SoundBlaster soundcards frequency response

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.

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.

SoundBlaster AEW32 frequency response

These performance figures are measured from AWE32 sold 1994. Accoring a newer test I saw in Tietokone magazine 1996, the frequency response in AWE32 has changed. The high frequency response has been become better, but the bass response have become worse: Bass response starts to drop at 200 Hz and drops 6..12 dB at 20 Hz depending on the input/output combinations. The new test also mentioned that THD distortion at 1 kHz is about 0.035 %. Signal to noise ratio in line signals is no better than 67 dB (CCIR weighted). So the frequency response in new AWE32 cards is quite the same like in old SB16 cards:

On new AWE32 card this record and playback frequency response is quite the same in both line and micrphone level inputs.

References

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