This Sound Problem

[Mr Fixit]

Guys,
<Rant>

I think this whole sound thing is seriously not right. The fact is left and right speakers are wired incorrectly, and this is a BIG thing!

I think someone needs to make a stink about this, what if the GBA had this error there would be hell to pay!

<Rant/>

Mr Fixit

 

[kill me2]

well, about the gba speaker, it only has one
Soo regardless of the reversed speakers.

=D

 

[sloth]

I spose if you care enough, you can make a fuss.. for some reason I cant see all that many people being very concerned. I know I personally couldnt care less The speakers suck anyway, theyre tinny and too close together (kind of unavoidable in a handheld...) so for decent sound and stereo seperation you're gonna be using headphones, which are fine.. The whole issue seems pretty unimportant ..

 

[Mr Fixit]

I know the GBA was not the best example (Actually it was probably the worst example I could use) but you know what I mean. IMO this is a serious technical defect and needs to be looked into.

Mr Fixit

 

[Axeman]

<Rant>

I think this whole sound thing is seriously not right. The fact is left and right speakers are wired incorrectly, and this is a BIG thing!

I think someone needs to make a stink about this, what if the GBA had this error there would be hell to pay!

<Rant/>

Man! Methinks you need to chill a bit!

Honestly! How important IS this in the big scheme of things? And isn't it nice that it ISN'T a GBA and no one really seems to be bothered (up until now anyway!)

 

[Rico]

Actually, I think it's a serious indication that the worksmanship for GP32s is shoddy. I mean, incorrect wiring - when they did the testmode check on the units, they should have saw this!

- Rico

 

[mafen]

Yeah, that is shoddy workmanship. But I'm sure that they had it right with their first prototype but mass production got screwed up. It's not such a big problem luckily. IMO I dont care if I'm hearing the left channel or the right channel just as long as I hear both

 

[sloth]

This doesnt bother me near as much as the bad FLU's, or off center joysticks... the gp32 has a few problems, all avoidable, reversed speakers seem to be a pretty unimportant one. But no system is perfect, and hey... gp32's are cheap

 

[RoboJoe32]

Want GBAs with flaws? get an SP with burnt out pixels, faulty L and R buttons, and banding effects ^_^ There you go. GBA with flaws.

 

[Flack]

Adding a "swap l/r speakers" to most programs would be trivial -- almost as trivial as the problem itself. After two years, one person noticed? Doesn't seem that critical to me. So far, I haven't noticed it in any Atari 2600, C64, Atari ST, or any other emulators ... even with SNES or some of the other emulators, I don't think I'd notice. I guess the only way I would even notice might possibly be with a divx movie, and still I hadn't noticed to date so I doubt I will in the future.

 

[Carface]

Ofcourse Id like the GP32 to be as perfect as possible but the speaker problem you talk about doesnt seem so much of an issue compared to other things people are trying to do for it like emulators and games. I like the speakers WAAAY better than the GBA and I dont think I would notice anything wrong about them if someone hadnt of mentioned it and even then.

 

[Duddyroar]

As people have said, this isn't really that big a problem, but surely this has been brought to the attention of GamePark, who could easily solve this problem at the production stage. I don't own a GP32 at the moment but I fully intend to get one, so hopefully this problem will be solved by then. If not, then it doesn't matter, but it's a fairly basic problem to fix at their end.

 

[stickofjoy]

I noticed it in GPengine, and to be honst I think that's the only Stereo emulator out isn't it? I vote for the "switch L/R" option in software.

 

[RobertG]

I don't think it really matters. If you're playing without headphones you're not *really* going to get stereo anyway as the speakers are so close together, etc.

 

[tapsel]

It doesn't matter for me, since I have one ear only, so I can't hear stereo anyway.
So, and now I'm going to draw some nice sunflower pictures...

No, seriously. This is the 2nd thread for this issue, and everybody says the same
thing. So the speakers are too close together to hear stereo. That's a valid argument.
On the other side it's a major flaw in the product design and doesn't speak in favour
of Gameparks quality control. The same goes for off-center joysticks, dust and
fingerprints.

There's no need to make a drama about it or to open another thread, but let's just
hope that our nice GP32s are not all going to burn out in a year or so, because
Gamepark used paperclips as electric conductors or something.

 

[RobertG]

Yes, you're right. The speakers being the wrong way round isn't a huge issue in itself, but it's still a stupid mistake and inexcusible.

If the engineers, q&a, etc can't pick up something as simple as the speakers being wired the wrong way round what else could they have missed? The GP32 is really crappy for sound it seems. I find the cracking, popping, etc a bigger issue than this.. Grrr..

 

[tapsel]

Well, I don't know if sound is so crappy. I still prefer crosswired stereo over GBA mono I think.
As for cracking and popping, this is the case with some emus, but skeezix and others managed
to work around this issue and now sound is just fine. It's a different problem with official
software, where sound is extremely compressed sometimes, to save SMC space. But still, I think
this isn't an issue which couldn't be solved if the developers tried hard enough to sail around
GP32s sound limitations.

 

[MrT]

Even the sound on this board is screwed up listen........................


right.............................................................................................................left


See the wrong way around, seems the Game Park problem has propagated itself here too!!!!

(really......................)

MrT

 

[skab]

Even the sound on this board is screwed up listen........................


right.............................................................................................................left

Looks fine here, but maybe it's just because I'm wearing headphones right now

Seriously, I just finished my blue LED case mod, and while I was at it I also changed the wiring on the PCB. I wanted a permanent fix without long speaker cables dangling from one end of the thing to the other, so I corrected the wiring with 2 small leads and 2 deep scratches Works fine now.

And I already thought I was the only one who noticed... <_<

I guess it was my Amiga past. I was listening to some MODs with MODPlay and thought, hey, that's wrong, voice 1+4 should be left, should contact the author. And then I plugged in my headphones :blink:

Now the only thing left is a proper frontlight. When will they offer a DIY kit, Afterburner style? I don't intend buying the FLU GP32, I just bought the bloody thing, I won't buy another one just for the frontlight!

 

[Bonks]

yeah im more concerned for the FLU more than anything, generally only use my GP with headphones so the speakers being reversed... <shrugs> didnt notice till someone brought it up, and TBH, still dont when im using it so why worry