How do you power you game sound?

[zektor]

I have a pair of Acoustic Research speakers that used to be attached to a Pioneer QX-949A (vintage) amplifier. I sold off the pioneer awhile back and now have a MCS 3236 (another vintage amp, JC Penny sold it in the early 80's) . I find the quality of all my game systems sound just awesome on vintage amplifiers...as well as my mp3 collection. So does anyone else hook their game goods to a stereo system?

[dreamcaster]

Yeah all my stuff is connected to my mid-70's Pioneer 3000X/YA Stereo Amplifier. Speakers are the ones that came with it originally. After playing games through this 'ol beast I'll never use a conventional TV speaker again! All of my consoles can be/are connected to it. Except my NES, 2600 and Mega Drive (because I only have RF adapters for them!). Plus the best tthing about it is it was free!!!

But the NES and 2600 only output in Mono anyway, and the sounds on those games are really worth hearing through the Stereo. But does anyone know if the Mega Drive outputs in stereo or not? And also, I tried connecting my Saturn AV cable to it but the pins don't line up! I always thought Saturn/Mega Drive AV cables/RF adapters were interchangeable!!!!

[Goblin]

I've got my DC hooked up through my Sony surround sound receiver with the satellites and the sub. Nothing really fancy just a mid level unit, but it sounds awesome. I didn't buy it explicitly for gaming but it's hooked up to the TV and had a extra input for games so I figured I'd try it.

[Chunky]

Bose Lifestyle 25 series 2 system. I really don't care for the direct reflect speakers, so i point them both straight. but the damn thing sounds great. Base sure is cat shattering.

[omnedon]

Got 'em all (25+) systems connected to a Pioneer "home theatre sound" in a box system. Subwoofer with left and right speakers. My Dad gave it to me when he got something better.

It makes the hits in VF4 THUD! Also my Xbox is modded and connected to my LAN, so it serves up all 30 gigs of mp3's (jukebox style!), and also serves Divx rips and TV caps from my computer.

I've built the ultimate TVC15 in my basement. :D

Definition of TVC15: http://www.lyrics.jp/lyrics/D001200030120.asp

[davidbrit2]

You can see my speakers in this photo: http://www2.gvsu.edu/~brittedg/photos/BeatmaniaOrgy.jpg

They're small, but they sure don't sound like it. I mostly wanted them for things like Beatmania and Guitar Freaks, so naturally, I wanted speakers that could blow your kidneys out just as effectively as the arcade speakers. Oh, boy, do these ever get the job done. I've tried trimming the bass output on my TV with only marginal success. The nice thing is that I can have these things insanely loud and there's NO distortion. They're from Altec Lansing, if you're wondering.

[RJ]

ELECTRICITY! :D LOL ;) j/k

PS2(digital optical) & Jaguar(A/V) hooked up to Kenwood 600-watt home theater system, on closeout this week at Best Buy! (NOT a plug)

Atari 800XL & 7800 to a GXTV via a cheap, 15 yr-old all-in-one Wards stereo receiver. It's not real stereo but gives a bigger, more satisfying sound. I can hook up my Lynx w/ a phono to RCA cable.

PSX & Genesis on a 27-inch Magnavox stereo TV w/ S-Video. My wife had it when I met her; I've never seen another one like it...the TV, that is- my wife has a twin!

[Sylentwulf]

My main speakers are mostly for surround/theater sounds, not Music. So some games sound PERFECT, while some games (like dance games) Just don't sound right, and I can't turn up as loud.

Any rate, Optical on my PS2 and DVD Player, Component Gamecube. Prices are retail, not by far what I paid for them :)
Sony STR-DE945 Receiver - $600
4 Sony Front + Surround Sattelite speakers + Subwoofer - $600
Polk CS 130 Center Speaker - $400
BLASTING Star Wars Rogue Squadron when the neighbors are gone - Priceless :devilish:

[wberdan]

in my game archive i use a small 2 channel jvc desktop stereo.. it doesnt do bass or treble well, but it sounds pretty smooth.
for other game systems, i just run them through the tv speakers. most of the time it just isnt worth the hassle of daisy chaining consoles to a stereo.

my main 2 channel stereo, which has gone through some major changes recently only plays games on occasion, so i wont get into that LOL

willie

[CrazyImpmon]

Since I'm hard of hearing, I couldn't hear the difference bwtween the sound through a set of $10 unamplified computer speakers from top of the line $1000+ setup, so I just leave all of the sound through my TV's built in speakers.

[Tempest]

Interesting, I never thought of checking for an optical jack on my PS2. So if you use the optical cable for sound, do you still leave the red and white rCA jacks for stereo sound plugged in, or do you unplug them?

Tempest

[wberdan]

Interesting, I never thought of checking for an optical jack on my PS2. So if you use the optical cable for sound, do you still leave the red and white rCA jacks for stereo sound plugged in, or do you unplug them?

Tempest

unplug the rca's. the optical output will do stereo as well as surround.

willie

[Sylentwulf]

Check the prices on those optical cable too btw. Last I checked they were $20+ at best buy, and $5 including shipping on ebay.

An optical cable is an optical cable, there's no matter of quality on this one :)

[CrazyImpmon]

An optical cable is an optical cable, there's no matter of quality on this one :)

It's not that erasy unfortunately. Cheap cables may snap easily when it bends too far, and cheap company that don't do quality check may let a few with air bubbles trapped inside the cable slip through. With even one bubble, the sound quality could hit lower than a bargain basement generic brand RF switch box.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

The only machine I have that does stereo is the Playstation, so it has its own dedicated input on my Sony 5.1 surround A/V amp. However, for all of the older stations, I drive the RF adaptors through a couple of selector boxes that go into a VCR that breaks the singal down into baseband audio and video. The video goes straight to the amp, while the audio goes into an old (late 80s) Radio Shack stereo reverb unit. I have the echo delay and depth set just perfectly to give the sound coming out of my older systems a "spacier" feeling, as if the sound's bouncing around a much larger room than it actually is. I tried this with several games this weekend (most notably INTV Demon Attack, which I'd never played before but quickly got hooked on), and the effect is AWESOME. And it officially puts the games into STEREO.

Cheating? Maybe. But it sounds damn cool. I love getting the best of recent tech to work with the best of the old. Between getting all my machines hooked up, and my judicious use of decidedly outdated A/V gadgetry which achieves effects that newer stuff just doesn't offer, I consider myself a bit of a small-time retro-tech specialist. :D

[Eternal Champion]

But does anyone know if the Mega Drive outputs in stereo or not? And also, I tried connecting my Saturn AV cable to it but the pins don't line up! I always thought Saturn/Mega Drive AV cables/RF adapters were interchangeable!!!!

The Genesis DOES output Stereo, so the Mega Drive would, I imagine. The Genesis 1 stereo sound is through the headphone jack, the Genesis 2 doesn't have one, so stereo sound is through the A/V cable--which is a different pinout than Genesis 1. Genesis 1, 2, and Saturn ALL HAVE DIFFERENT PINOUTS:
Genesis 1: 8 pin din (not mini-din!)
Genesis 2: 9 pin din
Saturn: 10 pin din

Anyway, I hooked up Advent little stereo speakers into my Genesis 1 headphone jack (the kind meant for a computer sound system). As I play a few feet away from my TV, they're fine, and sound great. Someday I'll have a better TV with A/V and S-video inputs, and a stereo, and an analog RGB monitor for my Genesis......


PSX & Genesis on a 27-inch Magnavox stereo TV w/ S-Video. My wife had it when I met her; I've never seen another one like it...the TV, that is- my wife has a twin!

Do you mean to say you have your Genesis hooked into the TV via s-video?? The Genesis cannot output video signals in s-video...has it been modded???

[Tempest]

The Genesis DOES output Stereo, so the Mega Drive would, I imagine. The Genesis 1 stereo sound is through the headphone jack

If you have a Sega CD attached you can also get stereo throug you TV without hooking up speakers to the front of the Genesis. You just need a headphone cord plugged from the headphone jack to the mixing port in the back of the Sega CD. Plug stereo RCA jacks in the back of the Sega CD and boom! instant Stereo. That's what I do.

Tempest

[Anonymous]

Interesting, I never thought of checking for an optical jack on my PS2. So if you use the optical cable for sound, do you still leave the red and white rCA jacks for stereo sound plugged in, or do you unplug them?

Tempest

unplug the rca's. the optical output will do stereo as well as surround.

willie
Leave the RCAs plugged in. There are some games (PaRappa and Sky Odyssey come to mind) that don't support the optical output at all, so you have to use the RCA jacks. Just remember to switch your receiver from digital to analog output if you don't hear anything.

[Raedon]

I use the same home theater setup I use for movies for games.

[Tempest]

Leave the RCAs plugged in. There are some games (PaRappa and Sky Odyssey come to mind) that don't support the optical output at all, so you have to use the RCA jacks. Just remember to switch your receiver from digital to analog output if you don't hear anything.

Is that a big problem? How many games like that are there? Are they all PS1 games?

Tempest

[WiseSalesman]

I have a cheap aiwa shelf system stereo with a four speaker setup. It's not great, and offers no surround, but the quality's good and it's louder than my TV. Interestingly enough, my TV has an audio out (is that standard?), so I pump audio through both the TV and stereo at the same time.

[bargora]

My TV has an audio out that runs into my 35W PANASONIC TURBO BASS BOOM BOX!!1!

ph3@r it.

I've got Y-inputs going into the boom box, though, so I can run the sound from a CD player into the stereo at the same time it's doing game sound. A little balancing and I'm good to go. This is how I listen to "1812" while I play Steel Battalion. (On my headphones.)

[wberdan]

Interesting, I never thought of checking for an optical jack on my PS2. So if you use the optical cable for sound, do you still leave the red and white rCA jacks for stereo sound plugged in, or do you unplug them?

Tempest

unplug the rca's. the optical output will do stereo as well as surround.

willie
Leave the RCAs plugged in. There are some games (PaRappa and Sky Odyssey come to mind) that don't support the optical output at all, so you have to use the RCA jacks. Just remember to switch your receiver from digital to analog output if you don't hear anything.

there are SO few games that are incompatible with the digital output... and leaving rca's plugged in along with the digital output can amount to more distortion, depending..

also, all optical cable is NOT created equal. just like better cd players introduce less jitter and have more stable transports for the laser to read the cd from, better optical cable cause less damage to the digital signal. just because it is digital doesnt mean its all equal.

willie

[RJ]

@Eternal Champ: no, the PSX uses the S-Video. I was just saying the TV has it. The Genny uses the hookup it came w/.

[chadtower]

I Interestingly enough, my TV has an audio out (is that standard?), so I pump audio through both the TV and stereo at the same time.

It's not unusual, though many TVs will allow you to use either the output or the tv speakers and not both. Mine is that way.

[The Clonus Horror]

@Eternal Champ: no, the PSX uses the S-Video. I was just saying the TV has it. The Genny uses the hookup it came w/.

AHA! I have my Genesis hooked up with S-Video. How? Radio Shack sells a component to S-Video adapter for $20. And, yes, I can REALLY tell the difference. The colors are a LOT more bright and vibrant. I also have my SNES hooked up with a Monster Gamecube S-Video, and the regular NES with S-Video, too!

As far as sound goes, I used to have everything hooked up to my Creative Extigy, but there was always a little buzz to it. I rehooked everything up through my 1995 Radio Shack Optimus 440 Watt Receiver, with two Creative speakers and a subwoofer hooked up to the headphone jack, and the sound is just PERFECT.

Analog sound is very WARM and I love that. And, yes, Vinyl does sound better than CD.

On the other hand, I have my DVD player hooked up via optical to the Creative Extigy and CD's played through a DVD player ALWAYS sound better than if played through a standard 16-bit player.

I can't plug Monster Cables enough. I'm very picky about my sound, and I could definitely tell the difference between standard RCA cables and even the 2nd cheapest Monster RCAs.

I think the biggest difference, though, is the fact that I'm using good speakers (Creative) that are designed for computer use with a solid analog receiver. The subwoofer makes all the difference in the world for me, especially with explosions, etc...