Neo Geo:Audio Bypass Mod (AES)
Unfortunately, motherboard revisions 3-3 and 3-4 had flaws in their audio circuits causing audio buzz through the headphone jack, requiring a mod to bring it back up to full quality. Luckily, FirebrandX made a detailed guide to fix the audio issues, which was used as the basis for this page.
All other revision AES consoles have good quality audio and only require that you use the front audio jack to get high-quality stereo audio. RGB cables generally have separate audio cables to address this issue.
Required Items
DigiKey list of the following items
- Five ceramic 0.1uF 50V capacitors.
- One aluminum 470uF 35V capacitors.
- Two ceramic 1000pF 50V capacitors.
Fixing the Issue
- Solder the seven ceramic capacitors on the underside of the mainboard exactly as shown below.
- Solder the 470uF capacitor in place by laying it on the JRC 2066D chip, bending the legs of the capacitor to line up with the legs of the chip and solder them in place.
Left Channel Polyester Capacitor Swap (optional):
Lastly, the 3-3 and 3-4 have another error from other revisions in that the polyester caps for the left channel are swapped by mistake compared to the right channel. If you're absolutely obsessive about symmetrical component arrangement, you can desolder and swap these caps. Highlighted below in yellow outline are the two caps in question (photo by MKL):