My fave non-creative ISA card is this ES1688 based audiodrive - your ES1868F is a good one too but this is my suggestion:

ESS AudioDrive (ES1868) - a surprisingly good ISA sound card

This perhaps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_L_1tvH1Ew

My ATC YMF719 card appears to be a direct clone (exact layout). I wouldn't be surprised if the analog parts are cheaper than the real deal though, it does have a dodgy connector. I might get myself one of those boxed Audician cards from eBay eventually. Also, that was the only ESS card I could find searching on my national "eBay" =/ Is it actually big enough to house a full sized DB?

alexanrs wrote:

A clean sounding YMF719 would be my top choice

I assume you've tried all the mixer settings on your current card already?

alexanrs wrote:

ES1868F card

These are pretty good. Some ESS cards have a 90° rotated DB header, keep an eye out for one of those.

alexanrs wrote:

thing

Looks much like one of those packard bell branded cards. Wouldn't surprise me if you found a crystal chip underneath the label.

alexanrs wrote:

ALS100 card

DO
NOT
BUY

jwt27 wrote:

I assume you've tried all the mixer settings on your current card already?

Yup. Its not that bad, and I kindda like it (but my MAD16 steamrolls over it when it comes to sounding clean). It has a dodgy connector, as in there is a horrible hiss that goes away if I mess with the plug a little, so I wouldn't swear by the quality of the analog components.

jwt27 wrote:

These are pretty good. Some ESS cards have a 90° rotated DB header, keep an eye out for one of those.

Good. One of those would probably be a safer bet regarding fitting my DB50XG.

jwt27 wrote:

DO
NOT
BUY

Not an option anymore. That one got away already (someone bought it)

ALS100 - Oh, i saw it by Mercadolivre.com (It wasn't me. I have a few SB PRO compatible cards,
so i discounted it).

ESS1868F - I have one (Full-size). Out of order. Computer freezes loading ESSCFG.EXE.

The thing (chipset Aztech) - I know of this card and have fond memories of it. It was in my first PC the day Windows 3.1 played TADA.WAV automatically. I looked at my father and we were absolutely stoned. It sounded like magic back then. 😀

Too bad i couldn't play Outpost. It looked like impossible to grasp!
I remember the name of my model: Sound Galaxy Washington 16 or something like that.

Straight to business: I set the jumper to EEPROM SETTING (JUMPCFG 1-2 closed) and this sound card
worked right away. No Blaster environment and no drivers needed.
(I couldn't install the drivers for this thing because the installation program requires 3 floppy disks).

Warning: I did this for testing purpose only ! I don't recommend messing around with this jumper!

Here the results:

PROS
-SFX: No crackles running Duke Nukem 3D: "Damn! Those aliens bastards are gonna pay for shooting my ride"
and ROTT: "Outsider!". The same for gun shot effects.
-FM music: Real OPL3
-GM music: Your DB50XG will fit and work in the Wavetable header. No problem. Check it out:

• SCB-55 in use: With volume maxed out in my headset, my ears couldn't stand the music,
  yet no artefacts)
• DB60XG in use: Volume maxed out again and my ears blown up, i noticed some artefacts
  (mainly in percussion).
  Maybe due to a capacitor missing in the daughtercard or simply excessive volume, as reducing it
  (just a little) makes everything crystal clear

CONS
Did i mention crystal clear ?
You'll hear some hummmmmmm when the board is idle.
Well, the volume is up there, so i had to reduce the volume just a littlle bit to fix it.
I'm not sure if this is really a cons. It happens in others cards, too. Not with the thing only 😵 .

So, goes for it, man !

Thanks for the info... I got the ESS card and a pack with that same Markvision card (the pack was US$5 more expensive, and came with 5 ISA cards, some random PCI card and an ISA riser I might murder for a backplane eventually), which includes another OPTi (good one for pre-9x systems), one thing with a "OPTIONS BY IBM" sticker. I'll have quite a busy day when they arrive. If the ESS turns out to be the winner I'll have to hunt one of the triangular ones eventually.
I'm planning on building a few more systems down the road, and if I ever need more cards I'll start messing around with actual Creative cards now.

Think you made a good choice. You can recover the money spent by selling the ones not good enough
for you (I know it's not that easy from where we are).

***Avoid*** OPTi 82C931 chip and later ---> Terrible OPL3 (clone). Ok, it's not terrible, but some
instruments are different from the real deal.

I don't worry about spartan-looking cards. I use isopropyl alcohol, ESD brushes and if the thing is
really battered and shattered, polisher and paste for the bracket. I can bring them back close to mint
condition. Very easy. Also i remove all stickers.

I would like to hear suggestions about this subject. I'm kind finicky about that. For instance, there is
rust in my 486 battery holder. I wanna restore the metal, but i am having a hard time.
Take ebay for example. They have a lot of old parts for sale and they look great! Can you redirect me to some topic ?

alexanrs wrote:

and an ISA riser I might murder for a backplane eventually

Do you care about ISA riser ? I don't like them because they are proprietary (just guessing). Or we can make one ISA becomes 2 PCIs 😖 ? Could you please explain it ? Backplane ? Sorry for my ignorance.

Just a dumb board with ISA connectors. You can turn one of these into an ISA extender or put one of those Single Board Computers in there (as long as you find a way to provide power to the bus).

Oh, and I know about late OPTi chips. The one I bought looks like my 82C929 board, except with the crystals not being in the way of the daugherboard (mine can't go all the way in because of them, but it works). And when I say spartan-looking cards I mean they look too simple (low chip count, no crystals, etc.). I'd like some tips on how to get rust out of connectors too =)