Vintage Audio Hi-Fi Equipment/Setup Thread

[Segadream]

I been hard at work with the Audio side of
the gaming experiance the past year.
I have really stepped up the home with
4 setups
for four separate areas.
A Sony system in my room, and a Aiwa,
a Technics, and a Pioneer in the living room.
I have the AIWA set up on the CRT, with the Technics system paired with my projection tv, and a Paired Pioneer Amp with a Surround system out to it for the LED on the wall.
My couch is on the East wall, with the Southern wall holding the LED, the West has the Projection TV, and to the North the CRT.
I am working on the pics but be warned,
there is currently a forest in my living room.
It's only fair as my crap takes up half the
house I can live with the trees for a month
in my way.
I took the liberty of replacing a tweet and installed a couple of lost 16 inch wheel covers over the 15's
and I like the look so much I went and put lil spinner
rims over the tweeters.
The Pioneer system is decked out now.
It sounds like and looks like an arcade in there and I likey lotsa.
I can hear it from outside really well,
but I can still hear the Mexican themed bars along
the main highway near my house and that is a problem for me.
I need to be able to hear my house from the
bar with their sysyem up...☻
I'm serious...

[Da_Shocker]

Does anyone on here know how to rip vinyl to the FLAC format?

[Baloo]

Does anyone on here know how to rip vinyl to the FLAC format?

There are lots of ways to skin that cat. Apparently some modern turntables have built in DACs that can convert the sound to digital and be captured. While others can capture the sound through the receiver or pre-amp whose output is then connected to the computer and captured using a program like Audacity. It is highly dependent on your equipment and how you want to capture it. There are even some cheap all-in-one players that have burning vinyl to CDs built in. It is all dependent on what equipment you own or what to own.

However, from what I have read the dynamic range of vinyl vs CDs renders it an inferior format with regard to listening to music: https://reddit.com/r/BudgetAudiophil...bcwv?context=3

Unless the album itself has never been issued to CD (A select few of mine have not) it is both far easier, cheaper, and sounds better to just rip the audio from CD.

[Blades]

Does anyone on here know how to rip vinyl to the FLAC format?

Do you have any equipment right now?

[gamevet]

Does anyone on here know how to rip vinyl to the FLAC format?

I've seen some USB turn turntables. The day I saw one, I was wondering who that was for?

[MegaDriver]

None of the audio equipments I owned along the years could really be considered Hi-Fi and my setups usually consisted in a combination of parts from different brands, mostly portable devices.

Anyway, I kept these 2 audio accessories from the 90's and still use them today, for listening to CDs and playing with the Genesis or other retro-hardware. It always felt amazing to me how this technology could enhanced the audio experience, whether it was music or gaming, from just a set of 2 speakers.


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I believe Micro$oft bought Nureality and incorporated the effects (in software) in their Windows Media Player but they dropped the "3-D mono" setting which is actually great for mono sources, used in many old computers and consoles.

[gamevet]

I have 25 year old plus stereo equipment, but I don't know if it really qualifies as vintage.

I bought this 2.1 surround RCA (boom box?) stereo around 1991. It has a built in sub-woofer and surround. It also has 2 cassette tape players and a CD player. It's been used as the speakers for my PC, which sounds very good. I wouldn't have even thought about buying RCA (but man it was better than the other units on display) in 1991, but it turns out that this was manufactured by Toshiba. I'd paid about $170 for it, which is over $400 today.




We got this really nice Yamaha turntable from my wife's cousin. It worked great on my old 1993 Pro-Logic surround receiver that had a phono channel. When that receiver died, I found out that my new Sony receiver needed a pre-amp to connect it to the turntable.





It's been sitting under the entertainment center for about 11 years. I really need to pull it out and give it a solid dusting. Hey look! A Rush album!

[Baloo]

I finally went and ordered the Luxman F-114 surround sound AVR to go with my Luxman stereo system. Waiting for it in the mail, along with some vintage speakers I ordered from eBay. I got a Klipsch KV-1 center speaker and two Klipsch KG .5 bookshelf speakers to serve as the rear speakers. The Luxman F-114 only supports Dolby Pro Logic I surround sound however, so it is stereo split ibto sort of pseudo-surround sound, but if anyone has any recommendations for good retro games that use Dolby Pro Logic or less (QSound, Quad Sound, etc) to try out on this thing I am all ears. I also got an original Genesis to replace my Genesis Mini to see if the original hardware sounds better piped through my Luxman.



Managed to figure out how to get my GoGroove Bluetooth Dongle to pair with all of my devices, but bluetooth really isnt the best format. I have noticed that, even to Da Shocker's point, I have a disc ripped to FLAC that sounds way better

Also, to make things sound much better I found out that my TV, a Panasonic TC-L37D2 has digital audio output capability. I went and bought a Digital to Analog Audio Converter on Amazon to use that instead of using the more complicated HDMI splitter. Wow does everything sound so much better on the stereo speakers! The CD I played earlier through my PC sounds loads better, and I am looking forward to using it for the surround sound going forward. I know that digital audio output only supports up to Dolby Digital 5.1 and lesser so if my new surround sound AVR the Luxman F-114 only supports Dolby Pro Logic, I am not too worried about it.

Anyone have any recommendations for games and movies that sound better in Dolby Pro Logic? I know it was mainly used for VHS and Laserdisc, but as I understand it a lot of Gamecube and PS2 games were in Dolby Pro Logic II, and I know there is even some matrixed stuff on the SNES according to this video about Final Fantasy IV having a "matrixed" sound option.

[gamevet]

Play DOOM on the PlayStation. I don’t know if it officially supports Pro-logic, but almost shat myself when I’d head a grunt behind my right shoulder, while playing it in the dark.

Rogue Squadron II on the GC definitely supports it. Your room will sound like Tie Fighters are flying all around you.

[Barone]

if anyone has any recommendations for good retro games that use Dolby Pro Logic or less (QSound, Quad Sound, etc) to try out on this thing I am all ears. I also got an original Genesis to replace my Genesis Mini to see if the original hardware sounds better piped through my Luxman.

Sega Retro is far from being 100% correct about anything but here's a start:
https://segaretro.org/QSound

Keep in mind that not all games with the QSound logo were originally mastered in QSound; which required more expensive equipment.
Some games are only QSound-enhanced, which means that their tracks were post-processed by software using QSound plugins.

With that said, out of the Sega CD games listed there (all of them do seem to have the logo on their covers), The Terminator has the best mastering AFAIK; as it was overseen by Tommy Tallarico.
After that, I'd suggest you to try both Ecco games and the US version of Sonic CD.

You should also look for games using RSS (Roland Sound Space). AFAIK, there was no cheap option for RSS and the mastering equipment was rather expensive.
There is one Sega CD soundtrack which fully uses it: Shadow of the Beast II; there's no logo on the cover IIRC but the info is in the credits.
Snatcher (both on the Sega CD and PCE CD) has it for the CDDA tracks. I think it's mostly the opening music.
https://segaretro.org/Roland_Sound_Space

Dracula X: Rondo of Blood for the PCE CD was also mastered using RSS, as you can see here:
http://www.pcengine.co.uk/HiRes/DraculaX-rear.jpg

Gradius II for the PCE CD also supports RSS:
http://www.pcengine.co.uk/HiRes/Gradius-II-rear.jpg

I have the old QSound tools plugins to enhance soundtracks. If you want me to create a version of a specific Sega CD game, just let me know.
I had created one for Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (which originally has pretty good mastering) several years ago, maybe a still have a copy here somewhere. I'll have a look. I think I don't have it anymore.
It could be interesting to check if such tools are enough to generate something that can be decoded by your setup.

Some old reviews of BITD say that Pitfall on the Sega CD supports Dolby Surround. There's no logo on the cover nor mention inside the game, but the Sega CD version audio was handled by Soundelux so it's quite possible they used the technology but didn't license it for the game.

Mickey's Wild Adventure for the PS1 works pretty well with Dolby Surround.

Both Rush Hour (Speedster in Europe) and Lomax for the PS1 support both QSound and Dolby Surround. Those are Psygnosis games and they had several games supporting such technologies.

EDIT:
Mobygames also has some incomplete but useful lists (you can filter by platform):
https://www.mobygames.com/attribute/...tributeId,136/

Side note: early on Konami pushed RSS; Capcom and SOA pushed QSound; Psygnosis pushed QSound and Dolby Surround.

[Baloo]

Nice, thanks Barone and gamevet! This is super helpful. I saw in other places Sonic CD was mentioned, and I noticed that Mario Kart Double Dash and Star Wars Rogue Squadron supported Dolby Pro Logic II, so I am definitely looking forward to seeing how both of those sound on the receiver I am getting, even if it is a little older. I don't mind that since I mainly play retro games anyway, I am not too worried about the latest and greatest technology in the first place.

[xelement5x]

Another good one for QSound is Jurassic Park for Sega CD. Lots of times there's audio from other directions you can pick up on while looking one way.

[English Invader]

I use a pair of Castle Acoustics Richmond speakers from February 1974 as my daily drivers and I'm also a sucker for NAD products. I use a 310 amplifier from the mid 90s with a PP2e phono stage and a C558 turntable; the TT design is from Pro-Ject parts made to NAD specifications; it basically combines a Debut Carbon plinth and motor with a straightened version of the tonearm from an RPM1 and throws a glass platter into the mix with an Ortofon OM10 cartridge. The CD player is a humble Technics SL-P200 from 1988.

[Baloo]

How does vinyl sound on a glass platter versus a rubber one?

I just picked up a Technics SH-AC500D Dolby Digital processor to go with my stereo receiver and avr receiver. I tested the Dolby Pro Logic decoder with a few youtube videos and while it was cool, it sounded dated on anything that wasn't the TIE fighters buzzing around in Star Wars Rogue Squadron II. I am hoping that because the Luxman F-114 is a power amp for the center and rear speakers I can use it as just a power amp without requiring the sound to go through its own processor. It does have pre-amp variable outputs and main ins for the center and rear speaker channels, so I dont see why this would not be possible to do. I read of someone doing something similar with the same avr and a different stereo receiver on another forum.

[English Invader]

How does vinyl sound on a glass platter versus a rubber one?

I've never used a rubber platter so I couldn't say. The previous TT I had (Sony LX-300USB) had an aluminum one as well as a lot of other features that had a negative impact on sound. The NAD was a no brainer upgrade.

The NAD was bought through audition with the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo as the alternative. On paper, the Evo should have won hands down (steel platter with special dampening for resonance, carbon fibre tonearm and Ortofon 2M Red) but that wasn't the case; I found the Evo fatiguing and I found the NAD sound a lot more involving so the NAD is the one I bought.

This experience has taught me the importance of visiting a Hi-Fi dealer and letting your ears make the buying decision instead of the specs. If I had bought online with only the specs to guide me, the Evo would have been a no brainer over the NAD and I would have ended up with the wrong TT.