shmups.system11.org

The PS2 with digital output to even a little cheap-o $15 ebay external DAC is going to sound better than any PSX console DAC available. They have come leaps and bounds since the 90's. If you happen to have a really good DAC, like a unit in an audio interface for instruments, it will sound just that much better.

IMHO, redbook CD audio is god-awful anyway, and the only way it can sound any good is with processing to add depth, etc.

Speaking of cheap modern DACs : I tried the recommended and cheap Fiio D3. It didn,t sound very good, certainly not as good as an early ps1.

but I agree that overall DAC technology has eveolved a ton and you can now get amazing external DAC for 200-300$, very nice ones from $115 or so to $200 and very decent ones from $50 to $115. a HUGE difference with how it was in the nineties. I had a Peachtree Audio Dac-itX that was really good and it was $250. I haven't tried them but supposedly the Topping and SMLS chinese units are good and measure very well.

the early ps1 have a warm-ish smooth sound that reminds me of the excellent early Phillips and Magnavox cd players, that's what I like about it.. so sound signature is a part of this too.

Any modern DAC that isn't defective will be audibly transparent.

That's the analog electronics in it. I can't imagine the DAC itself is doing anything warm.



It's all the stuff on the other side of the DAC that makes the difference. A big, expensive interface unit is going to have much nicer, higher value components on the other side of the DAC. Of course, the whole signal path is going to make a difference, so if you don't have a clean amp and nice speakers, it doesn't matter what in there anyway.

@Osirus it's not just the DAC chip itself that's important. the OPAMP section after is just as important as the DAC chip

@vol. 2 yep and that part of the design is part of the ''DAC'' too. (DAC chip + analog section). it's present in a standalone DAC as well and is indisociable and needs to be part of the DAC discussion. There are a couple different DAC chip designs (delta sigma, R2-R ladder, etc) but I agree that the chip themselves probably don't have much difference in sonic signature.

Thank you for the response people.
I purchased a cheaper ps1 which was modded.

Will have to look into a dac in the future. My plan was to hook up my crt and all rgb consoles to my technics stereo system with its 2 speakers.

That sounds good enough for me.

If a dac can boost or give the sound more clarity I am all for it. Love the sound track to rtype delta and vandal hearts 1 and 2.

No probs Axelay

Question for Terraonion MODE owners.

Has anyone been able to source a good micro SD card extension? All the ones I find are really bulky on the console end, and they end up hitting the power supply and putting pressure on the connector for MODE.

Hi, soon in the future I am going to RGBs mod my Playstation 2 console. This mod allows for RGBs in 480p resolution instead of sync on green. It also does RGBs in all resolutions. This website explains how to perform the mod: http://www.dansprojects.com/ps2sync.html

I am just wondering what the red 1.5, 3.5, and 5 numbers with a red arrow mean on this? Does that just refer to the voltages? Do I need to do something on those labels to perform this mod?

There was a thread on this forum where Dan, the author, explains how to do this mod, but I could not find it with any searches. If you know where this thread is, could you also give me the link?

Thanks very much!
Erik W.

So, I believe you can just use a luma sync cable for progressive output if I'm not mistaken. I dont think you have to do this, but I've never tried to do progressive over RGB, I use 480i.

But, yes, it looks like those arrows are calling out voltages on those pins. It doesn't have anything to do with the colors. I believe he is just calling your attention to the fact that voltages are present on those pins.

Pretty sure all other sync options (composite, luma) are disabled in 480p. I have a cable with a sync stripper on luma and remember not getting any kind of signal outside of SoG mode on my display after switching to 480p.

Weird. Didn't realize that. Thanks for setting me straight on it.

I think it's not so weird. Composite video and S-Video weren't designed to go beyond 15kHz; so, when you go above that with 480p+, you can't generate sensible composite or S-Video signals, thus they get shut off.


Side note: It is, however, possible to still generate 15kHz clean composite sync when outputting in 480p+, which is what the Xbox does in order to enable light gun functionality when displaying in 480p. That 15kHz sync is provided to light guns on that 5th pin on the controller port (the other 4 being standard USB).

It struck me as weird because I'm used to thinking about the multi-outs as outputting everything at the same time. It never occurred to me that switching to progressive mode would result in the luma and composite becoming disabled. I can't imagine that they are purposefully disabled, seems more like a situation where the chip (or the implementation of the chip) can only do one or the other for cost reasons.

I imagine it's the encoder chip purposefully disabling composite video and S-Video at 31kHz+. Since the encoder is downstream of the GPU, there's probably no good reason for the console to have to be aware of which outputs gets disabled by the encoder; just tell the encoder which mode you're in (or let it figure that out for itself), and let the encoder decide what to do.

To do some recap and to fix the deflection circuit they asked me for 420$ VAT excluded. Do you consider this a fair price?

Uh, fix the deflection circuit on what CRT? Do you have an earlier post I'm missing?

Sort of a hardware question I guess?

I am looking to start recording my gameplay just for preservation of high score runs and for youtube uploads. I mainly use RetroArch. What is the most straightforward, popular way to capture gameplay? Are certain methods more demanding than others in terms of processing power? My main desktop is plenty powerful (Ryzen 3600), but I sometimes play on a weaker machine in my living room for the larger screen. Does retroarch have some built in way to record or should I use some 3rd party capture tool?

OBS will let you quickly customize your screen layout, and you can twiddle with compression quality to find a balance that keeps CPU overhead low. Could even record separate audio tracks so you can narrate while you play.

Oh cool I hadnt heard of this. Will check it out

I have a retro audio only rack with 6 input devices going to an old receiver with speakers attached. Because it's all old, I have everything powered switched on demand so I only have the components on when I need them. Everything goes into an 8 port RCA/composite switcher, but it's a manual switch (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KXVBB7C) and I'd like it to switch automatically when powered. It doesn't need video, but this was all I found with enough ports. Anybody know of an auto composite switch?

I guess since they are all powered off except the active unit, it could be a gate or union, but I don't want any signal loss across the already poor quality composite lines.

I am buying a new Triplett multimeter. Probably the mm650. I am getting this in order to measure some capacitors. If I measure a polarized electrolytic cap backwards with the positive and negative leads, will that damage the capacitor at all?

Typically, no. There are some special testers that will put a more significant load on the cap which I guess could hurt the cap if done backwards, but a normal dinky capacitor tester shouldn't really hurt anything. However, I can't imagine the situation you would need to do that. Just dont put a cap on backwards. They. will be marked.

I have a Panasonic CRT TV (model CT-20G6E) from the mid-90s that used to work, but years in a Florida garage have taken a toll on it and it currently displays a green discoloration (and colors like yellow instead of red) on the upper left half of the screen. I think the degaussing circuit might be broken, as it makes a hollow noise, unlike the noisy burst of most CRTs when powering on, but it could be something else. I tried the corded drill degaussing trick, but it didn't really work aside from making the picture appear brighter. Here's a video demonstrating this issue:

https://files.catbox.moe/acoxgt.mp4


Hope someone is willing to give out some advice, and if this is a trivial fix or not.

It does look like a degaussing issue. It looks like a significant issue caused by close proximity to a strong magnetic field for a long time (like it was stored next to a speaker).

Built-in coils won't fix something that severe, and I've never had much luck with the corded drill trick myself.

It's likely that you also have weakened or failed components on the edge of serviceability that are exacerbating the issue, and it's not impossible that there is permanent damage to the shadow mask if a magnet was too close for too long.

The next step for you to try, should you want to go down this road, is to use a real degaussing coil and learn how to use it. However, you could easily find that it doesn't help. In that case, it's components or the mask. If it's components, you can fix that, but it could take a lot of troubleshooting because who know exactly what's wrong? If it's the mask, then it's totally dead and trash.