You may have heard of the "Audiophile PS1" - the PlayStation Version 1001/2 with stereo outputs - that's treasured amoungst the hi-fi scene.  According to them, the sound processor found in this somewhat rare, yet inexpensive (less than $50) gray box, rivals what one could find inside a $6,000 stereo.  An urban legend or a modern day story of the "one person's trash" addage, I couldn't tell you, since my audio rig only cost $5,000.

What you probably haven't heard of is the Audiophile NES, created by hardware hacker, BitCrusher, aptly named after a de-rezing (but not in the Tron sense) digital audio effect.

Hit the jump for more details  and photos of the Audiophile NES, as well as BitCrusher's video-bending Master System.

As Mr. Crusher explains, a stock NES can only push out mono audio, despite the fact that it's sound processor is quite capable of producing stereo sound.  He goes on to explain that Nintendo decided to mix down the two channels to a single source for "economical reasons," resulting in percussion and bass lines being handled by one channel and leads being passed of to the other.

BitCrusher, unhappy with his NES' mono output decided to put it under the knife.  Along with enabling stereo playback, he added two volume knobs (one for each channel), a mixing knob, a headphone input, and two 1/4" outputs (one for each channel), as well as some more technical hacks and a region mod.  Despite the major reworking of the system's audio, the NES came out looking pretty damn nice - it looks like something from a pulpy '70s or '80s sci-fi set.

This hacked (and awesome-looking) Master System lets BitCrusher twist and bend the graphics displayed by the console.  Check out the video below for a sample.

[BitCrusher Bending]

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