My buddy's dad told me old CRT monitors make music sound better through the headphone jack

I laughed at him for 10 minutes until I plugged my Sennheisers into a 1995 Sony Trinitron and the bass actually hit cleaner than my modern DAC, so now I'm wondering if I need to start hunting for a dead monitor at garage sales just for my desk setup.

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_bailey4527d ago

Wait, is it just the analog path through the old CRT's amp that's doing something weird with the harmonics or is there actual signal processing going on in there? I've heard older electronics have way bigger capacitors and transformers that can round out the harsh digital edges in a way modern tiny DACs just can't.

margaret_bennett327d ago

Have you actually gotten inside one of these old CRTs yet? The magic is definitely in the coupling capacitors and output transformers - they're huge compared to modern stuff, like the size of a soda can sometimes. I've recapped a few old Sony Trinitrons and the difference between the original big electrolytics and modern tiny ones is night and day, especially in the low end. The old transformers just naturally roll off the high frequencies in a way that smooths out that harsh digital edge, it's part of their design. Plus the analog amp path in those things is pretty simple (just a few transistors and resistors) so there's not really any "signal processing" going on, it's all just passive filtering from the components.