PS1 used by audiophiles?

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:27 am

Every now and again I get blown away by some peoples findings.

Apparently the very earliest of PS1 consoles (circa 1994-5 SCPH1000 and SCPH1001 models) are now highly sought after because the audio chips create a vinyl like soundstage with no jitter.

People on audiophile forums are comparing $10 used PS1's with CD decks costing up to $1000's and its a tight argument right to which sounds better.

If this is true, which 100's of people on the net are finding is true.. It might be worth hooking up that old dusty playstation to your receiver.. You might become a believer.

So far, the findings are that the PS1 console delivers better bass, wider soundstage and maintains excellent detail. However, it was found that db level was a bit lower than most dedicated CD players.

Be warned if your wanting one of these PS1's for this purpose, alot have bad CDrom drives.

I have a SCPH1000 from 1994, I don't have a receiver and speakers though

. If anyone has the right equiptment, please give it a shot and post your findings.

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:51 am

I heard about that, too, recently, and I was actually looking for a new CD player, so I could have gotten such an old PS1 for the purpose (even would have been practical, as I could have one dedicated for tate and one for yoko that way), but the simple reason I stayed away was the fact that you always have to wait through the (pretty loud) jingle when starting up a Playstation. One of the reasons I wanted a dedicated CD player instead of a DVD player is because DVD players always take a few seconds to analyze the medium you put in, while CD players can start playing it right away.
I know people put this old PS1 disc drive into fashionable cases, but they can´t get rid of the jingle, can they?

benj · Post by **benj** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:02 am

Can't you skip the jingle with a modchip? THough that might be too much effort for a CD player.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:16 am

Uh oh, watch SAM have a field day with this one

I think what you can do is cut the connections to the A/V port and re-connect them with a switch of some kind that you can flip during the bootup sequence, so that you don't hear the boot jingle...

it290 · Post by **it290** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:48 am

Audiophiles are nuts anyway. Here's the proof.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:44 am

Some of that stuff had me falling off my chair.

Its unbelievable how anyone could spend money like that.

Some of the wording in those reviews just blew me away. Apparently a mat that sits (on top of the DVD?) gives richer colors and more vibrant sound! And it only costs $200 each. Cable elevators? LMFAO! $160 each, how many of them do you need?

Someones taking gullibility to the next level.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:28 am

The $9000 cables had some awesomely descriptive explanations for why they're so good...

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 8:15 am

$6,820 for a volume control!? (And that's just the base price, looking at the page, there's nearly another $2,000 worth of "options" you can add to the thing.) I wish I could sell stuff straight off the rack at Home Depot for thousands of bucks...

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:02 am

benj wrote:Can't you skip the jingle with a modchip? THough that might be too much effort for a CD player.

If you like music I don't see why that would be too much effort for a really good, really cheap player.

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:27 am

Sounds like horsecrap to me... but then again, even as a music fan, so does most of the stuff on those linked web sites. $9,000 cab;es? $6,820 for a knob? What a bunch of fucking loons. Dropping a wad on a decent Hi-Fi I can understand. What inestimable difference half of this stuff is supposed to make is beyond me.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:32 am

Some people, including people I know personally believe in the old adage "you get what you pay for".

Therefore companies like Monster for example, will fill the marketplace with cables, electronics and after market add-ons at inflated prices with testimonies and jargon to back up a better performance of your equipment with these add-ons.

Most equipment i've seen that use RCA's have factory soldered connectors internally. So why you would use gold plated, oxygen free copper, triple insulated monster cables that a power company would be proud of to connect this equipment is beyond me

I think the link above just takes it to the absolute extreme. But we face this type of marketting every single day of our lives.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:55 am

I'd rather spend all that money on more music....

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:13 am

Most audiophiles don't buy into that crap. There's enough to keep the businesses going, obviously, but even the most insane audio nerds will know enough to not plop down $500 on a wooden volume knob.

Also, Monster cables don't even begin to scratch the surface of cable ripoffs.

D · Post by D » Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:26 pm

I find this very hard to believe. I used to have one of these very first Japanese models.
I mean, does it make any sense Sony would've done this?
And if they did wouln't they have advertised with it?
like: "Oh yeah, and the sound quality equals a cd-player worth $1000."
I'm sure it's not particularly bad and that previous models might be better than later models, but untill I read some real proof with measurements I think it's BS.
Something most people won't know however that on later models (only PAL models confimed) when you press select button in the cd-player (while the cd is playing) you can have all sort of cool on screen vj effects like the microsoft mediaplayer has now as well!

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:32 pm

The reason pld ps1 lasers die so fast is because the transformer is too close to the laser, and it causes the laser to overheat.

WIth this in mind, a (hopefully!) simple bit of hackery to move the power supply outside the case will preserve the laser.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:41 pm

zaphod wrote:The reason pld ps1 lasers die so fast is because the transformer is too close to the laser, and it causes the laser to overheat.

WIth this in mind, a (hopefully!) simple bit of hackery to move the power supply outside the case will preserve the laser.

Yeah, I've wondered about this. Surely someone with a little knowledge of electrical engineering ought to be able to get the power supply away from the laser. I'll ask my father-in-law, as he's an electrical engineer.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:10 pm

The PS1 power supply is connected to the motherboard via a single 5-wire connector. All you'll need to do is extend those wires and you should be able to put the power supply as far away as you like. You could even splice in some forced fan cooling without too much trouble.

edit: my mistake... and I'm too lazy to open up my PS1 to look, but the connector has more than 5 wires. At any rate, it's only a single connector.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:11 pm

the 5501 is actually probably your best compromise in ps1 models. this was the version that moved the laser to the proper position on the right, and also still had the parallel port.

IT sounds almost as good as the 1001, apparently, and it has auto-bias/gain adjustment, to help respolve the rreadiong issues common to the early models. they started cheaping out on the later ones.

metallica_tyler · Post by **metallica_tyler** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:24 pm

I have one of those models. I think in a Japanese PS1.

Would it defeat the purpose of it if I ran my PS1 through my Aiwa Sound system in the AuX port? Or should I run it directly into a surround sound receiver?

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:56 am

Actually, a PS1 devoted to audio use isn't such a bad idea*, yes you have to wait to for it to boot up, but isn't that like most audio players? Plus, you get that cool visualization effect if you press SELECT while the music is playing.

*Oh, and if you have any PS1 games laying around, it can play those too.

metallica_tyler · Post by **metallica_tyler** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:07 pm

Actually,

my Panasonic FZ-1 3DO, I thought, was definitely the best sounding system out of everything I own. The sound quality on cd-playback was excellent. It was extremely loud and the bass was great. Plus you can choose from 3 different visualizations! The system was actually designed and made in Japan plus cost about what 700 dollars when it game out?

Could the 3DO possibly be better?

Eps · Post by **Eps** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 8:38 pm

Even considering that it's inside a computer with all the relevant potential for interference, my PowerBook CD drive still produces a superior sound to my old CD deck.

It seems like a lot of people might be missing a trick!

Post by **undamned** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:50 pm

metallica_tyler wrote:The sound quality on cd-playback was excellent. It was extremely loud...

I have to make note of the humor in sombody w/ Metalica in their name saying that a cd player is good because it is extremely loud.
-ud

D · Post by D » Sun Apr 16, 2006 6:02 pm

undamned wrote:
metallica_tyler wrote:The sound quality on cd-playback was excellent. It was extremely loud...
I have to make note of the humor in sombody w/ Metalica in their name saying that a cd player is good because it is extremely loud.
-ud

Loud is good, in theory this should have less room for noise/hum/hiss.
Too loud however and the signal will clip.
I have still not seen any prove of the ps1 suposedly 1000$ sound quality.
Myth busted.

dpful · Post by **dpful** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 8:57 pm

My friend sells stuff to audiophiles. Here's his website
www.electronluv.com

Post by **undamned** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:50 pm

dpful wrote:My friend sells stuff to audiophiles. Here's his website
www.electronluv.com

That other audiophile stuff is mythical or a total waste of money. Your friend's stuff, I can honestly say, would be worth it (given sombody had loads of dough). That is serious art:

Code: Select all

if( (beauty == value) && ("beauty is in the eye of the beholder" == true) )
    value = crap_loads_of_money;

Mad props.
-ud

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:07 pm

neorichieb1971 wrote:Every now and again I get blown away by some peoples findings.

Apparently the very earliest of PS1 consoles (circa 1994-5 SCPH1000 and SCPH1001 models) are now highly sought after because the audio chips create a vinyl like soundstage with no jitter.

People on audiophile forums are comparing $10 used PS1's with CD decks costing up to $1000's and its a tight argument right to which sounds better.

If this is true, which 100's of people on the net are finding is true.. It might be worth hooking up that old dusty playstation to your receiver.. You might become a believer.

So far, the findings are that the PS1 console delivers better bass, wider soundstage and maintains excellent detail. However, it was found that db level was a bit lower than most dedicated CD players.

Be warned if your wanting one of these PS1's for this purpose, alot have bad CDrom drives.

I have a SCPH1000 from 1994, I don't have a receiver and speakers though . If anyone has the right equiptment, please give it a shot and post your findings.

That's interesting! Reminds me of the D.J. at Brunswick Zone, when I worked there. As far as playing songs go, he'd just bring in his XBOX every time and hook it up! Makes me wonder if a lot D.J.'s use XBOX's as well.

shmups.system11.org

PS1 used by audiophiles?

PS1 used by audiophiles?

Re: PS1 used by audiophiles?