The GUS Max came out in 1994, the SoundBlaster 2.0 came out in 1991 and was a significantly more limited card than the GUS (no wave table synthesis, no 16-bit audio or stereo)
In 1994 the state-of-the-art SoundBlaster would have been the AWE32 and it was $399. You must be misremembering :)
Sound cards did not drop to anywhere near $20 until the very late 90's or early 00's and those $20 cards were bottom barrel stuff that would have been less advanced in many ways than the GUS Max even then.
In 1994 the state-of-the-art SoundBlaster would have been the AWE32 and it was $399. You must be misremembering :)
Sound cards did not drop to anywhere near $20 until the very late 90's or early 00's and those $20 cards were bottom barrel stuff that would have been less advanced in many ways than the GUS Max even then.