Amplifone monitor's, why so desirable?

bottlejunkie

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O.k. Im no monitor guy At all,i honestly couldnt tell you what I have running in my machines. What makes amp's so popular/desirable? Is it reliability,picture quality,easier to work on? What do you think my asteroids deluxe has in it? Just picked it up btw,what cabs normally come with an amp?
 
Amplifone vector monitors use a medium resolution tube vs a standard resolution tube that the WG6100 uses. Amplifone's evidently also have a faster refresh as some claim that Star Wars seems a little smoother using an Amp... that said, I've seen em both and I don't see a refresh rate difference.

They are also the ORIGINAL monitor for Star Wars, which makes them desirable.

Finally, they don't exhibit the pincushion issue that WG6100s exhibit with Star Wars (though there are fixes for the WG)...
 
At one point i had a 6100 and amp side by side in a SW. At first glance, no difference - i was surprised to see that. But after playing for a minute or two, i noted smoother lines on the amp and what appeared to be faster drawing on the ships / gameplay. The colors were nearly identical though (give or take adjustments). It was easy to decide to keep the amp.
 
I have a WG in my Tempest and the vectors almost look like raster lines due to the pixels (well, the phosphors). I had an Amplifone in a Star Wars a few years ago and don't remember that level of coarseness. Maybe that's what people are looking for.
 
And the Amp is color so your AD won't have that in it. My AD has a Wells Gardner V2000.

see,im learning sumin' already! seriously though,all this is good to know. Hopefully im not the only one who didn't know.
 
So the 25" amps are standard res, but are all the 19" medium? I had read somewhere that only Star Wars used the medium res tube. Anyone know?

Nope, sadly I have two Amps right now that are standard rez (well one for sure, one maybe).

The yoke can drive both standard and medium. I wish it would drive a computer CRT though, THAT would produce some sweet lines...
 
Yes medium res tube

I recently connected an original medium resolution Amp tube to my test bench to converge it and get it ready for Quantum.

After using a TV screen previously (STD res), what a difference!
 
Just uploaded this video of Tempest running on a 19" Amplifone monitor:

http://youtu.be/ke-GPJb5eIY

Should explain everything.

You need to turn down the brightness, you had retrace lines. Also some weird linearity during the warp.

Looks Nice. I think the only real noticeable difference is the smoother scaling. Maybe slightly better sharpness.
 
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O.k. Im no monitor guy At all,i honestly couldnt tell you what I have running in my machines. What makes amp's so popular/desirable? Is it reliability,picture quality,easier to work on? What do you think my asteroids deluxe has in it? Just picked it up btw,what cabs normally come with an amp?


-Yes a reworked Amplifone is more reliable than a WG6100 because it's a better design electronically and mechanically
-picture quality is better because the tubes (BOTH 19" and 25") use a medium-res tube (so, a smaller dot-pich)
-amplifones are MUCH easier to work on because of construction


However, I don't agree with Frizzle's claim that Amplifones don't suffer from pincushion problems. At least, the 25" one's I've seen on SW cabs have a bow inward on the sides for sure. All of them. Once upon a time a certain Clay was going to/ had made some nice pincushion correctors, but they never made it to a "for sale" state.... :(
 
The 25"s have pincushion problems because they use a 6100 yoke. According to one of the Atari folks, the correction is in the yoke.

Electrically, they arent alot different, at least in the deflection circuit, other then the regulated power supply is moved (and simplified) from the deflection circuit to the HV circuit.

Not sure its completely fair to say the amp is more reliable then the 6100. There were alot more 6100s in the field, and ran a bit longer, so you more likely to see failures. With an LV2000 Id say the 6100 is as reliable as the amp.
 
Well at least that explains the kink in my neck...thanks.

You need to turn down the brightness, you had retrace lines. Also some weird linearity during the warp.

Looks Nice. I think the only real noticeable difference is the smoother scaling. Maybe slightly better sharpness.

Just hooked it up temporarily while doing the Major Havoc comparison:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?p=2417298

Hence the horizontal format and adjustments not being dialed in.

Although after seeing it I want one in there permanently!
 
Also to clear one thing up.

You guys keep saying that Amplifone's always come with a medium res tube. This is NOT the case.

I have a dedicated SW with an Amp, medium res.

I also have a dedicated Quantum, with a factory Amp, standard res.

Yes you can tell the difference in the picture quality. Medium is better to my eyes. The dot pitch is smaller so the lines look better.
 
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