Which SID to use - 6581 or 8580?

[oberg]

Hi everyone!

I'm planning a Midibox SID-project and I'd like to know which SIDchip you would(/did) use?

(I've tried the search function but didn't find and posts about this - please give me a link or whatever if you have been through this discussion before.)

When I bought my Hardsid (www.hardsid.com) I went for the 8580 since that would give me better signal/noice-ratio, better filtering etc... But now I'm not so sure what to use for this project. What advantages does the 6581 have? (Besides being the _real_ thing that is.)

I'd really apreciate to hear what chip you all did choose when you built your Sidbox - and why.

Thanks!

/robin - Sweden

[seppoman]

Hi Robin,

my impression is that most of the MB SID builders prefer the 8580. The main benefit is the S/N ratio, which is a lot better. Also it has  much less "background note hanging" than the 6581, which is more annoying for me than the general noise/hiss floor. This means that when you play a note and it´s over you can still hear a faint sound in the background that resembles the pitch of the last note.

So in theory the 8580 would be the choice. I nevertheless like the 6581 better. It´s got more personality, the filter has more grain and roughness in it. When you build a MB SID your main goal mostly is not to get another (cheaper/better?) HiFi Nord Lead competitor, but you want something special. And the 6581 got a lot more of that "something special" for me.

On the other hand - if you want to do songs that use the SID in many or all tracks, the better S/N could be a major issue. So my solution is to have one 8580 and one 6581 in the box (and I will upgrade to 2/2 soon). This way you can choose what´s more important in a special situation.

Best regards

Seppoman

[oberg]

That's a great idea you know. That way I'll have the best of the two worlds (or the raisins in the cake as you would say in swedish). I think I'll go for that. Thanks!