[CQ-Contest] PCI cards... (long)

[Hsu, Aaron T.]

Made a trip to the local Fry's today and low and behold, PCI I/O cards
from a company named "Dolphin Peripherials, LLC".  A trip to their
website at http://www.dolphinfast.com will answer any questions you have
about the company and their products.  A 2 port Serial Card was $100 and
the single port version was $80.  Expensive compared to their ISA
counterparts, but reasonable.

I'm aware that PCI based sound cards have been around for a while from
"upscale" companies.  None of these are SB compatible...they were
primarily designed for professional recording studios/artists and not in
most people's $$$ range.  However, there are now at least 3 "low-cost"
PCI based sound cards, including one that has DOS SoundBlaster
compatibility (if you have a MMX processor...) - the Soundwave Pro PCI
from SIIG (thanks to those who mentioned this product).

As far as SB compatibility goes, remember that the original SB and SBPro
were 8-bit cards and most "SB-Compatible" sound cards are 8-bit SBPro
compatible.  SB16 came out later and Creative would not release/license
the 16-bit technology to other companies.  This is why you won't find
any SB16 compatible cards on the market.  The only other company that
had a 16-bit sound card with a 16-bit mixer was MediaVision (ProAudio
Spectrum 16), but due to illegal tactics (bookkeeping) used by their
management, they basically went out of business (they're still around
under new ownership).  A few of the former empolyees formed a new
company named Aureal Systems focusing on audio chipsets and software
enhancements.  They just released their first chipset, the VORTEX, and
their "A3D" surround sound software algorithms are gaining popularity.

Being an "amateur" audiophile, I've been following the sound card market
for many years (the SID chip in the C64 was amazing!).  I still have the
first sound card available for the PC, the Adlib.  I also have an
original ProAudio Spectrum (PAS), 3 PAS-16's, a Turtle Beach Maui, TB
Multisound Monterey, TB Tropez Plus, and a SB16.  It's too bad Brian's
(K6STI) software doesn't support other sound cards or the original 8-bit
SB cards.  Understandable though (too many API's to work with and
probably not enough dynamic range with 8-bit systems).

Anyway, I digress.  I should move this discussion to another group.  73
and hope to hear you all in the 10-meter contest!


  - Aaron Hsu, KD6DAE
    athsu at unistudios.com
    dae at pacbell.net


p.s.  Recently, my Pacbell e-mail ID has been forged as the return
address on SPAM sent to AOL users.  Please be aware that I have not, do
not, nor will not ever send SPAM.  I have notified my ISP, AOL, and the
message's originating ISP (mci.net) about this matter.  If you have
received one of these SPAM's, please accept my apologies on behalf of
the idiot who's using my ID.


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