I run my systems to an s-video switch, and have the audio out from that connected to a half-width amplifier sat on top of the screen. The amp has its multiple inputs of its own (+ built-in CD/MD functionality) and I run that out to some speakers.
Before that I had the output of the switch connected to some powered bookshelf speakers.
Effectively you just need to run the audio separate from the video monitor.
Sounds good, is there a solution that would handle both S-Video and composite?
Some more composite shots fresh from the PC Engine. Really dig the detailed floor graphics in Dungeon Explorer, but even Gomola Speed looks fantastic.
So good!
I think I’m good for S-Video cables now!
The PSU on my Saturn blew due to me swapping cables with the PS2 Slim without thinking, so I can’t test the Saturn’s HSS-0105 official cable, but the third party HORI Nintendo S-Video cable is very good. Gave it a quick spin with Umihara Kawase, thanks for the nudge @Peltz!
Will have to post some photos when it’s less sunny…
I guess my recent searches for CRTs informed the Facebook Marketplace algorithm. Today it offered me a free Sony Trinitron KV-14M1U locally. Hardly used, with remote and original turntable stand.
Would have been rude to leave it.
Glad you made the jump! S-Video is a very worthy upgrade.
Give it a good home 
Happy to have saved it from being dumped.
Congrats! Can’t wait to see photos given the condition!
Somehow I missed this! Yeah, shot one looks off to me, the designers were always going for a very soft, almost watercolour appearance with the game’s visuals and textures (as you mentioned, there’s this off-focus depth of field), shot number 1 almost makes it look like the PS2 version of the game which was missing those effects. When I was playing the game via Wii component on an old Bravia @576i (PAL version…) the in-focus elements never looked that harsh.
I’ve been meaning to write more on 480i vs 480p but in broad strokes my conclusion is that unless a game a) was designed for widescreen (shout out to the Wii) or b) is entirely 2d you should just stick to 480i on a crt.
Please do write more, I find it fascinating having gone back to CRTs for the first time in fifteen years!
Just a FYI; Retro Access cables are back up for the first time in a while. Get in on them now before their quota is filled if you have been waiting.
I know you probably already got em but I wanna double down on what Peltz said too. The S-Video cables on the SNES make a world of a difference. Like I noticed the difference a bit on N64 and a quite a bit on the GameCube… the SNES though… it takes it to another level from composite. You won’t be able to go back to composite on the SNES after that.
As for audio switching you don’t have a lot of options. There’s cheap S-Video switches that you can maybe find second hand cause they aren’t really made anymore to my knowledge. I initially wanted to make most of my consoles svideo but gave up on that route when the first svideo switcher box I got didn’t work. Hopefully you find one because it’ll definitely make things a whole lot more convenient. I find convenience makes it way more likely that I’ll play a game instead of not bother with it.
I’d love to see a write up as I always feel a little envious of people with 31khz CRTs.
I’ll see if I can collect my thoughts into something approaching an intelligent argument but I don’t have a ton of time to take photos at the moment.
That’s reassuring! I never got to try composite but the S-Video output is very good indeed.
I’m still looking for an audio solution, I now know for sure that I’ll need something that converts the mono audio in into stereo, and something that lets you adjust the volume of what’s outputted. I got a cheap RCA to headphone adapter just to test what the raw output is, and indeed I just get audio from one speaker, and it’s at a fixed (and rather loud) volume…
The PC Engine Duo having volume control and headphone Jack on the console itself is something that’s become somewhat desirable for my specific situation, hahaha…
For mono to stereo you just need an RCA Y cable adapter, like this one for example. I had to do this with my MSX for a while to have mono audio come out of both speakers. This will attenuate the audio level a bit but it’s usually not consistent between systems, some are just way louder than others.
I was reluctant to talk about the switches I’m using because I have run into some minor issues with them but I’m using a manual Philips svideo+component switch with model number SWS2325W. You can get them fairly easily on ebay from the US. Of the 4 I own one of them has a completely busted input and another the left audio line is broken on one input (I had to run audio on another jack). These issues are annoying and surely due to it being manual but non-manual / auto switches usually have far more annoying problems.
This is great, thanks much! Will look for the cable adapter first since that’s a quick win - at least I can plug in my stereo speakers which have volume adjustment on the device itself.
Then I can look for a switch that presumably does the same thing before sending the audio output out? That would sort out my headphones issue nicely!
