Multi-purpose cabinet (USB & jamma) suggestions

[loppis]

Hi all! My first post here.
​
I recently bought a cabinet wired for jamma, it has a 19" 4:3 flat LCD with vga and hdmi input.
​
My plan was to primarily use it with the MVS single slot pcb I already own as well as with some pandora's box pcb for non neo geo stuff . I've only had a chance to test it with a pandora's box so far and it works great (once you disconnect the CGA to VGA converter board lol)).
​
However, being used to emulate through Retroarch / Mame on my PC - playing around with shaders - and getting stereo sound on games that support it - I quickly realized I wanted something better than the pandora's box, that only has mono out and the graphics doesn't look great on my modern display.
​
I have already prepared a mini-pc that will go in the cabinet. However, I still want to be able to  connect a genuine jamma pcb ocassionally, without too much hassle.
​
Regarding sound, the jamma harness isn't really involved at all - I will use a small 12v external amp and connect through line-out from the PC (I'll stereo mod the MVS board and tap the stereo signals from there into the amp as well).
​
So, as far as I can tell, all I need to figure out is the best way to convert my joysticks and buttons from jamma standard to USB.
​
I THINK I can solder additonal wires to each joystick & button and use a regular USB encoder, such as :
https://www.amazon.com/Reyann-Arcade-Encoder-Joystick-Fighting/dp/B00UUROWWK
​
This way my controls would work on both USB and jamma at the same time (I suppose?). Are there any obvious drawbacks to this method - apart from the possible cable mess I'll create?
​
Another method would possibly be to get on of these "Jamma 2 USB" converter boards. I would prefer to buy from Europe instead of China (aliexpress) but the only board I've found in Europe is the J-PAC - and it seems like it has way more features than I need, as I won't need to route any video through it :
​
https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/J-PAC-Jamma-To-PC-Arcade-Controls.html
​
There are several similar options on aliexpress :
​
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32843295377.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32750007365.html
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32607933894.html
​
I can't spot any obvious differences between these and the prices are similar. Obviously it would be convenient to not have to solder all these cables, and the price is almost the same as the USB encoder type mentioned above anyways.
​
The J-PAC manual recommends disconnecting the cabinet PSU before connecting the J-PAC - this would obviously not be a great solution for me - but as far as I can tell, as long as we're not connecting the jamma harness upside down, keeping the PSU connected is not a problem.
​
So... please... between my two solutions - can I go with either one - or am I missing something obvious?
​
As you can imagine my love for the neo geo mvs system is quite strong - so completely giving up this piece of original hardware is not an option at the moment .
​
Truly grateful for any advice. Thanks!
​
Best
​
Peter