DOS Days

Sound Blaster 16 (CT2910, CT2911, CT2919)

The CT2910, full name Sound Blaster 16 Pro CSP, was the first of the third-generation Sound Blaster 16 cards.

Released 1995
Bus ISA 16-bit
FM Synth Yamaha YMF262
Audio Codec None
Standards Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16
Ports Speaker-Out, Mic-In, Line-In, Line-Out
Game/MIDI port
CD-ROM Panasonic and IDE
Wavetable Wave Blaster header
Plug & Play No (Auto-Init only)
FCC ID(s) IBACT-SBIDE
Price -
See Also Sound Blaster 16 (CT2950)
Sound Blaster 16 (CT2290)
Sound Blaster 16 (CT2770)

The CT2910 usually came with the CT1703-TBS DAC, which is middling in quality - read the Noise Issues section further up this page. Some come with the better (lower noise) CT1703-A. On the downside, DSP versions found on this card are known for the hanging note bug.

The CT2911 was the "Value Edition" version of this card.
The CT2919 was the non-"Value Edition" version of this card, designed for the OEM market.

 

Board Revisions

Known board revisions include 19519 and 29522.
The CT2910 usually came with the CT1703-TBS DAC, which is middling in quality, those others came with the better (lower noise) CT1703-A.
All cards used the CT1741 DSP chip with DSP v4.13 (with the hanging note bug).


Competition

The Sound Blaster 16's primary enhancement over its predecessor (the Sound Blaster Pro) was its capability to playback 16-bit audio for a crisper, cleaner sound. Unfortunately, this wasn't heavily adopted by games developers who continued to use lower-quality samples. Because of this, buying a Sound Blaster 16 really didn't offer any benefit over a much cheaper 8-bit audio card unless you were into recording your own stuff. The marketing department at Creative Labs didn't care, however, and people bought Sound Blaster 16s like they were going out of fashion, thinking 16 bits were always twice as good as 8.

In 1995, the sound card market was awash with choice. Aztech as always were hot on the heels of Creative with a number of new cards that undercut Creative on price. Some of these included their end-of-2nd-gen Sound Galaxy Pro 16 II and Orion 16, and their brand new 3rd-gen cards such as the Waverider 32+,Washington 16, and Multimedia Pro 16.

Crystal launched their first chipset with an integrated FM synthesizer with the CS4232, and this found its way onto several off-brand cards.
ESS Technologies' introduced their ES1688, with ESFM(tm) FM synthesis, six-channel mixer, 16-bit stereo recording and playback, MPU-401 interface, and wavetable support with no hanging note bug.
OPTi released a number of new chipsets for all markets, including the 82C924 and 82C930 (both with reliance on an external FM synth), and the 82C925 with an embedded FM synth called OPTiFM(TM).

MediaVision were driven out of business in December 1994 due to fraud allegations, so we wouldn't see anything new in 1995 from them - a real shame as their cards were excellent quality.

Turtle Beach closed out their 2nd-generation cards in 1995, releasing the Tropez series and the budget Monte Carlo, all of which were Ad Lib and Sound Blaster Pro-compatible. The Tropez cards all came with onboard wavetables while the Monte Carlo offered a software-based wavetable and a hardware wavetable header if you wanted the real thing.

 

In the Media

 

Setting it Up


Downloads

Operation Manual
(missing)

Get in touch if you can provide this missing item!

DOS and Windows 3.1 Utility Disks
Revision 1, 10th Mar 1994

The original Sound Blaster 16 DOS and Windows 3.1 installation disks, marked Sound Blaster 16
S16V-APP-01-ENG (Revision 1)

. DOS and Windows 3.1 Utility Disks
Revision 1, 7th Apr 1997

The original Sound Blaster 16/AWE DOS and Windows 3.1 installation disks, marked SDR-31STD-1-US (Revision 1).

DOS and Windows 3.1 Utility Disks
Release 1, 3rd Mar 1994

The original Sound Blaster 16 Value Edition disks, marked Sound Blaster 16 S16V-STD-01-ENG.
   

 

More Pictures


Sound Blaster 16 (CT2910, rev. 19519)


Sound Blaster 16 (CT2910, rev. 19519)


Sound Blaster 16 (CT2910, rev. 29522)