Sound Blaster 16 - The Quest For The Ultimate DOS Sound Card Part 12 - Most famous ISA sound card

or

There have been 72 different Sound Blaster 16 models. I have only 9, but it didn't stop me from testing all of them in this part of my series. This video is bloody long, but most of it is because of FM test at the end. It took me about 14 days to record all the game music.

This is the tracklist:

00:13:02 - Alone In The Dark
00:15:18 - BioForge
00:17:33 - Doom - E1M1
00:20:34 - Doom 2 - Map 1
00:23:34 - Duke 3D
00:26:35 - Duke 2
00:29:35 - Gabriel Knight
00:32:35 - Heroes of Might and Magic
00:35:35 - The Legend of Kyrandia
00:38:36 - Magic Carpet
00:41:36 - Monkey Island 2
00:44:36 - Rise of The Triad - Map 1
00:47:36 - Space Quest 5
00:50:37 - TFX
00:53:37 - Simon The Sorcerer
00:56:37 - Time Commando
00:59:38 - Ultima VIII
01:02:38 - Warcraft II
01:05:39 - Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness
01:08:39 - I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
01:11:39 - Dune II
01:14:39 - Space Quest I
01:17:40 - Descent
01:20:40 - Flashback
01:23:40 - Monkey Island
01:26:41 - Lemmings

[GruberTD]

i remember going to buy this exact card at some unknown dealer first when it came out and i was so happy with it

[RockstarRunner]

Wow, that's some effort, this will be a great help for people wanting to compare models. I actually have the 'and one that looks like this' XD

[dabombinablemi]

My limited experience with the Vibra16XV (integrated on my PCPartner VIB862D) - updated the default Windows 98SE drivers or change any resource setting, and then the clipping bug started. And it never worked properly under Windows 95. So I'm disabling it and just using the better of my 2 ESS Audiodrive 1868f. FM synth just below the quality of OPL-3 found in the YMF740C (integrated on my Intel SE440BX-2), with no bugs, full SB Pro2 support, no TSR and the ability for me to leave the LPT enabled.

[TheYuppiejr]

The CT2890 has pretty much all of the documented bugs that a Sound Blaster 16 can have, including the worst kinds of hanging MIDI notes (via wavetable or external MIDI devices using the MPU-401), vibra clipping and ringing issues. On the plus side It has a legit Yamaha OPL YMF262 chip, no single cycle DMA clicks and a generally low noise output which is, I believe, why it got such a strong endorsement here. However, I'd take a CT2230 or CT2290 (assuming it has the CT1703-A or CT1703-TBS DAC variant) over one any day particularly if you are proposing connecting any MIDI devices to it. Honestly your best bet for a Soundblaster 16 compatible ISA sound card with great FM synth, good clean digital audio output, lean/easy to configure driver + mixer, and bug free MIDI via wavetable or the joystick port is an ESS 1868f or 1869 based card, which usually runs $20-$30 shipped on eBay. I'm saying that as someone who owns 8 different Creative Labs Sound Blaster cards including 4 different SB16 variants.


.. lots of discussion over on VOGONS about this topic.

[metafish]

Thanks for this! Been looking for a good comparison! I ordered my first soundcard this weekend!

[madzen]

One of those in a mid-90s computer and you were set to go. 32 AWE for the aficionados

[saxxonpike]

CT2890 is great if you don't want to use Waveblaster at all especially if you have a CT1703-A amp on it. Its similar cousin CT2800 is also good - the only difference is that one lacks UPnP. But I still have to give "best SB16" to CT2230 or CT2290, which are effectively the same card. (I even modded my CT2230 with a 4.05 DSP.) Despite all these points though, my retro SB of choice is not a SB16 anymore! I am using a Labway YMF719 based card these days. It has its own limitations (particularly for ADPCM sounds which can be patched anyway) but can be dropped into just about any machine and "just work".

[imkow]

I used to have an ESS sound card that emulates SB16 in DOS games...

[krz]

Surprised the speaker out has lower noise floor!

[AgustinGallardoc]

Good video! Just a question Which soundblaster 16 card would you recommend for an IBM 5160 that can work in an 8-bit slot?

[mariedelacroix]

Re: the dos screen at 1:48 how did you load that csp driver? I just bought and installed a csp chip into my 2290 and don't know how to set it up or test it. All I've done so far is press it in and opened 2 jumpers to physically enable it. Thanks.

[RockstarRunner]

I know they are quite common, but I'd really like to see your review of an AWE64, it was my first 'good' sound card. Any chance you have one lined up?

[tetsujin_]

19:33 - I'm guessing CT2940 is where CQM comes in... Generally my impression of CQM has been that it's pretty good but the difference is noticeable for sure...

[FOIL_FRESH]

i got a ct2830 and it's super noisy, has all the bugs, but the fm output is strong and bass is punchy. it is massive too, no matter what slot i put it in my baby-at board, it blocks up the area for the front panel headers. seems to work in all games i've tried (except jurassic park's sound gun sound effects, i still havent found a card that makes those sound correct) but some games are super low volume and i can barely hear them. i have figured out that on launch of some games, the mixer settings are basically discarded and then all volumes are put to 5% - if i run the game in windows, alt tab, mixer shows everything fine. but as soon as you move the sliders you are back in control of sound and can turn it up (i dont think i explain it well but there's a problem, maybe my mixerset.exe is a different version?? no idea). unfortunately the games i want to run that have this issue will crash in windows. it happened on a 440bx board as well as a socket 7 board so i believe it's the card's fault.

[Mani-aX]

Descent - with the CT2260 and headphones on i can hear some hiss or ground hum coming through.

[MordacksOrgan]

Too bad you didn’t record Prince of Persia 2. I think it has the most noticeable difference between OPL3 and CQM to my ears. The santoor instrument that starts playing in the introduction at game launch sounds very different than CQM. There’s more full throated buzz on CQM version of the santoor, whereas the OPL3 version of this instrument is more tinkly and open sounding.

[nitroraptor]

I love my CT2910. Unfortunately, the 16 bit DMA channel is corrupted, and I don’t know if it’s a driver issue or an issue with the card.

[Alianger]

What would you say is your top 3 for these?

[ksp]

I just bought a CT2290. I hope it doesn't suffer from any bugs. Lol

[mrb]

I can't understand what you're saying