[jqp]

"Audiophiles have been abuzz about PlayStation 1 audio for some time now"

"It seems the PlayStations sound best when left on all the time. Michael was right. You shouldn’t even listen for the first three days.  Both units need every second of the break-in period."


"I preferred, slightly, the sound of my 009 model to the 1001 — but the differences were few."

Anyone heard about this?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15484873/

[pacifico]

i've been curious about this too. any suggestions on cables?

[jon_010101]

I'll remain skeptical on this one.  I know my friend's old-gen Playstation sounded awful playing stuff back on his television.

[Bemopti123]

I would not doubt the sonic potential of the PS, as I had been to the house of an audiophiles into Horn, tubes and field coil drivers, using an old 1986 Philips CDP.  He certainly felt that the late 1980s 16 bit processors and Op chips gave a better sound.  I thought no way, but, being that the person in question was a connoiseur of old classical LPs, he certainly did not feel the need to jump for his LPs and played CD.  The German audiophile community had been doing this PS1 experiment since about 2 years ago.  Check Audio Consulting of Switzerland, they are into PS1 and even portable CDPs as sources.

[Imperial]

They do have a audiophile player thats a playstation?
The Dynastation by Dynavox.

[rbrb]

I have a SCPH1001 model hooked up.  It has the RCA output jacks instead of the combined AV multi out of the later versions.  Uses the C7 power cord with an internal power supply rather than the later revisions wall wart power supply. 

The controller is a dream to use.  After the CD loads pressing X activates the play button.  Move the D-pad down and you get Stop, Pause, Fast Rewind, Skip Back in that order.  Moving the D-Pad up from Play moves to Fast Forward, Skip Forward.  Very logical and feels great in the hands. 

Sonically it sounds very closed in and veiled.  Like a low bite rate MP3.  Some of it sounds quite painfull actually.  I'll tell more after it's been on repeat for 24 hours.   

[gooberdude]

Hey,

don't want to hijack this thread, but i've been playing around with XBOX...it can sound ridiculously good with little effort.

In stock form the XBOX is much, much better than my Sony SCD-595 sacd 5 disc changer. i've been listening to it a few weeks now & liking it.   last night i lopped off XBOX's stock male plug on the power cord & installed a $15 cryo'd wattgate 5266i plug from chris venhaus, and the change is instant and fantastic.   the somewhat thin bass of the stock XBOX is gone, its a rockin now.  great imaging.  sounds like a nice cd player now.     no soldering needed, just a screwdriver.   

Before this mod the sound was smooooooth...now its smooth & dynamic - sweet with a full & tight bottom end.

i stripped off the rubber insulation from the stock rca cords and the power cord once the warranty expired - all the stock cabling is intact but there's skinny wires instead of fat wires now.  not sure how much of an effect the cable strip mods made UNTIL i added the new plug though.    its beneficial to be able to separate the + & - cabling...

i plan to open it up and figure out how to remove some of the internal vibrations.  its quite loud when running, i have to keep a towel on top of it.  some damping or vibe removal may help sonics further.

[miklorsmith]

Since these are pretty cheap units, take the thing apart and put generous helpings of Plasti-Clay and Dynamat inside.  These are cheapo and proven vibration killers.  The Plasti-Clay is fully removable, not so much with the Dynamat.  You have to be a little careful with the Dynamat as it's kind of nasty stuff, but I use it with cheap top lids of components where it can do no harm.

[gooberdude]

I plan to do something, that's for sure.   I have removed the 4 long screws and am told there's 2
more hiding under stickers.   When i get the new DVD drive, i plan to mount it with some EAR isodamp i got free.  i also have some Herbie's Grungebuster material too.

i ordered a $10 silent 80mm fan also, but after reading the instructions for installation, it may be a pain.

still have 3 lps of blue Permaclay to mess around with & i want to buy some Dynamat to also stick on my stereo rack.

one really cool part of this is the XBOX is it sits on the tv stand, my amp is on its own maple spiked platform and all the rest of my gear is on the rack...lots of isolation with this setup.

initially, i'm gonna open 'er up and see what exactly is making all the noise, try to hush it up or reduce vibe transmission.   then i'll damp, then i'll replace that fan.

since the fan only blows out from the back and the fins on the case are for decoration, i've been laying a bathtowel over the XBOX and it works well.   it'd be cool to not have to do this though!

[Rob Babcock]

I'll have to break out my PSOne and try it as a CD player.

[rbrb]

It's actually not bad, much better than I was expecting.  It has a very solid bottom end.  It can sound somewhat dull sometimes though, there's no sparkle or excitement.  The harshness that I heard when I first turned it on has disappeared completely.

[Vinnie R.]

See:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31123&pagenumber=1

http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/PlayStation

PlayStation as audio CD player
The PlayStation 1 has remarkable audio qualities. This was first observed by Keith Aschenbrenner of Auditorium 23, who used the Playstation as a source when demonstrating his Shindo systems. The first models of the PlayStation 1, in particular the SCPH 100x, perform on a level of music reproduction comparable to that of expensive high end audio equipment. Later models, the SCPH 500x up to SCPH 900x also perform well, but with increasing model type, the audio capabilities decrease. The PSOne and the PlayStation 2 are not suited for high-quality audio reproduction. The audio performance of the PlayStation 1 is good in the stock form, but it can be significantly increased by simple modifications of circuit and casing.

and

 http://dogbreath.de/PS1/index.html

[rbrb]

Now that I've been able to use the PS1 for a few days and get in some serious listening I stand by my original comment.  It's okay, but nothing outstanding.  It certainly does not compare to expensive high end audio equipment.  It won't be replacing my player in my system any time soon.  It might be fun to play around with it and do a few mods though.   

[Folsom]

If anyone wants theirs modified like DogBreath has listed, let me know. If you want a power supply relocation too... Perhaps just a new one.

I want to try the mods to see how they work out. I propose certain dampening, and then adding on real RCA jacks as well, possibly.