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Sound Blaster 16 Vibra Vs. typical Sound Blaster 16

barney

Experienced Member
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Oct 19, 2009
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Tampa, FL
I hear that the ISA Vibra series of the Sound Blasters are cost cutting sound cards, in that they have fewer features. Does anybody know whether I will see any major difference using a Vibra card instead? Will I be able to see any major difference in typical everyday gaming in DOS? Thanks.
 
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Vibra cards lack hardware bass and treble control of the audio output and don't have the Waveblaster header. They are also usually plug-n-play cards. On the plus side, they have less noise on output.
 
As njroadfan said, they are PNP. The main difference between the SB16 and the Vibra is that the Vibra was an OEM board. The Vibra seems to work best in the WIN enviroment (my assessment). Good enough for the games of its day, but I wouldn't want to listen to music all night on it.
 
Vibra cards lack hardware bass and treble control of the audio output and don't have the Waveblaster header. They are also usually plug-n-play cards. On the plus side, they have less noise on output.

The CT2800 is a Vibra 16 with Waveblaster header and it is not a PnP card.
 
The CT2800 is a Vibra 16 with Waveblaster header and it is not a PnP card.

The CT2860 was not PnP, however the CT2800 was - check this wiki quote out: "The Sound Blaster VIBRA 16 was released as a cost-reduced Sound Blaster 16 that supported Plug and Play for Microsoft Windows operating systems. ...Sound Blaster 16 - Sound Blaster VIBRA 16 - Sound Blaster 16 WavEffects".
 
The CT2860 was not PnP, however the CT2800 was

I'm sorry but you are wrong. I have two CT2800 and they are no PnP cards. The evidence is the presence of IOS0 and IOS1 jumpers (near the Vibra 16s chip)
ct2800.jpg


The PnP version of the CT2800 is the CT2890, is has the CT1705 chip that manages PnP capabilities
ct2890.jpg
 
[h=2]Sound Blaster VIBRA 16[/h]The Sound Blaster VIBRA 16 was released as a cost-reduced Sound Blaster 16 that supported Plug and Play for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It lacked separate bass and treble control, a ASP/CSP socket and Wave Blaster connector.
The following model numbers were assigned to the Sound Blaster VIBRA 16:[SUP][2][/SUP]
  • CT12**: CT1260, CT1261, CT1262
  • CT22**: CT2260
  • CT28**: CT2800, CT2810, CT2860, CT2890
  • CT29**: CT2900, CT2940, CT2941, CT2942, CT2943, CT2945, CT2950, CT2960, CT2970, CT2970, CT2980, CT2990
  • CT41**: CT4100, CT4101, CT4102, CT4130, CT4131, CT4132, CT4150, CT4173, CT4180, CT4181, CT4182
Note: various PCBs with the same model number were shipped with a different configuration regarding CD-ROM interfaces and sockets.

Another note: Take into considerations all of the variations of these cards.
 
[...]the CT1705 chip that manages PnP capabilities[/IMG]
This chip was used on the very first model of the SB AWE32 PnP (CT3980). Later versions of the SB AWE32 PnP (CT3990+) used the CT1749 PnP controller that incorporated an emulation of the OPL3. An AWE32 is technically speaking a SB16 with the addition of an EMU8000 synth system, along with some minor extra features on some of the models.

I don't know what other cards used this chip.
 
$(KGrHqV,!hEE5ov!8PF2BOfRfWL,qw~~60_3[1].jpg

Does anybody know what those 4 identical chips are for on the left side of this card. I notice some CT2940's have these chips and others don't. Just curious. Thanks.
 
I think they are 74LS244 and 74LS245, used in the IDE port. Check if that CT2940 without them also has the IDE header missing.
 
Good call. I think your right. My card doesn't have the chips and also does not have the adapter to connect a CDROM. Thanks for the help.

Barney
 
I recently got one of the PnP Vibra 16 cards (CT2950), and am having trouble getting it to be recognized during the install. I can select the I/O base address from the list that the install program gives, but every selection says that it doesn't match the card. Does anyone have the manual for this card, as maybe there is some jumper that must be configured first?
 
I recently got one of the PnP Vibra 16 cards (CT2950), and am having trouble getting it to be recognized during the install. I can select the I/O base address from the list that the install program gives, but every selection says that it doesn't match the card. Does anyone have the manual for this card, as maybe there is some jumper that must be configured first?


What is the system?
Maybe it's an IRQ conflict, did you reserved the desired IRQ in BIOS?
 
did you tested another sb16 on it?

I've heard a lot of incompatible among pnp cards and the 5150/5160, maybe this is still presents on 5170.
 
I do not have another SB16 card to try out in this computer. There is a small two rows of pins, which may or may not be IRQ/ I/O address jumpers.
 
In 2000lbs of parts, there ought to be one in there somewhere.

On that Statson page, the pins that I was talking about are CN6, which shows that those are factory settings and shouldn't be altered. That doesn't mean someone else altered them and threw this card out of whack. :)
 
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In 2000lbs of parts, there ought to be one in there somewhere.

On that Statson page, the pins that I was talking about are CN6, which shows that those are factory settings and shouldn't be altered. That doesn't mean someone else altered them and threw this card out of whack. :)



I'm in home now. What is your driver version?
 
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