ESS ES688/968/1868/1869 ISA Sound Card

What is it?

ESS AudioDrive ISA Sound Cards are widely regarded as some of the best Sound Blaster clone cards ever made. The ESS chipset is highly integrated and extremely capable — the ES1868F, for example, offers full Sound Blaster Pro 2 compatibility, a built-in mixer with inputs for line-in, microphone, CD audio, and wavetable, and is known for being exceptionally quiet. Most cards also include an IDE connector for an optical drive, which is a huge convenience in machines with only a single IDE channel.

Why did you make it?

The card features jumpers to enable or disable the onboard amplifier. For use with powered speakers or an external amplifier, it is recommended to disable the onboard amp to avoid noise and signal degradation. This flexibility makes it suitable for a wide range of audio setups.

What makes it special?

• Beginner-friendly DOS setup — just run INSTALL and answer a few questions; the program automatically updates your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS
• Easy to customize — all configuration entries are human-readable; change IRQ or mixer settings by simply editing AUTOEXEC.BAT
• Sound Blaster Pro 2 compatible — works with the vast majority of DOS games
• Integrated mixer — line-in, microphone, CD audio, and wavetable header inputs
• IDE optical drive connector — adds a second IDE channel for CD-ROM drives
• Jumper-selectable amplifier — disable for use with powered speakers or external amps
• Multiple chipset variants available — choose the model that fits your build

Models

• ES1868F
• ES1869F
• ES688F + AP128B + LS262
• ES688FC + DSP24S
• ES688F + ES968F + DXP44Q

External Links

• Phil's Computer Lab — ESS AudioDrive ES1868 Review