DOS Days

Labway ESS Maestro-2

Unsurprisingly, Labway named this card directly after its main chip, the ESS Maestro-2 - a PCI audio controller with onboard wavetable and optional S/PDIF out.

Released 2000
Bus PCI
FM Synth ESS Maestro-2 (ES1948)
Audio Codec (Embedded)
Chipset (Embedded)
Standards Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro 2
Ports Speaker-Out, Mic-In, Line-In (stereo), Game port
CD-ROM None
Wavetable Onboard 64-voice General MIDI
Plug & Play Yes
FCC ID(s) -
Price  
See Also  

The ESS Maestro-2 was based on the ESS ES1948 chip of the same name. Some cards came with the ES1948 Maestro-2 while others got the Maestro-2E which was a smaller chip but effectively identical in terms of functionality. Both were fully DirectSound/DirectMusic-compatible, designed for Windows 95/98 and NT 4.0.

The card had a PC/PCI header for legacy audio support with a compatible PC/PCI motherboard, in addition to DDMA (Distributed DMA) and DMAC (8237) emulation capability.

The Spatializer 3D surround sound was handled in software, mimicking 4-channel sound.


Board Revisions

Some variants of the card got an S/PDIF output.

Competition

 

In the Media

 

Setting it Up

 


Downloads

Operation Manual
(missing)

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