Diamond Monster Sound M80
The Monster Sound M80 was released in 1998. It was their mid-range offering launched alongside the premium Monster Sound 3D and budget Sonic Impact.
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Released | July 1998 |
| Bus | PCI | |
| Chipset | Yamaha YMF262, AdMOS Adwave 32 | |
| Standards | Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, General MIDI, Roland MPU-401, Windows Sound System | |
| Memory | None | |
| CD-ROM | 4 x CD-ROM headers | |
| Ports | Line In, Line Out, Mic In, Speaker Out, Game/MIDI Port, Wavetable header | |
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| Price | At launch: $149 | |
| See Also |
In playback [digital-to-analogue] tests conducted by PCAVTech, the M80 got a Signal-to-Noise ratio of -70.4dB. This is considered very good.
Board Revisions
In the Media
"The Diamond Monster Sound MX80 is an interesting entry into Diamond's sound card range. This is Diamond's mid-range card (that is to say, sitting between the Monster Sound 3D and the Sonic Impact).
The conundrum is that as a mid-range card its sound quality is definitely better than the Sonic Impact, yet offers less features in terms of digital effects and 3D sound emulation.
Essentially, the MX80 is a Monster Sound 3D without 4 speaker surround support. The MX80 only has one output for 2 speakers and unlike the lower end Sonic Impact, it doesn't even offer pretend surround sound in the form of a little built-in splitter.
Sonically, the MX80 sounds good and is identical to the Monster Sound 3D in 2 speaker mode. The quality isn't as good as the Yamaha [Waveforce XG] though, which as a Monster Sound 3D owner is rather disappointing. If Yamaha release a 4 speaker version of their sound card, I'll be the first buyer.
Midi sounds for the MX80 are functional and of average quality. Perhaps I'm too spoiled, but having owned an AWE32 for many years with 8Mb of memory downloadable sound fonts mean that instrument quality and variety are simply amazing. None of the sound cards tested offered downloadable midi sounds and therefore sadly pale when compared to a card 4 years older." PC PowerPlay, July 1998
The conundrum is that as a mid-range card its sound quality is definitely better than the Sonic Impact, yet offers less features in terms of digital effects and 3D sound emulation.
Essentially, the MX80 is a Monster Sound 3D without 4 speaker surround support. The MX80 only has one output for 2 speakers and unlike the lower end Sonic Impact, it doesn't even offer pretend surround sound in the form of a little built-in splitter.
Sonically, the MX80 sounds good and is identical to the Monster Sound 3D in 2 speaker mode. The quality isn't as good as the Yamaha [Waveforce XG] though, which as a Monster Sound 3D owner is rather disappointing. If Yamaha release a 4 speaker version of their sound card, I'll be the first buyer.
Midi sounds for the MX80 are functional and of average quality. Perhaps I'm too spoiled, but having owned an AWE32 for many years with 8Mb of memory downloadable sound fonts mean that instrument quality and variety are simply amazing. None of the sound cards tested offered downloadable midi sounds and therefore sadly pale when compared to a card 4 years older." PC PowerPlay, July 1998
Setting it Up
Downloads
Operation Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Driver & Utility Disk Contains:
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More Pictures
