Diamond Sonic Impact S70/ S90/ S100
The Sonic Impact S70, S90 and S100 were the value-oriented sound card line from Diamond, released in 1998.
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Released | July 1998 |
| Bus | PCI | |
| Chipset | ESS ES1968 Maestro 2, Aureal Vortex 2 or ESS ES1989 Allegro | |
| Standards | Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, General MIDI, Roland MPU-401, Windows Sound System, A3D (S90 only) | |
| Memory | None | |
| CD-ROM | None | |
| Ports | Line In, Mic In, Speaker Out, Game/MIDI Port | |
| Part # | ||
| FCC ID | ||
| Price | At launch: $119 (S70) | |
| See Also |
Whereas the Monster Sound lineup was targeted at no-holds-barred gamers, the Sonic Impact cards were more generally aimed, and were cheaper and less powerful. Within the Sonic Impact range were:
- Diamond Sonic Impact S70 (ESS Maestro 2)
- Diamond Sonic Impact S90(A/B) (Aureal Vortex 1)
- Diamond Sonic Impact S100 (ESS Allegro)
Board Revisions
In the Media
"Diamond may be better known for their range of video cards, or more recently, their 3Dfx offerings, but in fact are becoming one of the world's largest multimedia forces. Previously proving their worth on the high end sound frontier with the Diamond Monster Sound 3D, the Sonic Impact, offering pseudo 4 speaker surround and a few less thrills than its bigger brother could become a popular choice.
The S70 is Diamond's offering to the lower ended market but that doesn't mean it's short on functionality. Offering quite a comprehensive sound solution its real time wave effects include Reverb, Chorus, Bass, Treble and 3D sound effects.
Another interesting factor is that the S70 has support for 4 speakers. The card doesn't actually differentiate between front and rear speakers as the MS3D does, but is still a good starting point for a 4 speaker solution. A neat trick to emulate surround sound is to turn up the bass in the rear speaker and reduce the bass in the front speakers. This effect is quite substantial.
Sonically, the S70 isn't the greatest. The general audio output from the card has a slightly muffled sound to it and at high volumes there is a slight hiss. CD's, although sounding good, are inferiorand in no-way comparable to the quality of the Yamaha [Waveforce XG]. Midi sounds are again acceptable, but without downloadable sound fonts are far too limited.
Ultimately, for $119 the S70 is a good sound card." PC PowerPlay, July 1998
The S70 is Diamond's offering to the lower ended market but that doesn't mean it's short on functionality. Offering quite a comprehensive sound solution its real time wave effects include Reverb, Chorus, Bass, Treble and 3D sound effects.
Another interesting factor is that the S70 has support for 4 speakers. The card doesn't actually differentiate between front and rear speakers as the MS3D does, but is still a good starting point for a 4 speaker solution. A neat trick to emulate surround sound is to turn up the bass in the rear speaker and reduce the bass in the front speakers. This effect is quite substantial.
Sonically, the S70 isn't the greatest. The general audio output from the card has a slightly muffled sound to it and at high volumes there is a slight hiss. CD's, although sounding good, are inferiorand in no-way comparable to the quality of the Yamaha [Waveforce XG]. Midi sounds are again acceptable, but without downloadable sound fonts are far too limited.
Ultimately, for $119 the S70 is a good sound card." PC PowerPlay, July 1998
"The Sonic Impact S70 brings nothing over from Diamond's Monster Sound series which is mainly intended for the serious gamer, as the S70 is not intended for 3D Audio. The S70, based on the ESS Maestro-II DSP doesn't sacrifice any quality in order to remain somewhat competitive from a pricing standpoint. The ability to process 32 audio streams simultaneously supercedes the capabilities of even the Monster Sound MX200 reiterating the fact that the S70 is not an el-cheapo sound card. The 64-voice hardware wavetable MIDI is also provided for courtesy of the ESS Maestro-II.
Like the Monster Sound boards, the Sonic Impact fully supports and accelerates DirectSound/DirectSound3D games and applications. The DSP can process and accelerate up to 5 simultaneous DS/DS3D streams giving it a slight advantage over some low cost PCI Sound Cards as well as most ISA Sound Cards. While the card itself doesn't support A3D Surround or A3D Interactive technologies, the S70 features a total of 2 outputs consisting of one Stereo Speaker Out and one Line Level Speaker Out. In theory you could connect 2 sets of speakers to the S70, however it wouldn't give you the same experience that doing so to a MX200 or M80 would.
The S70, as with virtually all sound cards that don't allow for a connection to a Legacy Sound Card, provides very little support for legacy DOS games. If you're a big fan of the old classics you probably won't want to ditch your ISA sound card in favor of this puppy just yet. For those of you that are tired with the problems associated with installing ISA Sound Cards, the Sonic Impact S70 will definitely be a blessing from above as it will probably be the easiest sound card you ever had to install.
The bundle with the S70 could be improved, however in order to keep costs down the only things you'll find inside the package other than the board itself are Microsoft's NetShow, Midisoft's Internet Sound Bar 2.0 and Studio Recording Session, the same wav-editor found in the Monster Sound Bundles, a CD-player, and the full version of SimCopter by Maxis.
With a price above that of the AudioPCI from Creative/Ensonic you need to remember to ask yourself whether the features the S70 offers over the competition is worth the $20 of separation between the board and the AudioPCI for example. For a decent high end PCI sound card at a low end price, the Sonic Impact S70 from Diamond definitely brings home the gold. A better software bundle and a slightly lower price would give this card the advantage it needs over the competition, unfortunately you can't have it all in this industry." Anandtech, June 1998
Like the Monster Sound boards, the Sonic Impact fully supports and accelerates DirectSound/DirectSound3D games and applications. The DSP can process and accelerate up to 5 simultaneous DS/DS3D streams giving it a slight advantage over some low cost PCI Sound Cards as well as most ISA Sound Cards. While the card itself doesn't support A3D Surround or A3D Interactive technologies, the S70 features a total of 2 outputs consisting of one Stereo Speaker Out and one Line Level Speaker Out. In theory you could connect 2 sets of speakers to the S70, however it wouldn't give you the same experience that doing so to a MX200 or M80 would.
The S70, as with virtually all sound cards that don't allow for a connection to a Legacy Sound Card, provides very little support for legacy DOS games. If you're a big fan of the old classics you probably won't want to ditch your ISA sound card in favor of this puppy just yet. For those of you that are tired with the problems associated with installing ISA Sound Cards, the Sonic Impact S70 will definitely be a blessing from above as it will probably be the easiest sound card you ever had to install.
The bundle with the S70 could be improved, however in order to keep costs down the only things you'll find inside the package other than the board itself are Microsoft's NetShow, Midisoft's Internet Sound Bar 2.0 and Studio Recording Session, the same wav-editor found in the Monster Sound Bundles, a CD-player, and the full version of SimCopter by Maxis.
With a price above that of the AudioPCI from Creative/Ensonic you need to remember to ask yourself whether the features the S70 offers over the competition is worth the $20 of separation between the board and the AudioPCI for example. For a decent high end PCI sound card at a low end price, the Sonic Impact S70 from Diamond definitely brings home the gold. A better software bundle and a slightly lower price would give this card the advantage it needs over the competition, unfortunately you can't have it all in this industry." Anandtech, June 1998
Setting it Up
Downloads
Operation Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Driver & Utility CD Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
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