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CAVE PGM conversion audio quality

Cereth

Cereth

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I have some of the conversion carts for CAVE games, finally getting around to testing things. Now that I have legit and PGM ESPGaluda side-by-side, the only difference I really noticed is that audio on the PGM cart is pretty uh, noisy. It doesn't sound as good. Is that something with the conversion or something with the motherboard?

I have one or two legit carts I haven't tried yet, that's the next thing I'd do. From a collector standpoint I'd prefer to keep the legit boards but from a business standpoint I'd be better with the PGM carts. Audio quality won't really matter in an active environment, but I'd like to get it fixed if I'm playing at home.
 
Very likely the motherboard. Have you recapped it?

I have all three versions of DPP:DOJ and I'd say the cart sounds the same as the PCB. PGM2 sounds better than both, but not a huge difference (and that won't help with Ketsui or Espgaluda anyway).
 
I have not, but that was suggested to me. I just hadn't heard from anyone yet who could tell me if the audio was normal or not for the conversion. Any details on that? I'm still pretty novice at board repair
 
The conversion doesn't sound worse than the original in my experience.
 
The conversions sounds a bit noisy for me too: I lowered the volume of the motherboard and it's better but replacing the caps might be a good idea. Anyone has a list ? ( the day after I've made an order @ greatplains electronic of course)

Now speaking of that motherboard, @GC8TECH posted a picture of his pre modded boards and are the caps related to the sound just the 3 ones pointed?

and is that sound mod just to output 2 RCA for "simili stereo" or is that preamped sound coming out ? if it's not, is there a way to get it before going to the amp?

pgmsound.png
 
Adjusting the audio on the board didn't make the noise go away. Hopefully it's the caps!
 
You can always grab an extra Mobo to try too, they're still rather cheap
 
Mrhide said:
The conversions sounds a bit noisy for me too: I lowered the volume of the motherboard and it's better but replacing the caps might be a good idea. Anyone has a list ? ( the day after I've made an order @ greatplains electronic of course)

Now speaking of that motherboard, @GC8TECH posted a picture of his pre modded boards and are the caps related to the sound just the 3 ones pointed?

and is that sound mod just to output 2 RCA for "simili stereo" or is that preamped sound coming out ? if it's not, is there a way to get it before going to the amp?

pgmsound.png
Click to expand...
No.. its not just those 3. You need to do all the ones below it as well. The 7 below it in an almost straight line need to be replaced as well.....

The Stereo out comes from the Left and Right Channel output from the DAC.

Tim.
 
Thanks, this is all really helpful! I’ll be trying a variety of things for sure. I’ll probably have to get another motherboard for a friend anyway so getting a second to try out isn’t out of the realm of possibility either
 
Mrhide said:
The conversions sounds a bit noisy for me too: I lowered the volume of the motherboard and it's better but replacing the caps might be a good idea. Anyone has a list ? ( the day after I've made an order @ greatplains electronic of course)

Now speaking of that motherboard, @GC8TECH posted a picture of his pre modded boards and are the caps related to the sound just the 3 ones pointed?

and is that sound mod just to output 2 RCA for "simili stereo" or is that preamped sound coming out ? if it's not, is there a way to get it before going to the amp?

pgmsound.png
Click to expand...
is this line audio level not amplified? do you need an amp to get decent output of the DAC on the mod above?
 
my dodonpachi cart has noisy sound too, it's one of those ebay convert job. Ketsui has crystal clear audio. I get the same results on my 4 different pgm boards. Other legit pgm games don't have the problem. A friend of mine has the same cart and he has the same problem.

I wouldn't say it's noisy, more like.. It's lower quality? It reminds me of the DOS days when you could play games like Duke Nukem 3D at a lower sample rate like 22khz or was it 8hz. It just sounds low quality.
 
Shouldn't be a difference. It's the same hardware as the Cave PCB versions, same caps etc?
But I agree that it feels...worse. I had an issue on a PGM convert Espgaluda where "Presented by cave" was extremely scratchy but the rest of it seemed ok.

I always get drawn in by cheaper solutions but always fall back to original hardware. Even now when Espgaluda starts getting crazy expensive.
 
"Conversions" Music ROM may have issues that cause the music to play up! Because they are using 3.3V Flash Chips with 5V I/O. Thats NOT a good thing! The 3.3V chip WILL be damaged (and die) / not work quite right with the 5V parts on the rest of the PGM system.

Where as "Fluffys" PCBs are ALL 5V with NO issues..... And i have built and TESTED a Heap of them with NO Audio issues EVER!

Tim.
 
aerobert said:
Shouldn't be a difference. It's the same hardware as the Cave PCB versions, same caps etc?
But I agree that it feels...worse. I had an issue on a PGM convert Espgaluda where "Presented by cave" was extremely scratchy but the rest of it seemed ok.

I always get drawn in by cheaper solutions but always fall back to original hardware. Even now when Espgaluda starts getting crazy expensive.
Click to expand...
It is definitely a difference. It's NOT the same hardware and some of the conversions (sadly I have to call out the ones from Taiwan) have the bad audio due to the way they are converted. I can not personally confirm, but the repro PCBs sold here (not conversions) work exact to the real PCB as Tim says above. I recommend getting those vice the cheap conversions.
 
I had a china conversion a while. Got rid of it quickly due to said audio issues and reverted back to original PCB. I had fluffys pcb's a while but was too lazy to solder them up. The PGM cart system is just not for me.
 
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