From: twong@civil.ubc.ca (Thomas Wong)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: THE GRAVIS ULTRASOUND
Date: 13 Oct 1992 18:58:39 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Civil Engineering, U.B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sam.civil.ubc.ca

In article <2622.22.uupcb@outlan.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca> terry.walter@outlan.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Terry Walter)  writes:
>call up Gravis and ask them how much a daughterboard for the 16 bit
>costs, and how much the daughterboard for the SCSI interface and how
>fast is this interface, is it CD only or SCSI?  then add those to the
>cost of a Gravis UltraSound Card, tellme how much it is.
>
>I picked up my Pas 16 in may (I was one of the first in Canada to have
>it) and at the time the price was $265.00 CDN, I know the prices have
>dropped since then, but lets that that price.
>
>I see the Gravis Ultrasound card sells for around $169-$199 CDN.  but
>without the SCSI interface, or the 16 bit board.  I think the PAS will
>come ahead, plus the pas has the adlib and soundblaster built on board,
>and its initialized with one .SYS file in the COnfig.SYS.
>                                            

Well, I won't go on about how much better the Ultrasound is
technologically compared to the FM stereo of the current generation of
soundcards like the SBPro, PAS...etc and how games are now beginning to
be written that will make use of this technology to bring games to a new
level of sound quality (check out MIDIDEMO for the Ultrasound at a
computer store that has a Ultrasound demo near you. And remember to use
headphones to hear the details filter out noises around the store)
because you'll probably get tons of replies by now about that. But I
would like to point out 2 things.

The reason why Gravis put out only the basics on the Ultrasound is
because for the average joe family, which should define most of the
people who buys soundcards, would be buying the soundcard so that they
can hear sound effects or for the kiddies to play games. This is how
Gravis is going to take a big chunk of the soundcard market because the
card has the playback ability that most of the people buying soundcards
only need and hence it is also cheaper than the other brands and yet it
is technologically superior and produces better sound (this will become
a factor as the games that supports GUS slowly come out. We have a
couple already).

Then if you need extra, then only buy the extra that you need. If you
only need scsi and don't care for 16 bit sampling, don't buy the 16 bit
sampling daughterboard. But of course you want the whole works, all the
features. Then perhaps the PAS is cheaper. But as programs come out to
support the Ultrasound's technology, I'd still argue that I'd rather pay
a little more for a better card.

But my biggest point is what you said. The adlib and soundblaster
emulation is built into the card. And, it only emulates Soundblaster,
not pro. True, the Ultrasound only emulates Soundblaster right now as
well. But note, the Ultrasound is using a program, a TSR. And SBPro TSR
is coming out as they are developping it. And to upgrade, it's as simple as
loading the new TSR as it is released. And since this TSR only works
with the Ultrasound and you need to have the board to use it, I don't
think pirating this software is a problem. Hence I can see it being
distrupted quite freely in email, ftp, or on Usenet, as it is release.
And as newer version is release, they can be again uploaded for all to
download. And as SoundBlaster come out with SBPro II then SBPro III
...etc. All we have to do is upgrade our TSR to be compatible. PAS
owners will be stuck with SB emulation only. Gravis might even write
more TSRs to support more boards. The idea is, Ultrasound is easily
upgradeable. And if a bug is found, we can get upgrade of the software
easily as it is fixed.

This also goes with the daughterboards. We can upgrade hardware as
easily as upgrading the daughterboard. A lot cheaper than changing the
whole card. If there is a new scsi standard out, then just upgrade the
scsi daughtboard. In a few years, there is somehting better than 16 bit
sampling? Then just upgrade the 16 bit daughterboard. I think you are
getting the idea by now.

The biggest hurdle now is, the Ultrasound is new. It needs time to
secure itself into the market and get the third party backing. Come
out with its supporting products like the daughterboards, newer version
of the TSRs now that the bug reports are going in.  But since
game companies like Electronic Arts have all acknowledged GUS and is
even selling their games along with the Ultrasound in special offers,
and new games are coming out, the Ultrasound is well on its way.

Thomas.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard