SoundBlaster 16 soundcard frequency response

SoundBlaster 16 Basic frequency response

This performance is measure from SB16 sound card 1994 model. Soundcards are constantly changing and for more up to dater performance figures check Sound Blaster 16 Value Edition PnP tested document by Tomi Engdahl.

How the results are measured

Multimedia industry is selling 16 bit soundcards with claims of CD-quality sound. Actually very few of soundcards in the market meet this criterion. Usually the performance of the soundcards is much worse than what the manufacturers make us understand. In the below there are some test results of some of the most popular soundcards in the marker: SoundBlaster 16 and AWE32.

The figures are measured with 50 second frequnecy sweep from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The frequency sweep in is digitized using the soundcard under test. When the sound is played back, the output is measured and the graphs are drawn using this data. Those performance of the newer versions of the soundcards might be something different. In soundcard industry some products are changing fast and not always to a better direction.

References

• Mika Koivusalo: 16-bittiset ��nikortit, Tietokone, April 1994, page 44
• Leo Backman: ��nenlaatu mittausten valossa, Tietokone, August 1996, page 42