For those who play their games through a sound system, what got you started?

[Argentina94]

I´m sure many of us over 30 types remember when playing your NES or Genesis on a 20 or 27 inch set was the norm, but now many here play on larger LCD or plasma sets with a monster receiver pumping out 7.1 digital sound.

For me, the SNES was the first console I ever hooked up to a stereo reciever. The sound on that system was incredible at the time and, for me, the first console ever to make sound an important component of gaming. Of course the Neo existed before the SNES, but at that time it was the uberconsole that no one owned.

Since then, every console I've ever owned I hook up to a sound system. Sound became just as important a facet of gaming for me as the graphics and gameplay, especially with the advent of CD games.

Anyone else?

 

[GregN]

I hooked my PSOne and Neo Geo up to a speaker setup in college,

but I'm a ghetto negro now and just listen through my TV speakers.

Good enough for me.

Most of the games I play nowadays now are on portables.

 

[Artemio]

I also started in the 16 bit generation, pluging my Genesis and Sega CD, later all systems including the SNES have been plugged to my sound systems.

What is your current audio setup?

 

[Metal Slugnuts]

I have a 200W Maganavox home-theater-in-a-box sound setup with the stock speakers switched out for nicer ones that I find at thrift stores and such. We don't really need anything more powerful given the size ouf our living room and proximity to other apartments.

The experience that made me want to have a separate soundsystem was playing Halo 2 at a friend's apartment back in the day...he had it routed through a 200W stereo setup and it was fucking awesome to feel the floor shake on every grenade explosion. That was around the time I started to learn about higher quality AV connections as well.

One of these days I'll get a proper reciever/speakers and ditch the HTIAB.

NES games can get a little obnoxious on the louder volume settings but SNES/Genesis/Sega CD sound great. My old AES sounded tops as well but only if you routed the stereo.

 

[norton9478]

I don't like the newer home theater setups... Those tower speakers and components...

I like the old big speakers...

Not as good for movies, but much better for music.

 

[wizkid007]

Killer instinct through the speakers was amazing.

 

[Buro Destruct]

ghetto negro

On Topic: First system I ever had through a sound system was the PSX. Dad bought new audio equipment and gave me the old reciever; bought some speakers from a friend (Kid Aphex actually) and set it all up.

I still use those speakers today actually, great bass response (is that even the right thing to say) in them.

 

[Loopz]

Hell, in the NES days, I simply dreamed of having a TV that had a legit coaxial hookup on the back. The TV I had featured the fucking SCREW terminals.

It was the 16-bit age when I got all fired up about sound/visuals. I had a nice Panasonic boombox with AUX RCA inputs, and I took a headphone/RCA cable and blasted ThunderForce III through it. Ahhhh, it was bliss. Later on, I had an equally adventurous friend, and we built RGB cables for our Genesis systems and had them hooked up to Commodore 1084S monitors. The picture was fucking liquid sex on a biscuit.

I was hooking up everything to a stereo from that point on. A big pair of Cerwin-Vegas were my fucking chariot. Still love those speakers for old hip-hop...the boom is irresistible.

 

[Jack Burton]

Turbo cd games. Ys was ridiculous back then compared to anything else out there.

 

[JediKiller]

[ The picture was fucking liquid sex on a biscuit.

I was hooking up everything to a stereo from that point on. A big pair of Cerwin-Vegas were my fucking chariot. Still love those speakers for old hip-hop...the boom is irresistible.[/QUOTE]


LOl @ liquid sex on a biscuit!

My first stereo set up was an Onkyo receiver with huge Cerwin-Vegas Still have that set up cause I love the bass...mainly just use it for music listening, cause I have to agree with others on here...the HTIAB that we have for movie watching sucks for music.

 

[ki_atsushi]

Turbo cd games. Ys was ridiculous back then compared to anything else out there.

God yes. Rondo of Blood is aurally amazing as well.

 

[Jack Burton]

God yes. Rondo of Blood is aurally amazing as well.

Two of my all-time favorites. I know final zone 2 was cheesey, but I played that game a ton too. Gotta love that theme song.

 

[DanAdamKOF]

It was basically the PS2 for beatmania IIDX, since for music games (especially for ones with lots of techno) you don't want them to sound lousy. I'd use a 2.1 computer speaker system (or occasionally headphones), and for a while my old roommate had some nice 3' high Klispch speakers powered by a Technics amp. That setup put out some ridiculously loud and clear sound, I was about shaking the whole apartment with some of the really bassy songs I'd play hahaha. edit: It was this song actually: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9x7EfR2Kbs with the system up really damn loud, that freaked out my other roommate (foreign student that never left his room), one of the only things he ever said to me was asking me to turn it down

For now I'm using my TV's builtin speakers. It has a subwoofer actually, doesn't sound too awful. A friend got me a "white van" receiver/speaker set as a housewarming gift :/ and to be honest I haven't even set it up. At least he didn't pay much for it at all (he knew about the scam and haggled them). I'll probably set it up before I throw a gamenight at my new place, but I'm probably not going to like the sound and I'll just dismantle it after a half hour of trying it out.

Sometime I'll probably track down an amp from a thrift store or something (I don't need anything that handles video, and digital sound isn't a big deal), get two nice-enough speakers, and eventually a sub. I really want some good, deep bass, and all of the setups I've had have been lacking. Those Klispch speakers could produce some bass, and it would be pretty loud, but it was still rather flat.

 

[Argentina94]

What is your current audio setup?

Mine's nothing fancy but it gets the job done just fine. Technics receiver with separate digital processor (I purchased it in August '99 when 5.1 was still new), Technics tower speakers, Yamaha center and subwoofer and KLH surrounds.

Here's a couple of shots of my main setup with the stereo equipment (hardly in the league of smokehouse's stuff)

Another setup I have on a separate TV is a Sansui G-2000 stereo receiver with Pioneer surround field processor and Technics tower speakers. That setup is for another XBOX plus music.

Later on, I had an equally adventurous friend, and we built RGB cables for our Genesis systems and had them hooked up to Commodore 1084S monitors. The picture was fucking liquid sex on a biscuit.

Dude, I still have one of those monitors and just recently used it as a fourth screen for a Halo 2 LAN party. I never made an RGB cable for it (I still want to) but even using the normal AV inputs I couldn't believe how crisp the image still looks.

I'm NEVER getting rid of that little bundle of joy.

 

[smokehouse]

The first "system" I ever has my stuff hooked up to was a set of Polk Monitor 10's and a JVC receiver the monitor was a 27" RCA set...since then (as many here know), I've been through tons of A?V stuff but finally I settled down and still having my original JVC receiver, hooked up my B&W 601 S3 speakers, a QSC amp and a 12" sealed sub running stereo. My TV is a Sony 32" KV-32FS320 set....it's amazing for SD gaming. Here's a current pic of my gaming area:

MY PS3 is hooked up in my upper living room:

 

[Jack Burton]

Nothing too special here.

Onkyo tx-sr876 receiver. Jbl speakers. 7.1 (not too useful, but I thought I'd give it a shot). 140 watts per channel to 7 speakers.

The mains are nd-310's (2-10" woofers in each). I've got a jbl center, and n-26's for my side and rear surround (6" woofers). Then I've got a 12" jbl sub. I pieced this together myself. I can't turn it up all the way. I may have to do some soundproofing. It shakes my house.

Maybe someday I'll upgrade the fronts. They're a bit boomy although the onkyo keeps the sound pretty clean.

 

[MilkManX]

It started with the Genesis and Turbo CD and Aiwa stereo. Now its a 5.1 Onkyo setup with my 360.

 

[Deuce]

Turbo cd games. Ys was ridiculous back then compared to anything else out there.

THANK YOU.

Ryo Yonemitsu's arrangements still hold up to this day.

Also, Ys 7 is awesome. That is all.

 

[Artemio]

Great setups smokehouse and Argentina94! I love looking at these pics and finding nice equipment. It is difficult to explain to others that a nice audio setup is not about the volume neither a booming sub, but about quality and a better experience.

I usually tell people that they need to spend the same amount on audio that they spend on video, since most people really care only about the TV. And they usually don't look for a technically good TV, just for size instead of black levels, color display, upscaling, deinterlacing, ect.

Regarding SD gaming I ended up using an XRGB-3 upscan converter, and RGB cables and/or mods for all my consoles, I am in love with the results.

For me it has been a circular thing, games drove my passion for audio. My current list of equipment is:

• Paradigm Studio 60 v2 mains (bi-amped)
• B&W LCR 600 center
• B&W SR3 600 surrounds
• Velodyne VRP-1000 sub
• BFD 1124 (sub eq)
• Yamaha RX-V1700

I am in the middle of changing to a new place, but here is my current setup:

(click on it for a larger version)

And here are a few photos of how the Neo looks like using the upscaler.

 

[DanAdamKOF]

Here's an old crappy poorly-framed cameraphone pic of my old setup with my old roommate's Klispchs:

And a typical play session (with my friend C-Wash onlooking):

Eventually we got PS2 extension cables and could play right from that couch

The same couch is at my new place, but man I need to get some TV trays... playing with big controllers in your lap isn't the "arcade way." Excuse the mess, old apartment was usually messy. also those movie posters were my old roommate's too, not mine.

edit: @Argentina94 below, thanks, my TV's a XBR800 with official stand, I spent about 6 hours about 2 years ago calibrating it myself in service mode and the image has looked really nice ever since. Reminds me, I need to give it a bit less overscan, widescreen material is cut off just a tiny bit on each side.

And although these weren't recorded when I had the Klispch speakers hooked up, here's a few videos featuring my TV (first two were recorded with my cell phone):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXPvmmhr2wU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N59Vz3vUHtE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_LtTIAFxg8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wifDM4bqTsI

 

[Argentina94]

Here's an old crappy poorly-framed cameraphone pic of my old setup with my old roommate's Klispchs:

Beautiful TV set

Artemio, awesome setup. I had no idea the Neo could look that good on an LCD.

 

[Electric Grave]

Defanetly the SNES, when I was a kid I hooked up my SNES to my TV but I left the stereo jacks out to hooked them up to a boombox that had an AUX line, the sound was incredible and when I used headphones it was amazing as well. F-Zero sounded so awsome for me back then, and then SNK games had that stereo voices going on during World Heroes 2 and Fatal Fury Special I was forver hooked.

 

[racecar]

i like paying racing game with my sound system on it's all about Gran Turismo and need for speed2 hot pursuit

 

[galfordo]

SNES is a good call, still remember the 'water theme' of Donkey Kong Country - great stuff

 

[Moon Jump]

I wish I had the old set up in my last house, now I just use the TV speakers.

I got my SNES the year it came out on Christmas and my Dad saw we could hook it up into the stereo. We had an old one with a record and tape deck on it and we hooked it up and it sounded amazing. I loved hearing the underground stages of Mario World. The funniest thing that happened was that my brother and my cousin were playing F-Zero and I was sitting by the right speaker putting together my Technodrome with my other cousin. My brother ended up hitting one of the jumps wrong and fell off the track...needless to say I got scared shitless and my ears were ringing for a couple of minutes after that.