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nickfil
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Gameboy Color prosound- anyone try it?

by nickfil Tue Nov 09, 2021 11:41 am

I have a couple gameboy colors that I've been modifying. One of the things I've realize since playing a good chunk of mario golf on them is an annoying HUM that comes out of the headphones. It is absolutely brutal.

I've been searching around for a way to get rid of it. People do 'prosound' mods on the GBC, but not nearly as much as they do them on the DMG original gameboy. I was curious if anyone has tried it? Liked it? Hated it? No difference? huge difference?

Found a few tutorials.
https://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/prosound/
https://littlesounddj.fandom.com/wiki/Pro_Sound_Mod

This tutorial pulls a couple resistors off the board in addition to the steps above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnVVYlo ... amCampbell

This guy actually put a new headphone jack in the corner of the gbc, like people do with the dmg.
http://little-scale.blogspot.com/2008/0 ... d-gbc.html

This thread talks about removing the resistors.
https://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/1978 ... -question/

Anyone try this?
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Anapan
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Re: Gameboy Color prosound- anyone try it?

by Anapan Tue Nov 09, 2021 7:33 pm

I have not done any gameboy audio modding, tho I have some kits I ordered. I read that it's pretty much required if a musician plans to do any recording or performances with LSDJ or other gameboy audio production.

I had plans to install a different amplifier (Game Boy Amp PAM8302A) along with a bivert backlight kit to a DMG and route the audio to the original 2.5mm headphone jack bypassing all the noise, but I chickened out after seeing how difficult peeling the screen layers apart is for the bivert and decided not to damage my best gameboy.

For my next GBC mod with the funnyplaying laminated q5 v2 I decided to look through all the modding options and found a few bits to improve the audio from HandHeld Legend:
Game Boy CleanAmp v1.1
680UF Aluminum Capacitor
Game Boy Color CleanPower Regulator (for the amplifier)
New GBC volume potentiometer
New 1w 23mm speaker

I found two different GBC audio amplifiers available at Retro Game Repairshop, but without any feedback from one and the mess of engrish in the other's description, I decided to order the one from HHL.

Then I read this reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/commen ... solutions/
It looks like all of these amplifiers are only mono and only for the GBC speaker... That kinda sucks.
Here's some detail on the prosound with noise filtering caps:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/commen ... omparison/
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nickfil
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Re: Gameboy Color prosound- anyone try it?

by nickfil Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:31 pm

Anapan wrote:Then I read this reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/commen ... solutions/
It looks like all of these amplifiers are only mono and only for the GBC speaker... That kinda sucks.
Here's some detail on the prosound with noise filtering caps:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/commen ... omparison/


I didn't know about the noise filtering caps. Thanks for that. And nice to actually hear it in action. I think i'll do up the pro sound mod. It sound a lot better. All my google searches didn't turn up actual clips of the gameboy headphone jack line out. It was just "here is how to do it"

I installed a cleanamp v1 in a gameboy color, and it works great. You are going to love it. Sounds really good. Its a shame I'm usually playing with headphones and like I said, They have that hum!

I'll try that prosound mod and add the cap.

I actually also have a gameboy dmg that I was going to backlight and bivert and also came to the same conclusion you did. "oh my god this is a lot of work with a large margin of error" I have 2 dmgs. One the screen isn't working. The other works fine. I was thinking of adding a kit screen to the one with the screen not working and I guess keeping the other stock? Might just put a new case on it so its nice and clean! Mod the other.
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Anapan
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Re: Gameboy Color prosound- anyone try it?

by Anapan Tue Nov 09, 2021 10:58 pm

I just ran across this guide for a prosound wired to a different speaker amp.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/commen ... ifier_mod/
That speaker looks pretty beefy. I wonder how it fits inside the case? I think I'll order those parts and see what works best between all the audio parts I have after they arrive.
I have a Headstage Arrow headphone amplifier so having the prosound come out the headphone jack is not a problem for me.
Until then, I'll just do the screen, cap and power mod. I hear that this funnyplaying screen can introduce a lot of noise so getting the best noise suppression is important.
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Anapan
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Re: Gameboy Color prosound- anyone try it?

by Anapan Tue Jan 31, 2023 2:16 am

Last year I actually did the ProSound, separate amp & heavy speaker mod to a GBC as well as installing Helder's flexamp and audio filter mod to a couple of GBAs. All worked out really well and made an incredible difference. The GBC sounds incredible and when cranked you can feel some of the low end. Unfortunately between the amp, big speaker and IPS screen mod my new ultimate GBC sucks down batteries faster than a Game Gear so I mostly have to play it plugged in. Glad I found the LabFifteen USB power adapter.
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