JUMPERS

Product Information

The CT1703-TBS is apparently decent for noise (low) and is also found on the CT2290, AWE32 and AWE64. The Sound Blaster 16 ASP has a 20-voice Yamaha YMF-262 chip for MIDI that produces a relatively disappointing range of sounds. (An optional daughterboard with a 32-voice E-MU chip would be a worthwhile Whether you're heading to the office, meeting friends for a casual outing, or enjoying a cozy evening at home, the CD Jumper is a stylish choice. Pair it with jeans for a relaxed yet chic look or dress it up with tailored pants for a more polished ensemble. With its timeless design and clean lines, the CD Jumper exudes elegance and versatility. It can be easily dressed up or down, making it suitable for various occasions and outfit combinations. In June 1992, the Sound Blaster 16 was introduced as the successor to the Sound Blaster Pro, though the Pro was sold for a number of years alongside the SB16. The first '16' model was CT1740. For the first time you could get a Sound Blaster card with CD-quality (44 kHz) digital audio sampling.

Called the Sound Blaster 16 MCD (Multi CD), the CT1750 was a CT1740 but with better support for CD-ROM drives - it got The CT1780 was the same as the CT1750 with the exception that the CD-ROM interface was for LMSI (Laser Magnetic Storage International) drives. LMSI was a subsidiary of Philips. The interface itself is a 16-pin header. The only other sound cards that came with an LMSI connector were the MediaVision Pro Audio Spectrum 16 LMSI (FCC ID: ICW-PAS16P) and MediaVision Fusion CD16 S/E LMSI. The CD Jumper is a stylish and versatile piece that adds a touch of sophistication to your wardrobe. With its classic design and high-quality construction, this jumper is a must-have for any fashion-conscious individual. The CT2770, full name, Sound Blaster 16 Value, was launched in 1994. Being a value edition card, it was pared down to the minimum - no wavetable header and only a Panasonic CD-ROM interface.The CT2230 and CT2290 seem to be the most loved SB16s because they offer the lowest noise output of all the SB16 cards and are not Plug & Play. This is good because we retro gamers like to have our choices at the hardware level! Plug & Play was in its infancy in 1994, and would make configuring your card almost impossible outside of Windows. The CT2299 was identical to the CT2290 but was marketed without the CSP/ASP chip (though still supported this option). Marc Sven Schulte informed me of the fact the DAC chip on these cards is sometimes the AK4501-VS by Asahi Kasei Microelectronics (AKM) and not the Creative-branded CT1701-T. It's possible Creative simply took this third-party DAC and got permission to rebrand it. More Images

The Sound Blaster 16 ASP follows the very successful 8-bit Sound Blaster Pro Basic and reinforces the notion that most business users require better sound quality. The new 16-bit Sound Blaster sounds far better than its 8-bit predecessor, although its sound quality falls short of the best audio boards. The MPU-401 interface on the 15-pin game/MIDI port continued to be non-standard (the pinouts differ from the Roland standard).

Buying tips and help

The Sound Blaster 16 Value is perfect as a low cost solution to crystal clear CD quality sound. It features the new IDE interface for connection to any compatible CD-ROM drive. The least noisy of the Sound Blaster 16 second-gen cards are the CT2940 and CT2980 with an embedded Yamaha YMF chip. These have the CT2502 (ViBRA) chips and are Plug & Play. CT2230 / CT2239 Board revision 29417 got either the old CT1745A mixer chip from the first generation, or the newer CT1745-S. Board revision 49432 got the even later CT1745A-S. The CT2919 was the non-"Value Edition" version of this card, designed for the OEM market. More Images offers the same high quality sound, plus the facility to upgrade. Also available with advanced signal processing for enhanced sound capability, it features both IDE and Creative/Panasonic CD Rom interface."

Most third-generation cards come with the Creative Labs CQM chip instead of true OPL3 Yamaha chip, but there are cases where a Yamaha chip is present. The vast majority of these cards are jumper-free and are fully ISA Plug & Play. CT2910 /CT2911 / CT2919 This card has been reported to have the hanging note bug, but the only cards I have seen have DSP v4.16 which does not suffer this. More Images CT2772 was the same as the CT2770A, but got FCC ID: IBACT-SB16NCDR, which I can only assume means "No CD-ROM", as it didn't come with a CD-ROM interface, but this card did come with a wavetable header which is odd for a value edition card...CT2771 is an odd card with no information anywhere on the web - let me know if you have any details of this card. Other Creative cards often used the '1' suffix to indicate it was a "value" version of the "0"-suffixed card, so this is perhaps a "value" on top of a "value" card ;-) Either that, or it's some OEM variant. CT2770A then followed, removing these obsolete CD-ROM interface headers from the board as well as the CSP/ASP chip area.

CT2830 is similar to the CT2700 and even the original CT1740 Sound Blaster 16, in that it has a real Yamaha OPL3 chip, has the same DSP and even still supports a CSP/ASP chip. It comes with an IDE CD-ROM interface. The CT2291 is the "Value Edition" version of the CT2290. These do not support having a CSP/ASP chip. These cards also only have an IDE connector - no 'Creative/Panasonic Drive' connector. The Sound Blaster 16 ASP comes with a powerful mix of applications, including two programs for sampling in Windows. WaveStudio is limited to sampling and editing what will fit in system memory (about a minute of 44 kHz sampling). If that's enough, you'll enjoy its intuitive interface and strong editing capabilities. Soundo'LE is the appropriate application for creating longer samples and embedding them into OLE-aware applications. The Sound Blaster 16 mixer, which you can access from Soundo'LE's menus, is very powerful and easy to use."InfoWorld, 11 Jan 1993 Following the success of the CT2260 and its first ViBRA-16 card, the CT2800 or Sound Blaster Vibra 16S, uses an updated chip - the ViBRA 16S (CT2504). We recommend when installing a CD-R (compact disc recordable) or CD-RW (compact disc re-writable) drive that the drive be set up as the primary drive on the second IDE/EIDE interface. Having the drive as the primary helps prevent buffer underruns when creating a CD. Attach cablesFun fact... user Imperious on the Vogons forum says he successfully ran a CT2770 on an 8088 XT (8-bit ISA slots only). The 16-bit part of the card is used for the CD-ROM interface only! Imperious said it's great for running the PC speaker audio through the sound card and out of the speakers, though there's only a tiny amount of games that can use the card's abilities on a system that slow. The CT1770, actual name Sound Blaster 16 SCSI-2, was the first Sound Blaster 16 card from Creative Labs to come with a SCSI-2 CD-ROM interface instead of IDE or other proprietary interfaces from Panasonic, Mitsumi and Sony. To support this SCSI interface, the card has an Adaptec AIC-6360L controller chip - you need to install an ASPI driver for this chipset from your CONFIG.SYS file followed by the usual MSCDEX in your AUTOEXEC.BAT.