The CT2980 that you currently have uses CQM for FM synth, while all the other sound cards that you listed have genuine OPL3 on board, which is generally preferable.

That said, if at some point you decide to add an external MIDI device or a wavetable daughterboard to your system, then the Yamaha cards are a better choice due to the bugs that most SB16 cards suffer from. See here: Sound Blaster 16 Bugs and Deficiencies Summary

Personally, I would go with the Yamaha ATC-6631 YMF719E-S.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-12-26, 20:44:

The CT2980 that you currently have uses CQM for FM synth, while all the other sound cards that you listed have genuine OPL3 on board, which is generally preferable.

That said, if at some point you decide to add an external MIDI device or a wavetable daughterboard to your system, then the Yamaha cards are a better choice due to the bugs that most SB16 cards suffer from. See here: Sound Blaster 16 Bugs and Deficiencies Summary

Personally, I would go with the Yamaha ATC-6631 YMF719E-S.

OH NO. Thanks Joseph, great info. I'm inclined for the 719E-S myself, but I was hoping for more info just like the one you posted.

Hakeshu wrote on 2020-12-26, 22:25:

OH NO. Thanks Joseph, great info. I'm inclined for the 719E-S myself, but I was hoping for more info just like the one you posted.

Note that Yamaha cards have a few minor issues of their own e.g. no ADPCM support and some mixer bugs.

Even so, I still think Yamaha cards are an excellent choice. If you want to see one in action, check this review by Phil.

If using win 95/98, go with Yamaha because OPL3 and the soft wavetable for some MIDImusic in games.

Thanks for the replies, I went with the Yamaha A151-A00 YMF-719-S since the seller oc the 719E-S sounded fishy to me. Now waiting for arrival.

As you already own the SB16 you could install both and use the SB16 for games that support it (The Yamaha only supports SB Pro or WSS) or the games affected by the post Joseph_Joestar linked.

Depends on which games you want to play if its worth it or not (or use as an excuse for another retro PC 😉

chinny22 wrote on 2020-12-31, 09:15:

As you already own the SB16 you could install both and use the SB16 for games that support it (The Yamaha only supports SB Pro or WSS) or the games affected by the post Joseph_Joestar linked.

Depends on which games you want to play if its worth it or not (or use as an excuse for another retro PC 😉

I second that. Some of the Plug&Pray Sound Blasters have the ability to enable/disable the FM unit, also.
So it should be possible to use the SB16 for the later games that support 16-Bit PCM in any way (like mixing, if the game uses MOD files).
The Yamaha SB Pro emulation can then use the classic addresses like Port 220h, IRQ7 (or 5), DMA1 while the SB16 sits on the remaining free resources.
- Games using the SB16 natively should usually be able to use akward addresses, if configured accordingly.

Or let's just do it the other way round. Use the SB16 as the main card for Sound Blaster and SB16 compatibility
and configure the Yamaha's SB Pro emulation to use the oddball resources.
Since SB16 and SB Pro appeared around the same time frame, games needing a SB Pro should be almost as flexible as those requiring an SB16.
With the exception of demoscene stuff, maybe, which might be hard-coded to a small selection of settings.

Jo22 wrote on 2020-12-31, 09:29:

I second that. Some of the Plug&Pray Sound Blasters have the ability to enable/disable the FM unit, also. So it should be possib […]
Show full quote

chinny22 wrote on 2020-12-31, 09:15:

As you already own the SB16 you could install both and use the SB16 for games that support it (The Yamaha only supports SB Pro or WSS) or the games affected by the post Joseph_Joestar linked.

Depends on which games you want to play if its worth it or not (or use as an excuse for another retro PC 😉

I second that. Some of the Plug&Pray Sound Blasters have the ability to enable/disable the FM unit, also.
So it should be possible to use the SB16 for the later games that support 16-Bit PCM in any way (like mixing, if the game uses MOD files).
The Yamaha SB Pro emulation can then use the classic addresses like Port 220h, IRQ7 (or 5), DMA1 while the SB16 sits on the remaining free resources.
- Games using the SB16 natively should usually be able to use akward addresses, if configured accordingly.

Or let's just do it the other way round. Use the SB16 as the main card for Sound Blaster and SB16 compatibility
and configure the Yamaha's SB Pro emulation to use the oddball resources.
Since SB16 and SB Pro appeared around the same time frame, games needing a SB Pro should be almost as flexible as those requiring an SB16.
With the exception of demoscene stuff, maybe, which might be hard-coded to a small selection of settings.

Yeah, that's the goal atm. I was thinking about linking both through the line in, so I could get the better of both worlds. In s far away future I could even build a dedicated 486 machine for DOS and FM sound, but for now I'll stick with the P200.

Nice system! - and welcome. Third vote for YMF71x+SB16, you get best of both worlds that way. I'd also put the YMF on the traditional settings (A220, I5 or 7 if you want to play really old stuff, D1, P330) and the SB16 on alternate (A240 I3 or 7, D3, H5 and disable MIDI). That gives you real OPL and good MIDI with full SBPro2 compatibility on resources older games assume, and avoids most of the SB16 bugs, while you still get SB16 DA.

As for which YMF - functionally they're identical, but build quality can differ and result in more noise. I'm not convinced the second one is actually manufactured by Yamaha. If it is, that's the obvious choice, if not I'd be more suspicious of it than the other two. If the third A-Trend card is significantly cheaper, it's probably a good bet. You can always shell out more later if it disappoints.

Note that linking cards through line-in sounds good, but can add a lot of noise to the signal. I've had bad experiences with it even with really quiet cards (AWE64 Gold), so if possible I'd give both cards a direct link to speakers/amplifier, if you have one that has multiple inputs, or consider a mixer (which is what I use), particularly if you expect to add more computers anyway.

dionb wrote on 2021-01-01, 15:00:

Nice system! - and welcome. Third vote for YMF71x+SB16, you get best of both worlds that way. I'd also put the YMF on the traditional settings (A220, I5 or 7 if you want to play really old stuff, D1, P330) and the SB16 on alternate (A240 I3 or 7, D3, H5 and disable MIDI). That gives you real OPL and good MIDI with full SBPro2 compatibility on resources older games assume, and avoids most of the SB16 bugs, while you still get SB16 DA.

As for which YMF - functionally they're identical, but build quality can differ and result in more noise. I'm not convinced the second one is actually manufactured by Yamaha. If it is, that's the obvious choice, if not I'd be more suspicious of it than the other two. If the third A-Trend card is significantly cheaper, it's probably a good bet. You can always shell out more later if it disappoints.

Note that linking cards through line-in sounds good, but can add a lot of noise to the signal. I've had bad experiences with it even with really quiet cards (AWE64 Gold), so if possible I'd give both cards a direct link to speakers/amplifier, if you have one that has multiple inputs, or consider a mixer (which is what I use), particularly if you expect to add more computers anyway.

I went with the A151A00. Fair price here in my country and was fully tested unlike the Yamaha ATC-6631, the Yamaha LSI Audio Wave was a little pricey for my budget atm. Thanks for the inputs about connections, do you have some recommendations on cheap mixers? Using a Creative 2.1 speaker Inspire A200 for output. I don't have much knowledge on musical stuff (my interest got way higher now that I'm playing around with the rig), so some tips will be greatly appreciated.

Hakeshu wrote on 2021-01-02, 05:28:

[...]

I went with the A151A00. Fair price here in my country and was fully tested unlike the Yamaha ATC-6631, the Yamaha LSI Audio Wave was a little pricey for my budget atm. Thanks for the inputs about connections, do you have some recommendations on cheap mixers? Using a Creative 2.1 speaker Inspire A200 for output. I don't have much knowledge on musical stuff (my interest got way higher now that I'm playing around with the rig), so some tips will be greatly appreciated.

Can't comment on availability in BR, but here in EU Behringer has decent quality for acceptable prices. I use their RX1602 8 channel stereo mixer.

Just an update.

Got 2 Yamaha cards. Now time to test this beauties.

Hakeshu wrote on 2021-01-11, 19:29:

Just an update.

Got 2 Yamaha cards. Now time to test this beauties.

Nice!

Functionality should be identical. My prejudice says the Labtec card is likely to sound cleaner than the A-Trend, but there's just one way to find out for sure 😉

dionb wrote on 2021-01-12, 00:37:

Hakeshu wrote on 2021-01-11, 19:29:

Just an update.

Got 2 Yamaha cards. Now time to test this beauties.

Nice!

Functionality should be identical. My prejudice says the Labtec card is likely to sound cleaner than the A-Trend, but there's just one way to find out for sure 😉

Yeah, I'm dying to try both, but my win98 got corrupted and I'm out of floppy disk atm. Waiting for the Gotek drive to arrive this week to format the rig and test both cards.

And of course I'm already looking to build the m32-pi