JUMPERS

Product Information

Creative Labs produced an enormous number of variants of the Sound Blaster 16, which are all listed below. But before we get into the model-by-model breakdown, let's explore a few things that the SB16 range brought, both good and bad...

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. 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

Old PC Computing Resource

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.

Sound Blaster 16 Value edition. Most of these have the CT1978 CQM FM synthesizer chip which is almost universally considered poorer quality than a true Yamaha OPL3 chip (some CT2980 cards have the original Yamaha chip which is preferable). If it has the Yamaha chip instead, this is one of the lowest-noise SB16 cards you will find. 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 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 Open your computer and locate the CD-ROM and each of the cables connected to it. Below is an example of a disc drive, including where each of the cables should connect to the drive.Fun 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. You can also compare this card's audio output side-by-side to numerous other cards in my Sound Blaster CT2770 Retro Review!

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. Regardless of whether your card is PnP or not, if you cannot find the original driver disk, or don't want to have the hassle of lots of utilities to initialise your card, you can try UniSound from Vogons member JazeFox - it's a simple utility that detects and initialises your card, making it ready for action. It works on SB16 cards including all the ViBRA-based ones, AWE32, AWE64, as well as many other manufacturers sound cards such as those with OPTi, Crystal, Analog Devices, Yamaha YMF71x, ESS1868/1869, and more! It is designed to work on systems from old 8088/8086 XTs up to Pentium-era and beyond. The CT2299 was identical to the CT2290 but was marketed without the CSP/ASP chip (though still supported this option). 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).The CT1703-TBS is apparently decent for noise (low) and is also found on the CT2290, AWE32 and AWE64. Cards with DSP version 4.11, 4.12, or 4.13 suffer from hanging notes when digital sounds and MIDI are played at the same time. It does not matter what MIDI device you use (an external device attached to the game/MIDI port or on the Wave Blaster header) - you will get this bug. The best workaround for this is to use a separate card for MIDI. Any card with the Creative CT1747 chip does not suffer from this bug, nor do those with DSP version 4.04, 4.05 or 4.16. 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...

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. 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. 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.

The CT1790, also called Sound Blaster 16 Sony is the same as the CT1740 but with a Sony CD-ROM interface. More Images The CT2749 was identical to the CT2740 but was marketed without the CSP/ASP chip (though still supported this option). More Images