Couple questions before i make a supergun

[airthrow]

Hi guys,

I have a Sony PVM series RGB monitor, so I don't need to worry about converting the RGB.  So my supergun is basically going to be just the JAMMA harness and power supply and controls, nothing fancy. 

I am worried about the sound, though.  I have read that I might need to make a circuit so that the sound will not damage my speakers.  I have regular speaker wire speakers but they are pretty nice so I wouldn't want to damage them.  Is this true, or do I not need to worry about it?

Also, I would like to get the full arcade experience, I will be playing mostly CPS2 and Neo Geo games.  I know that most(?) CPS2 games use Q-sound.  But I see this on the CPS3 Faq by Cmullins:

"----How do I take advantage of Q-Sound?
           Probably one of the greatest inventions ever in the arcade industry, Archer Labs'
Q-Sound technology allows more realistic feeling of the game's sound effects and background
music.  Due to that, it won't be real effective to use this on your TV(unless you have a
killer home stereo system, like from Onkyo or Bose), and you should just stick your stereo
jacks to your Super NOVA, instead of the CPS3 boardset itself.
           But, if you have a killer stereo system, or an arcade cabinet, then you're in luck!
Just plug in each speaker(left and right), to their respective jacks on the CPS3 boardset.
Then, prepare for the ride, because the feeling will blow you away!  Well, pretty much, anyway.."

The Xmen vs SF CPS2 board I have for testing has RCA jacks on it, will these work with my home speakers alright?  Do I need to do something special beyond plug the speakers into the B board instead of the Jamma harness to get Q-sound?

Also, what is the difference performance wise, will it just sound more "flat" without q-sound?

edit:  Also, do I need a more expensive "arcade" power supply, or does any PC power supply work fine?  Is there a certain wattage or amperage that I need to have to be safe, or will any PC supply work fine for sure?

[ken_cinder]

Jamma audio is not line level, so yes you do run the risk of damaging your speakers IF you feed the audio from the jamma board into an amp. You need non amplified speakers, or a line level converter (buy or build, and I can't suggest anything for either).

As for Q-Sound, it too is amplified, but is stereo (Jamma standard is mono audio). So the same applies.

Any PC power supply will do. As for AMPs, even an old AT power supply will provide more than you need.

[rolins]

PC power supplies will do fine. I prefer the arcade power supplies though b/c you have the +5v adj. which can come in handy. My Ikari Warriors pcb needs at exactly 5.4v just to get stable picture, I can't get that using my 400w ATX PS. I bought a 110w Arcade PS for about $25, its low end but it enough power for most pcbs. Definitely smaller and quieter compared to a ATX PS.

About the audio, if you really want to use amplified speakers then make attenuation circuit. Don't worry they're very simple to assemble. Me, I bought a pair of passive MP3 speakers and they're 8 ohms which is perfect for arcade pcbs. Cost me only $2.50 at Fry's Electronics.

[airthrow]

About the audio, if you really want to use amplified speakers then make attenuation circuit. Don't worry they're very simple to assemble. Me, I bought a pair of passive MP3 speakers and they're 8 ohms which is perfect for arcade pcbs. Cost me only $2.50 at Fry's Electronics.

Amplified speaker=powered speakers you have to plug in, is that it?  My speakers don't plug in at all, so they should be alright, right?  I don't know the resistance of my speakers, is there a range I need to be looking for, or will all nonpowered speakers work?

Jamma audio is not line level, so yes you do run the risk of damaging your speakers IF you feed the audio from the jamma board into an amp. You need non amplified speakers, or a line level converter (buy or build, and I can't suggest anything for either).

My speakers just have speaker wire and a box with a cone, I assume they're very simple and non-amplified.  Will that be okay?

[ken_cinder]

As long as you're wiring the speakers directly, and not to an amp with the supergun plugged into the amp, you'll be fine.
Always set the volume on the PCBs low to start out with so you don't blow any speakers. You'll have to refer to the manual on this if you don't know how.

[airthrow]

Thanks for the help guys, I finally got my supergun up and running today (I couldn't figure out why I was getting no power, until I saw a random forum post where someone hinted at having to jumper ATX power supplies to work without a motherboard connected). 

I'm wondering, I am mainly a fighting game player, so I want the maximum compatibility for controls among MVS, CPS2, and maybe Naomi.  So is it possible to wire the MVS D button, and the CPS2/3 Kick harnesses together to the DB-15 I will be using so that the motherboards are plug and play controll wise, or will they need fiddling each time?

[Drakon]

Jamma audio is not line level, so yes you do run the risk of damaging your speakers IF you feed the audio from the jamma board into an amp. You need non amplified speakers, or a line level converter (buy or build, and I can't suggest anything for either).

As for Q-Sound, it too is amplified, but is stereo (Jamma standard is mono audio). So the same applies.

Any PC power supply will do. As for AMPs, even an old AT power supply will provide more than you need.

strange.  My supergun runs into an amp and all I had to do to get the sound working was to disconnect the negative trace from the audio jack.  Don't ask me why it works it just does.  I noticed that when I had the jack plugged int only half way it was working fine so that's why I tried disconnecting the trace to get it completely working.  Of course I turned the volume pot on my pcb way down otherwise the amping is too high with it plugged into another amp

As for q-sound I've read that in arcade machines it uses a sound amp so I don't know if it needs a special amp to fully get the effect or not.  When straight wired into my amp it is in nice beautiful stereo sound though

Most pc power supplies should work fine with most games.  At first I was using a cheap power supply and over time some games began to display issues.  I then swapped the psu with a nice expensive computer psu and now everything works fine.

and for the extra buttons for fighters you need to wire them into a kick harness.  I wired my kick harness into usb ports since those ports are very easy to plug in/unplug making it very quick and easy to plug in/unplug the kick buttons.  And the neo geo "d" button I just have permanently wired into the jamma harness since I don't have any other pcbs that use the "d" button pins on the harness (those pins are normally just "unused")  I'm a big fighting game player and I use a mvs, many cps1 fighters, some cps2 fighters, and a zn2 fighter with my rig.