Creative's audio revenue grew from US$40 million per year to nearly US$1 billion following the launch of the Sound Blaster 16 and related products.

The ASP or CSP chip added some new features to the Sound Blaster line, such as hardware-assisted speech synthesis (through the TextAssist software), QSound audio spatialization technology for digital (PCM) wave playback, and PCM audio compression and decompression.

Software needed to be written to leverage its unique abilities, yet the offered capabilities lacked compelling applications.

[1][2][3] The Sound Blaster 16 also featured the then widely used TEA2025 amplifier IC (integrated circuit) which, in the configuration Creative had chosen, would allow approximately 700 milliwatts per channel when used with a standard pair of unpowered, 4-Ohm multi-media speakers.

By setting an onboard jumper, the user could select between line-level output (bypassing the on-board amplifier) and amplified-output.

The controller did not have the on-board firmware (Boot BIOS) to start an OS (operating system) from a SCSI hard drive.

This was a necessity since most operating systems and CD-ROM drives of the time did not support streaming CD-audio digitally over the main interface.

The CD-audio input could also be daisy-chained from another sound generating device, such as an MPEG decoder or TV tuner card.

Sound Blaster 16 cards sold separately feature a CT1747, a chip which has the discrete Yamaha YMF262 OPL-3 FM synthesizer integrated.

Starting in late 1995, Creative utilized a cost-reduced, software-compatible replacement for the OPL-3 FM support termed CQM synthesis.

[5] However, its synthesis was far from being entirely faithful to the OPL-3 chips, producing considerable distortion along with high-pitched 'squeaking' or 'ringing' artifacts in FM-synthesized music and sound effects.

The following model numbers were assigned to the Sound Blaster 16 PCI:[6] As many Sound Blaster 16s are now around 30 years old, many cards suffer from symptoms related to aging capacitors, ranging from muffled or distorted output to the cards failing to function properly.

Some users have found that replacing the capacitors with fresh ones of the recommended values noticeably improved both amplified and line-level audio quality, in addition to restoring proper operation.