxes, and most likely were either OEM only or were sold by other brands.
Also, this post comparing the two designs reminded me that the actual Aureal SQ2500 retail card also had the additional header for the nearly-unobtainium DSP daughterboard which provided Dolby decoding and some other things. When the card was sold with the daughterboard it was sold as the SQ3500, but it was otherwise identical to the retail Aureal SQ2500. I don't think most of the other Vortex2 variants (even others labeled SQ2500 or SuperQuad) have this header.
As kind of a semi-relevant note, there were apparently some sound card retail brands that sold the Aureal SQ2500 retail cards in different packaging, like this one I stumbled upon recently:
Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today
Though this is the only case of this that I have ever seen personally.Very interesting. The rear view of the green PCB actually says SQ2500. It's identical to my card. Re: Vortex2 OPL3 Project
I've always thought of my card as Videologic SonicVortex and not a SQ2500. Maybe I can call it a SQ2500 now.
I also have a Turtle Beach Montego II with the AU8830B0 revision. It's the only one I've ever seen with the newer revision.
Yes, it seems like the SQ2500 and SuperQuad names were was used pretty widely among the different AU8830A2 cards, with the blue+coax Aureal retail boxed card being the one that was actually different in that it had the Dolby daughterboard header to turn it into an SQ3500.
And yes, I remember very well your unicorn Montego II with the B0 stepping. Definitely the only one of those I've ever seen! 😀
EDIT: Also, I just had to sanity-check myself, and I do have a blue Aureal Vortex 2 with an AU8830A2 that is identical to the retail cards with coax and the Dolby DB header, which normally have B0 chips. The PCB has a printed Rev "A" on it, where the cards with the B0 chip all seem to be printed Rev "B". Interestingly, the label on the back of the A2 card says "Aureal Inc Vortex 2 SuperQuad 2500 Made in China" (SN 3699390000083), where the B0 cards say "Aureal Inc Vortex 2 SQ2500 Made in China" (SN 3899390010780). So, I'm thinking only the very earliest retail cards ended up with the A2 chips, and once the B0 was available all of the A2s went to the OEM and third party cards.