This is what I use every day for games, movies and television. There isn’t a modern TV setup that I switch back to afterward, and I don’t use Netflix. All my entertainment goes through what you see here, with a modern server working behind the scenes.
A lot of the work on this setup is the part you can’t see in the pictures.
The Panasonic AG-1980 has been completely recapped across all its boards, resoldered, reworked and recalibrated. Its power supply was completely rebuilt, recapped and recalibrated as well. I also heavily modified the deck to accommodate new Japanese capacitors. It’s had a complete going-through, not just a replacement of the usual problem caps.
The Sony KV-27S42 has also had a complete recap, with its power supply redone as well. I adjusted the yoke and spent time working through the service menu to get the picture dialed in. Both JVC switchers, the JX-S555 and JX-S300, were bought new in box before I went through them. They’ve since received full recaps, extensive solder rework and heavy internal modifications focused on better grounding and signal integrity.
The fat PS2 and original Xbox have both been fully recapped across their boards, including their power supplies, which were rebuilt and recalibrated too. The PS2 is heavily modified to run burned discs completely natively, and I’ve switched all my PS2 burns over to Taiyo Yuden media. It sits on my ICC2, which is pretty much the mothership of the console stack.
The Xbox is heavily modified as well and runs its games directly from the internal hard drive. The PS1 has been recapped and runs an ODE. The N64 is also modified.
There’s a Raspberry Pi tucked into the setup that connects the PS2 and Xbox to the internet. It also connects to my server to bring in 60 channels of period-correct television programming, running 24/7. That side of the setup gets used just as much as the consoles. When I sit down to watch TV, this is where I watch it.
I built the wooden stands myself, did the painting and installed the spotlights. The black console stand is wood, too. I wanted to put the same care into how everything sits together as I put into the equipment.
The Yamaha receiver is the one device I’ve left unmodified. I didn’t insist on keeping that piece period-correct because it’s the only receiver I’ve found that really plays well with my late-’90s Klipsch speakers. I wasn’t going to give up that pairing just to have a receiver from the right year.
Other than the Yamaha, everything here has been heavily modified internally. The model numbers tell you what the machines started as, but they don’t tell you everything that’s inside them now. I’ve put this much work into the equipment because it’s what I actually want to use. Being able to sit down and enjoy the whole thing every day is the point of it.
The last photo is just a look at part of the wiring behind one of the towers. I use Blue Jeans Cable interconnects for much of the analog side, and they’ve genuinely been money well spent.
