Path: news1.icaen!news.uiowa.edu!uunet!in3.uu.net!128.230.129.112!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newsflash.concordia.ca!not-for-mail From: spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: What is the Best Sound card for the IIgs? Date: 24 Sep 1997 02:13 -0500 Organization: Concordia University Lines: 48 Distribution: world Message-ID: <24SEP199702130245@vax2.concordia.ca> References: <604j2a$bap$2@mentor.telis.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: vax2.concordia.ca NNTP-Posting-User: SPEC News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.50AXP In article itsme writes... >What is the best sound card for the IIgs? I would like options like >stereo, microphone input, software controllable output... > >What are some good sound cards, and what features do they have? The best one out there is probably Applied Engineering's Audio Animator. That consisted of an interface board with a Z8530 serial chip that connected up to an external sound mixer box. It used its own ADC (inside the shielded box) to digitize sound at a much higher quality than the Ensoniq's own ADC, and with the ability to capture in true stereo (some cards did not offer this). The mixer included two 1/4" phono connectors and four RCA connectors for input/output, as well as volume sliders to control sound levels. Another nice touch was that it also provided MIDI compatibility and had three standard DIN5 connectors for that. Another good card (and probably just as good as the AE AA) was the Applied Visions FutureSound card. It too used its own ADC to digitize sound and gave very clean stereo output, though these are a little on the rare side to find. Other options worth checking into are the MDIdeas SuperSonic Stereo card, which gave clean output (if you jumpered the card using the 'LN' output) and had a piggyback digitizer option. However that used the ADC from the Ensoniq and generally was very hissy and noisy from my own experience with at least three of these boards. There was the 'Digitizer Pro' option which was a full sized card, and like the others above used its own ADC, but this is extremely rare and hard to find (so few people have owned them I have no idea how well it worked). Although it was decent, I was never fond of the MDIdeas card because all the connectors were internal, forcing you to run wires and speaker connectors _inside_ the GS's case (I damaged a pair of speakers having to wedge the 1/8" phono's tail up against the back of the case). The only stereo/digitizer board you can still purchase new is the Alltech (formely Econ) SoundMeister card. It's an average card, it works but nothing to say beyond that. I list it here because you can still buy it, not because it was an exceptional card. There are of course other cards out there, but they're mostly mediocre ones (speaking of mediocre, avoid the AE SonicBlaster, that was a poorly designed card that wasn't properly shielded and had problems with output at certain levels I recall). Mitchell Spector spec@vax2.concordia.ca