All gone, we aren’t planning another run. If you would be interested in us doing one more batch please click here and let us know.
The Super SD System 3 expansion (SSDS3), developed by TerraOnion, is a great little add-on device for your PC Engine/Supergrafx console. The SSD System 3 allows you to load both ROM images of Hucard games and ISO images of CD games, making it the prefect replacement for ageing and temperamental PC Engine optical drives. The unit also has RGB output, allowing you to easily connect to your OSSC or CRT television/monitor.
Unfortunately, TerraOnion rushed the device to market without proper testing, resulting in a unit with highly flawed RGB output and issues with the sound output. Rather than work with the community and fix these problems properly, they simply rushed out a second revision which improved some of the picture issues but still left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t until much later that a third revision came out, which fixed all the problems (basically, the third edition included the stereo bypass amp here and the FU-RGB mod).
This bypass op-amp board addresses the audio noise problems with the SSDS3 and replaces the default op-amp & circuitry to create clean and balanced stereo audio output. It corrects some flaws that were found in original SSDS3 boards, as well as newly discovered flaws in all SSDS3 boards previously sold by TerraOnion. The board has been engineered with the kind of attention to detail you can expect from FirebrandX.
- Bypass board includes quality Nichicon polarized electrolytic Vref capacitors for the cleanest possible sound.
- Attenuates CD volume to avoid overloading the op-amp IC. You will not have to adjust CD volume at all when using this board.
- Attenuates console-side volume to avoid overloading the op-amp IC. This is a newly discovered issue in the SSDS3 sound circuitry.
Don’t take our word for it, check out this Youtube video demonstration of the bypass board in action at max CD volume.
SSDS3 Stereo Bypass Amp Kit contains:
1. Main mod board with all components installed
2. One Scotch Mounting Pad
3. One foot of shielded rainbow 28 AWG 10-line conductor wire
Installation instructions
Fitting the SSDS3 Stereo Bypass Amp Kit requires soldering skills and will invalidate the warranty on your hardware. Please do not purchase this part unless you are confident with a soldering iron. While community support may be available in our forum, we cannot give technical support with DIY installations, nor can we offer refunds or compensation for parts damaged due to bad/incorrect DIY installations.
Installation instructions are available on FirebrandX’s website here:-
SSDS3 Stereo Bypass Amp Kit installation instructions
If you need a professional installation service for this part then click here.
RGBee –
This stereo bypass board definitely fixes the overloading/clipping issues present in the SSDS3, but the buzzing noise when the SD card is accessed during CD games is still present, though somewhat mitigated. I assume this is the best that could be done to whatever flawed design Terra Onion came up with, so it’s really disappointing that we can’t have perfect audio while using an ODE. If you are using mediocre speakers, you probably won’t notice the buzzing in most games, but in that case, you probably won’t care enough to buy this board. I’m using AKG K701 reference headphones to judge the audio and my CoreGrafx is hooked up with a Retro Gaming Cables coaxial/shielded Packapunch Genesis SCART cable. When I use some not-so-great speakers, the noise is definitely not as noticeable when there’s music playing, but you can still hear it if there is SD access during quiet parts of the game. Overall, I’d still recommend you install this if you care about the audio quality, but curb your expectations if the buzzing SD card noise bothers you.
Admin Response – Note that the buzzing of the SD card can be attributed to certain brands of card. To reduce the buzzing try a different brand. Research into this is ongoing.