Genesis 2 Rev2.3 Audio Mod

[mrsmiley381]

All right, Shumps Farm, I'm normally OK at mods. I can usually do a mod if it's just some normal soldering and whatnot. I like to get the most out of my consoles. So do a lot of you, right?

Well, for a while a lot of people have said the early revision Model 1 Genesis/Mega Drive units had the best audio. There is no doubt that these have the authentic Genesis sound. The Model 2, as far as I can tell, is remembered less fondly. It is known for occasionally having a Sony CXA1645 video encoder, which pretty much kicks the ass of all other Genesis units, though.

The mod shown here (and mentioned in the link above) claims to take the Genesis 2 v2.3 and balance its audio, effectively matching the audio of the Genesis 1. This is not to be confused with the Crystal Clear Audio Mod, which works on ASIC-based audio chips, found in most other Genesis 2 revisions. The Genesis 2v2.3 has the exact same chip in the Genesis 1, which would provide the "authentic" sound most people would desire. The mod would simply balance the audio better.

So, has anyone here done this mod? I'd like to know what people's experiences are with this.

It sounds like a pretty good deal if it works. The datasheets for the Sony and Samsung video chips indicate that they use almost the same pins, so there shouldn't be any differences in any revision 2.3 units (and if there are, why aren't they numbered as different revisions?), so you could combine this audio mod with a video converter swap for S-Video and composite video if necessary. You would have the "best" audio and video coming out of a smaller Genesis that, at most, would sacrifice Power Base Converter support. This is all thinking ahead, of course, as anyone using RGB will be able to ignore composite video. But I do like the possibilities this option presents, especially because jailbars would no longer be an issue.

[Zapf]

I think I'm going to try this. My model 1 is having sync issues (at least with a 32x), and if I can find the appropriate spacer for the gen2 (va 2.3) + 32x, I will probably make that my main genesis - it is giving me a very nice, jailbar free image