Looking for cab recommendations

[smork]

I tried a search but came up with too many results...

I've decided I want to put some sort of candy cab in my apartment. I've got ax extra room that's already home to my collection, so I figure a cab in the corner would be great.

I'm mostly interested in playing somewhat older stuff, late 80's to mid 90's range. I'm not really too concerned with price as I'm in Japan and won't have to pay anything other than local shipping, so I don't mind spending more and getting something really nice.

I also need to do something about the sound, as the bass from a normal arcade cab won't do in my apartment. The walls are thick and reinforced concrete but I think bass-heavy arcade soundtracks might be pushing it. Do any cabs come with an easy way to play with headphones or at least some way to adjust the bass down?

So if you were going to buy one cab with these criteria, what would it be?

[XYXZYZ]

I don't know anything about Japanese cabinets, but I think you'll be better off asking this at neo-geo.com in their arcade forum, or perhaps insomnia.ac. neo-geo has lots of candy cab enthusiasts.

[Radiac]

The killercabs forums would be a good place to ask as well.

[CosmicMonkey]

It all depends how much room you have, and what sort of games you're playing. An Egret II would be an excellent choice if you only have the room for one cab and need to easily switch between 4:3 and 3:4(TATE) for shooters. It has a great built-in rotate mechanism. Most other cabs will require you to remove the monitor completely to rotate it (2 man job, unless you're very strong).

If you don't have that much room, a Capcom Mini Cute would fit the bill nicely. They look gorgeous, they're absolutely tiny but they only have a 19" monitor.

It also depends if you're going to be using real PCBs or wanting to put a PC/DC in there. Some of the newer cabs are coming with Tri-sync monitors (15/24/31Khz[VGA]) which will cover most bases.

Astro City
Egret II
Super Neo 29
Blast City (Tri-sync)
Atomiswave SD/Egret 3 (Tri-sync, but Atomiswave has better monitor apparently)

All of the above are 29" cabs. I wouldn't worry about the sound too much. The speakers are on the top of the cabs and really don't output that much bass. It's fairly simply to hook up a head phone socket.

Have a gander on Yahoo Japan an see what you can get and at what price and give us an update.

[DJ Daishi]

I got both, Sega's New Astro City and Astro City II...can't really recommend them due to their poor sound quality. The mini cutes on the other hand are great due to their convenient size. There's a few sellers on NG.com that are selling theirs, ya might wanna check it out.

Here's a website that has specs on most of the candy cabs that have been released in japan Candy Cab City Database (http://home.insightbb.com/~ecousticforkris/egret3.htm)

The best ones so far has to be either Sega's Blast City, AWSD, or the Egret III.

....and if your completely loaded, you can always pick up a Taito Viewlix cab.

[smork]

Thanks for all the suggestions -- I'm doing some lurking on Killer Cabs for some tips as well.

I guess I just need to decide where I want to put it -- I have tons of space in my living room and in my bedroom, but I was sort of thinking I would prefer it in my little game/computer room. I think a cab with a 29" monitor would have a hard time going through the door (it's a standard bedroom door). What do you think? Anybody have experience with fitting a large cab through a small-ish opening?

The Mini Cute looks perfect, size wise, and it seems to be cheap on Y!J (several examples under $200). That sounds like a no-brainer.

I've played on an AW quite a bit, but most (maybe all) of the ones I have seen have been 1P cabs, and I would prefer a 2P cab if I am getting a full size. Maybe the Egret would be the way to go then.

I'll probably play mostly PCBs, but I might hook up the DC. Actually, if I get a VGA compatible cab I'd like to hook up an XRGB (I got a 2+ and a 3) plus a switcher and some of my vintage consoles (Hello, Saturn) -- I imagine that would look really good on an actual arcade monitor.

[DJ Daishi]

I've played on an AW quite a bit, but most (maybe all) of the ones I have seen have been 1P cabs, and I would prefer a 2P cab if I am getting a full size. Maybe the Egret would be the way to go then.

all you have to do is swap the cps. an egret 2/3 would work.