Retro Review: Orchid NuSound PnP 32 - Part 3
2nd January 2025
In Part 2 (written 6 months ago!), we installed the drivers for the Orchid NuSound PnP 32. In this Part 3, we get to hear what its audio output is like.
Testing
A review in the Jan 1997 edition of PC World put the NuSound in 2nd place behind the Ensoniq Soundscape Vivo 90. Surprising, as this card does *not* have a real OPL3 chip, instead relying on the CS9233 to emulate FM synthesis. Other reports online do not rate this favourably at all.
I played a number of period-correct games and, as I always like to do, recorded the audio output in both FLAC (lossless) and OGG format (lossy). Furthermore, I configured some games for Sound Blaster and some for General MIDI, as well as recording several .MOD files played through FastTracker 2.
FM Emulation
| Raptor: Call of the Shadows Apogee Software (1994) 486DX-33, Sound Blaster/Sound Blaster   44 kHz stereo FLAC recording Speaker out RMS: -8.80 dB Line out RMS: -17.98 dB Weighted SnR (Speaker Out): -51 dB Weighted SnR (Line Out): -58 dB Comparisons Yamaha YMF262 (AudioWave 16 AISP): Yamaha YMF718 (Yamaha Audician32+): OPtiFM (MediaColor MED1931): |
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| Beneath A Steel Sky Revolution Software (1994) 486DX-33, Sound Blaster/Sound Blaster 44 kHz stereo FLAC recording Speaker out RMS: -13.35 dB Line out RMS: -24.07 dB Weighted SnR (Speaker Out): -62 dB Weighted SnR (Line Out): -62 dB Comparisons Yamaha YMF718 (Yamaha Audician32+): |
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| Doom Id Software (1993) 486DX-33, Sound Blaster 44 kHz stereo FLAC recording Speaker out RMS: -16.33 dB Line out RMS: -25.67 dB Weighted SnR (Speaker Out): -52 dB Weighted SnR (Line Out): -59 dB Comparisons Yamaha YMF718 (Yamaha Audician32+): Yamaha YMF262 (SB16 CT2770): |
Based on a few other cards I have reviewed here at DOS Days, here's a comparison chart of Sound Blaster game output via the Speaker Out jack. The higher the value the better signal quality:
| Card | Average Speaker out SnR |
|---|---|
| ExpertColor MED1931 (OPTi 82C931) | -72 dB |
| Yamaha Audician 32 Plus | -68 dB |
| Multiwave AudioWave 16 AISP | -67.4 dB |
| Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro 16 | -58.4 dB |
| Orchid NuSound PnP 32 | -55.0 dB |
| Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 (CT2770) | -54.8 dB |
| Ensoniq SoundScape VIVO | -53 dB |
General MIDI (Crystal CS9233)
| Star Wars: TIE Fighter LucasArts (1994) Pentium 200, General MIDI/SB Pro 44 kHz stereo FLAC recording Speaker out RMS: -14.06 dB Line out RMS: -13.03 dB Weighted SnR (Speaker Out): -92 dB Weighted SnR (Line Out): -54 dB Comparisons Ensoniq OTTO 32 (Ensoniq VIVO-90): Ensoniq ES1370 (Ensoniq AudioPCI): Crystal/Dream 5000-series (DB X2GS): |
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| Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers Sierra Online (1993) 486DX-33, General MIDI 44 kHz stereo FLAC recording Speaker out RMS: -22.31 dB Line out RMS: -16.67 dB Weighted SnR (Speaker Out): -52 dB Weighted SnR (Line Out): -46 dB Comparisons Ensoniq OTTO 32 (Ensoniq VIVO-90): Roland GM (Roland SC-55): Yamaha GM (Yamaha MU80): |
MOD Files (output in Sound Blaster emulation mode)
Here's a taste of the audio output from some .MOD tracks:
| 'ZX1' (Speaker-Out) | |
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| 'ZX1' (Line-Out) | |
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| 'Elysium' (Speaker-Out) | |
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| 'Elysium' (Line-Out) | |
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| 'Space Debris' (Speaker-Out) | |
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| 'Space Debris' (Line-Out) | |
I'm sure you'll agree these all sound pretty atmospheric. With these MOD file recordings, output through the onboard amplifier ('speaker-out') produced an average of -12.09 dB RMS with a SnR of -72 dB. Avoiding the internal amp circuitry ('line-out') produced an average of -16.32 dB RMS with a SnR of -60.67 dB.
Conclusion
Well, what can I say to sum up the Orchid NuSound PnP 32.... it's not that great, even for a mid-range card. Its spec sheet looks impressive but when you dig into it and play some games you get the real picture.
Its FM synth is just emulated (the CS9233 doesn't have an embedded Yamaha OPL3 chip) and it shows - it's pretty dreadful, and is noticeably poor in almost every game. It not only has a 'flat' sound but many sounds are just plain wrong. The General MIDI is, however, decent. I scored it in the 'middling' category in my Wavetable Audio article, and that was spot on - I've heard better and I've heard worse.
The card's signal-to-noise (SnR) is also rather poor when playing games, with an average of -55 dB when using the 'Speaker-Out' jack, and -59.7 dB when using 'Line-Out'. You probably can't blame that DAC, so it's most likely poor circuit design that has introduced a lot of noise before the final stage. I also had to set the volume in the driver to maximum (99 in the range 0-99) in Unisound to get sufficient volume out of the card - usually I have it set to 70-80% to ensure I avoid clipping.
It's a similar story to the Ensoniq VIVO - I can recommend this card for playing games in General MIDI mode, and the option to put your own wavetable daughterboard on there as well is nice (something the VIVO didn't have). I would go as far as to say actively avoid cards that rely on the Crystal CS9233 for FM synthesis - even ESS with their "ESFM" and Opti with their "OptiFM" managed to make a rather decent job of mimicking the Yamaha OPL3 chip, but Crystal's is inexcusable.
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