CompuServe Thread

#Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16??

12 messages in this thread
#49484From: Michael WendtMay 30, 1993 12:15 AM
An ad in the May 11 PC Magazine, page 89, caught my eye. Does anybody own a Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16 sound board? The non 16 did not do real good in the PC Magazine review in the issue before. The ad says the card will do everything a Sound Blaster and or a Pro Audio Spectrum 16 will do and more. (Of course!) But what jumped out at me is that they claim that this board will control my Mitsumi CD-ROM drive. That's right, the non-scsi IDE type Mitsumi dirve. If so, this would sure be a nice setup in that I could swap this board for my Mitsumi controller and gain sound. I am down to my last slot so this is a nice solution, if it works. So, if you have seen this setup in action please let me know how well it works and wht you think. Thanks, Mike.
#49491From: Tom FultonMay 30, 1993 3:27 AM
I have also seen that it "supports cdrom drives such as the mitsumi. Does it really drive the mitsumi lu0005 ?. If it does, it could replace two cards (SB and mitsumi ) by one card.
#49505From: Patrick ThompsonMay 30, 1993 12:03 PM
I've got a Sound Galaxy board and it does indeed have a built in Mitsumi controller. I recently bought a new PC which was supplied with CD rom and sound board. The kit used is the Sound Galaxy multimedia upgrade kit which uses the Mitsumi L005. The card has a built in AT bus interface with an upgrade option to an SCSI interface. I'm no great expert on the relative merits of different sound cards so I can't really comment other than to say that it seems adequate (i.e. no more than the usual number of unexplained glitches etc!). Be warned however that the proprietary driver for the Mitsumi supplied with the card seems to take up about 80k of base memory (it won't load high). As a result, I don't use the SG driver, using the standard Mitsumi driver available on various Compuserve forums instead. I haven't experienced any obvious problems. Hope this is of some help. …Patrick
#49513From: Michael WendtMay 30, 1993 4:56 PM
OK, great! This is what I need to hear. When you say "standard Mitsumi dirver" do you know if that is the one that came with my Mitsumi drive? Since they claim compatability with every thing from Sound Blaster to tracker pipe organs have you found any software sound that does not play? Does it support all the inputs and outputs to a "sound mixer" as the Pro Audio Spectrum does? And lastly, how does it "sound" to you? Bright and clear, no hiss, no distortion, like a good home stereo? Thanks for your help. Mike.
#49570From: Steve RingleyMay 31, 1993 2:18 PM
A friend had one for awhile, and could not make it work right with Windows. He was using one of those nasty accelerators that decodes every odd port in sight. The NX Pro also needs to decode nearly every port in sight to provide the different sound boards. It even includes a "Virtual Parallel Port" for those sound devices. Being in Guam you had best get a good return policy up front. If you can get it to work it really is a one card solution to dozens of different MultiMedia things though.
#49843From: Peter KnudsenJun 4, 1993 5:32 AM
Hi Michael I have a Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16 and a mitsumi LU005s CD-ROM. They are installed with the default settings, except that the installation program for the NX board had to be told that I use a mitsumi drive and not a Sony drive. I've had two problems. 1. My PC wouldn't boot after I installed the CD-ROM beacuse it was connected to the same power cord as my tape backup. I changed to another (available) cord, and the PC booted fine. 2. After the first NX software installation, my windows installation walked to sowhere (I am sure it didn't want to Kansas). I installed windows from scratch to solve the problem. peter (continued…)
#49844From: Peter KnudsenJun 4, 1993 5:37 AM
Hi Michael (again) The NX sound is good, but clicks and ticks in the loudspeakers during boot and printing. The sound has some hiss. The CD is very sensitive – so don't jump or dance while you play. I've ordered the wave table option to see how it works. Have fun. peter
#49896From: Michael WendtJun 4, 1993 5:57 PM
Thanks for your reply. I have had my Mitsumi since January. As I am ready to add sound the Sound Galaxy sounds like a good one slot solution. My computer sits on a solid desk, on a concrete slab floor. Perhaps that is why I have never had a skipping problem. When you say the sound has a little hiss, how does this compare to other sound board systems you have heard? Are you sure there is hiss while playing CD (red book) sound? I expect some hiss when playing 8 bit sound. So, over all, are you happy? Is this a recomended buy or do you wish you had something else? Mike.
#49904From: Steve RingleyJun 4, 1993 10:33 PM
Some further snooping around CIS indicates that Aztech is now on a 2.1 driver for the Sound Galaxy cards, and it seems to solve the Windows problems.
#49939From: Michael WendtJun 5, 1993 2:35 PM
Which forum can Aztec Labs be found on? Mike.
#50098From: Steve RingleyJun 7, 1993 10:08 PM
That is one of their big problems…they can't! The books we had did not list a BBS either.
#50027From: Peter KnudsenJun 7, 1993 1:21 AM
Hi Mike The hiss is audioable when you play sound, from either the Sound Galaxy board or when playing audio CDs. (I don't have that on my Hi-Fi CD player). Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16 and Mitsumi LU005s is recommended for home use. You have only one adapter board in your PC, sound playing through the Sound Galaxy, an acceptable fast CD-ROM. And the price is OK, at least here in Denmark if you do a little shopping. If I had enough money I would choose a SCSI CD-ROM, because it is more "compatible", ie it is has more support now, and in the future. As for SCSI CD-ROMs you can't go wrong with a NEC drive. I have NEC CDR-74 at work. peter