Remember a few years back when the Sound Blaster was the only game out there? Then along came a few upstarts like Media Vision and Turtle Beach. These days choices are a little more complicated, and overall quality and reliability has increased greatly. Diamond is about to release a PCI based sound board for only $99 US, and Turtle Beach has beat them to the punch with their new Daytona!

Moving to the PCI bus and DirectSound under WIN95 means fewer hassles. In fact, if your sim of choice is a true WIN95 game, installation and use becomes virtually painless, and sound quality improves. Since Plug'n'Play is far more reliable with PCI boards as opposed to ISA boards, this definitely is the wave of the future! I had no installation hassles at all with the DMS.

Furthermore, a resident DSP (digital signal processor) on boards like the Monster Sound and Daytona means on board channel mixing and processing; thats another saving on the CPU and it gives software designers even more flexibility in the sound department, with speech, multiple sounds and multiple sound channels all happening at the same time WITHOUT the sim having to pause while the CPU does the sound work at the price of video or AI. Need I say more?

The DMS, like TBs Daytona, is a Win95 only sound board, meaning that you need to be running under Direct Sound or Aureal Semiconductor's A3D APIs. Diamond, like Turtle Beach, warn users that they must keep their old ISA sound card on line in order to maintain Sound Blaster compatability for DOS titles.

Naturally, the DMS uses wave-table synthesis, but it also has a connector which allows attachment of Diamond's Wave-Blaster daughterboard. This older version of the DMS has the daughterboard attached. With its on board DSP the DMS will handle multiple 24-bit audio streams and 16-bit digital audio, the standard for PCI boards, is supported. Like the Daytona the DMS can manage 32 voices. One of the differences between the DMS and the TB Daytona is A3D compatability. Games which support this sound positioning technology are going to sound better on the DMS. However, if they also support Direct Sound 3d, then you can use Daytona's SRS technology and get the same quality. If they do not you're out of luck.

To test the Aureal quality I had to move from the sim world into the mech world, so I compared Heavy Gear on the Daytona and on the DMS. Running through Aureal's API and Daytonas' SRS there was some difference but it wasn't that substantial which is a testimony to the Daytonas' SRS system. I pumped the sound through a Yamaha 200 watt amplifier with front and rear speakers in my ten foot by ten foot office. Heavy Gear supports DirectSound 3d as well as Aureals API making this comparison possible.

F22: ADF compared over these two sound boards was virtually identical. And the music in Longbow 2 and M1 Tank Platoon II also sounded identical (and excellent!). But then I always run with music off during a game with the sole exception of Flying Corps (the moody and context sensitive music just suits the era, what can I say?)

I didn't try the DMS with a concurrent SB16. I simply don't have any DOS games to run any more. I've spoken to DMS owners who run the card alongside an SB16 without any problems, though you may have to toy with settings in WIN95 Control Panel.

Like the TB Daytona, the DMS has an onboard digital game-port. I noticed when testing the Daytonas' digital port that responsiveness seemed to have improved. I didn't spend enough time with ADF to notice this with the DMS, but I think its safe to say that a digital port on a PCI bus just works better. Not only should you find slightly improved response but paired with digital sticks you will AGAIN be giving your CPU more breathing space. (Naturally, you can still connect your old analog stick to these digital ports). The traditional analog port on an ISA bus requires up to 10% of your CPU power to monitor the responses!

It happens that Diamond has recently split the DMS technology into two new boards, and this is the only one shipping to date. This board can be had for around $129, but the Monster Sound M80 (only one speaker output instead of two) will likely be found for $89- $99 when it ships.

The Diamond, like the Daytona, is a great option for those looking to move to the PCI bus for sound. Ubisoft has recently shipped their own competition in the form of the GT64 3d, but even though the board will sell for around $99 it still resides on the ISA bus.