There was one on eBay that had been there for quite some time. The person was asking too much for my taste.

According to the seller, it also came with a monitor stand with additional speakers built in but that it was not included in the sale.

Did you buy it? I see the sale ended today.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mediavision-Bundle-i … e-/283222173708

A few pics from the seller:

Behind the front of the unit hides the CD-ROM drive.

cyclone3d wrote:

There was one on eBay that had been there for quite some time. The person was asking too much for my taste. […]
Show full quote

There was one on eBay that had been there for quite some time. The person was asking too much for my taste.

According to the seller, it also came with a monitor stand with additional speakers built in but that it was not included in the sale.

Did you buy it? I see the sale ended today.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mediavision-Bundle-i … e-/283222173708

A few pics from the seller:

card front.jpg

card_back.jpg

card_ports.jpg

speakers front.jpg

speakers back.jpg

Behind the front of the unit hides the CD-ROM drive.

I did. 😀

For what appears to be very good or possibly unused condition, that seemed like a pretty fair price for such an uncommon item. It probably isn't cheap to ship either, so free shipping is what made me go for it in the end.

The monitor stand is unrelated and may have been one of the lower end Media Vision multimedia kits, like the CDPC. That was probably a cool item too, but isn't part of the Memphis set. Aside from the lack of manuals\software, it appears to be complete. Frankly, I'm surprised it was still on there at that price if it has been on there a while. This is the first time I've seen it and I do my rounds of ebay pretty frequently. 😀

Yeah, I thought about getting it. It had been relisted 3 or 4 times at least and the price never dropped.

I agree it was a fair price, but I had other stuff on my radar and another PAS 16 was not needed even if it was a super-fancy setup.

You'll have to make a thread about it so we can see it in all it's glory once you get it going.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Anyone ever used one? How do the speakers sound? Any other features not mentioned in the articles above?
What drivers\software are required to use that card? 😊

I've also taken some photos of a Memphis set..
But alas, I had no time yet to build up the kit.
Re: Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum Build ?

Jo22 wrote:

I've also taken some photos of a Memphis set.. But alas, I had no time yet to build up the kit. Re: Media Vision Pro Audio Spect […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Anyone ever used one? How do the speakers sound? Any other features not mentioned in the articles above?
What drivers\software are required to use that card? 😊

I've also taken some photos of a Memphis set..
But alas, I had no time yet to build up the kit.
Re: Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum Build ?

Ah, interesting!

Looks like the set I bought is probably missing the bases for the speakers, but I'd use it in the flat position anyway. I'll make sure to post about it once I get it set up.

I seem to recall Creative made a similar kit with their own proprietary connector.

One thing I'd be curious to find out is if the DB44 connector could be adapted down to the basic connections of any sound card. Its a really neat device, but I have a feeling that most of these out in the wild probably don't have a matching interface card to go with them anymore. Besides, if we're honest here, the PAS16 is cool but is not the first card that people generally think of when building a retro rig due to the MPU401 issues and some other quirks.

It'd be really interesting to find out if the pins in the big connector could all be matched up to basic audio, midi and SCSI connections. If so, I'd definitely consider making an adapter to use it on other cards or devices. If I skipped the SCSI portion (for now), there really wouldn't be that many connections to worry about.

If the speakers are decent enough it'd make a pretty sweet stand for CRT. Integrated speakers, audio in and out, headphone output, midi in and out, an independent CD player (who has one of those anymore?), and it looks awesome in the way only high end late '80s to early '90s tech can.

Should be very possible to adapt the connector back to common jacks/plugs.

Jo22 wrote:

I've also taken some photos of a Memphis set.. But alas, I had no time yet to build up the kit. Re: Media Vision Pro Audio Spect […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Anyone ever used one? How do the speakers sound? Any other features not mentioned in the articles above?
What drivers\software are required to use that card? 😊

I've also taken some photos of a Memphis set..
But alas, I had no time yet to build up the kit.
Re: Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum Build ?

Since you have the disk for this, could you please make an image of it and upload it somewhere? It'd be nice to have it added to vogons drivers too. I don't believe it is available anywhere to download. It probably uses standard PAS16 drivers but there might be some extra goodies on the disk. 😀

Also, would it be possible to get the specs of the AC adapter yours came with? Most importantly, the voltage, amperage and polarity of the connector. It is obviously going to be a little different looking than mine, being an EU style, but I want to be sure the specs are correct before I plug in whatever adapter comes with mine.

If you also have the manual, it'd be amazing if you had the ability to convert it to PDF or at least just the pages that contain vital information not easily found by other means (diagrams, spec sheets, lists of features and how to use them). 😀

shock__ wrote:

Should be very possible to adapt the connector back to common jacks/plugs.

Cool. 😀

I know the unit does have standard audio inputs and outputs on the front and back, but I'm not sure which ones have to route through the sound card. Either way, it'd be nice to have the flexibility to use this as a sort of retro-PC stereo receiver and amplifier. I plan to crack mine open to see what it looks like inside anyway. 😀

Well, I got my Media Vision Memphis and have had a chance to tinker with it a little. I will say, this was certainly a well built, high quality set. The bass response is pretty impressive for 25 year old computer speakers. It is solid and heavy enough that I wouldn't be concerned about the weight of any CRT monitor on top of this thing. I feel like I could use it as a step stool if I had to... 😁 The caddy-loading SCSI CDROM is really awesome too. It works like a floppy drive, complete with a manual eject button. Very cool!

I have yet to hook it up to a PC but my initial observation of the functionality of the various features are that it is definitely intended to be used with the interface card connected and initialized for everything but listening to CDs. I was very surprised to find that none of the input or output connections on the Memphis (except the headphone jacks) do anything at all without the sound card. The headphone jack at the front left of the unit seems to output whatever would play through the speakers, and responds to the same volume dial as the speakers. When you plug headphones in here, it mutes the speakers, which is kind of expected, but nice nonetheless. As a sort of odd added bonus, the headphone jack (and volume dial) on the SCSI CDROM works as expected and actually provided quite a bit more volume than the Memphis headphone output did on my Philips SHP-9500S headphones. Connecting to this does not mute the speakers.

One thing that reassured me that it was definitely meant to be run exclusively through the sound card is that there are no input switches on the Memphis. The buttons across the top are simply the CDROM audio controls (rewind, stop, play\pause and fast forward). I'm not that great with identifying all of the components on a circtuitboard, and I'm even worse at figuring out the intended use of a given circuit, so I'm unsure if there is any mixing hardware actually inside the Memphis. The IXW-MEMPHIS interface card does have a Media Vision MVA508B chip that is apparently a variant of the MVA508 analog mixer (thank you Wikipedia!) found on other Media Vision cards. So, this also reinforces the idea that the card does ALL of the heavy lifting. Even the stereo RCA LINE OUT connection on the rear of the Memphis gave me no output when playing an audio CD. Presumably, it directly outputs the final mixed audio from the interface card.

I am a bit confused as to the interaction between the CD audio and the interface card though. If I can hear the CD audio but it isn't sent through the line out, that would mean that the Memphis itself must be able to mix the CD audio into the mix coming from the interface card. Right? So, does the CD audio ever pass through the sound\interface card at all? Seems odd that it wouldn't since you'd then never be able to hear the CD audio through the line-out (to hook up larger speakers)... but then if the CD audio DID pass through the interface card, how would it not get doubled up in the mix inside the Memphis? Maybe the Memphis switches modes when the sound card is initialized?

Either way, its looking quite a bit more complex than simply having a sweet looking, decent sounding, retro PC audio receiver. As mentioned, I'm not that good with circuits, but I tried to trace any of the line in or out connections to the pins on the 44pin connector, and the only non-SCSI connections that seemed to be straight through were one pin each from the MIDI IN and MIDI OUT ports. This tells me there's a significant amount of circuitry between the card and the Memphis. I guess there's a slight chance it would be possible to figure out which pins are which and then make an adapter to hook it up to a standard analog mixer, but unless I'm missing something, I think all this would do is move the inputs from the back of the mixer to the various places on the Memphis, and allow use of the speakers of course. I'll post some pictures of the internals shortly for those interested.

Just wanted to post an update to this thread.

Due to an issue with the seller shipping me one that was not in the condition pictured, I ended up with a second one of these (minus the card and cable of course)... that one too was in less than "new" condition. They may or may not have ever been used but they needed a lot of cleaning and looked to be stored in less than ideal conditions at some point. Thankfully, both work perfectly when hooked up to a PC with the interface card. I would advise against anyone here purchasing that item from that eBay seller, because he won't update his pictures to show the actual condition of the items he's sending and he was unusually defensive and hostile when I tried to ask for an alternate solution. In fact, he showed me pictures of some that were a bit dirty and gross looking before he even shipped my first one out, so I asked to cancel the order, but he was extremely rude and persistent and guaranteed that I'd be getting a brand new one as pictured. I ended up with one that was dirty, had evidence of bugs chewing the packaging and was definitely not as pictured. When I asked for a partial refund (because it worked) he got offended again and told me he was sending a second one (which cannot be used without the interface card and cable). Anyway, long story short, after a lot of cleaning I now have two of these units, but only one full set.

I am having trouble with CDs skipping in the second one though. I dismantled it and cleaned the lens thoroughly. I thought it was working for a while after messing with it a bit, but then it started skipping again. It seems very very sensitive to vibration, where as the first one I got doesn't skip if I tap hard on it while its playing.

Both work perfectly when connected to a PC however. OPL3 music through the PAS16 sounds fantastic on a Memphis. Very authentic sound.

Anyway, here's a gallery of the internals of this thing. If anyone knows of any possible reasons why an old CDROM like this would skip and be sensitive to vibration, let me know.

https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/KhDWaLnu … UKe664JDi6l7n__

EDIT: I've tinkered with it some more and even if I get the drive to read for 20+ minutes, it will skip uncontrollably if I give it the slightest tap and it won't clear up unless I stop and start playback again. Seems like an odd issue to me. The drive looks great inside... very clean. The other Memphis I have (that looked to be in rougher condition on the outside) plays perfectly and doesn't skip at all.

I guess I could always swap out the original drive with a caddy-free model. Anyone know where I could find a good working SCSI CDROM drive for cheap?

Ozzuneoj wrote:

EDIT: I've tinkered with it some more and even if I get the drive to read for 20+ minutes, it will skip uncontrollably if I give it the slightest tap and it won't clear up unless I stop and start playback again. Seems like an odd issue to me. The drive looks great inside... very clean. The other Memphis I have (that looked to be in rougher condition on the outside) plays perfectly and doesn't skip at all.

Dried out rubber grommets that normally dampen bumps and the like?

yawetaG wrote:

Ozzuneoj wrote:

EDIT: I've tinkered with it some more and even if I get the drive to read for 20+ minutes, it will skip uncontrollably if I give it the slightest tap and it won't clear up unless I stop and start playback again. Seems like an odd issue to me. The drive looks great inside... very clean. The other Memphis I have (that looked to be in rougher condition on the outside) plays perfectly and doesn't skip at all.

Dried out rubber grommets that normally dampen bumps and the like?

I checked the grommets and they looked good. It also has large (about 1/2 inch diameter) coil springs at the corners of the internal tray to dampen vibrations. The other one I have is from exactly the same time and appears to have been out of the same storage (for many years presumably) but doesn't ever skip.