I have been looking to upgrade the speakers in my TZ and Shadow. I read round the subject including this excellent website listed below.
http://www.dziedzic.us/wpc_speaker_selection.html
NOTE - THE VAST MAJORITY OF WPC GAMES NEED 5,25" SPEAKERS, A FEW DON'T. Those that don't are Black Rose, Dr. Dude, Gilligan's Island, Harley Davidson, Party Zone, Funhouse, The Machine: Bride of Pinbot. This website above tells you what size to get if you have one of these.
Based on accepting the following
1. The amplifiers in your pinball are relatively low quality
2. The pinball backbox and cabinet make poor environments for speakers to work effectively
It occurred to me that spending mega money was just throwing good money after bad. I have had pinball pro in my addams family for many years. It is good, but it is so expensive, around £150 by the time you get them from the USA. And I think this cost is disproportionate to the benefit you receive.
In particular the hole cutout for the right speaker in your wpc game and the woofer in the floor of the cabinet are actually smaller than the speakers that pinball pro supply. The woofer is 8" and the hole in the base of an addams family is 5.5" for example. So pinball pro supplies adapters to make these bigger speakers mount on your smaller holes. But this obviously limits what the speakers can do.
In terms of backbox speakers you need to buy 5.25" 4 ohm ones that can handle 25 watts rated power. Getting twin driver speakers makes sense as these will give more range than single driver, single cone, or dual cone ones. It is pointless buying triple driver speakers given the limitations mentioned above. You also must get speakers that do not project too far forwards or backwards. And finally you need speakers that are not too flashy, as you will see this through the backbox speaker mesh
I think I have found THE PERFECT PAIR. my first pair arrived today, and I have just ordered my second as delivery is free. It made an immediate difference to the left speaker in my game. It is a direct replacement, no carpentry is required, it uses your bolts. To mount in the right you need to relocate screws or ideally cut a bigger hole, which is what I am going to do. Critically they do not project forwards and the design is quite subdued, so they do not look out of place behind your speaker grills. There is a silver bar that you could easily cover up with magic marker pen, but I do not think you need to
They are on eBay being sold by Argos. They are normally about £30. Argos has wrongly described them as 22cm speakers, which may be why they are so heavily discounted. These are 5.25", which is exactly what you want
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-XS-G...7?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item2345fd35c5
http://www.dziedzic.us/wpc_speaker_selection.html
NOTE - THE VAST MAJORITY OF WPC GAMES NEED 5,25" SPEAKERS, A FEW DON'T. Those that don't are Black Rose, Dr. Dude, Gilligan's Island, Harley Davidson, Party Zone, Funhouse, The Machine: Bride of Pinbot. This website above tells you what size to get if you have one of these.
Based on accepting the following
1. The amplifiers in your pinball are relatively low quality
2. The pinball backbox and cabinet make poor environments for speakers to work effectively
It occurred to me that spending mega money was just throwing good money after bad. I have had pinball pro in my addams family for many years. It is good, but it is so expensive, around £150 by the time you get them from the USA. And I think this cost is disproportionate to the benefit you receive.
In particular the hole cutout for the right speaker in your wpc game and the woofer in the floor of the cabinet are actually smaller than the speakers that pinball pro supply. The woofer is 8" and the hole in the base of an addams family is 5.5" for example. So pinball pro supplies adapters to make these bigger speakers mount on your smaller holes. But this obviously limits what the speakers can do.
In terms of backbox speakers you need to buy 5.25" 4 ohm ones that can handle 25 watts rated power. Getting twin driver speakers makes sense as these will give more range than single driver, single cone, or dual cone ones. It is pointless buying triple driver speakers given the limitations mentioned above. You also must get speakers that do not project too far forwards or backwards. And finally you need speakers that are not too flashy, as you will see this through the backbox speaker mesh
I think I have found THE PERFECT PAIR. my first pair arrived today, and I have just ordered my second as delivery is free. It made an immediate difference to the left speaker in my game. It is a direct replacement, no carpentry is required, it uses your bolts. To mount in the right you need to relocate screws or ideally cut a bigger hole, which is what I am going to do. Critically they do not project forwards and the design is quite subdued, so they do not look out of place behind your speaker grills. There is a silver bar that you could easily cover up with magic marker pen, but I do not think you need to
They are on eBay being sold by Argos. They are normally about £30. Argos has wrongly described them as 22cm speakers, which may be why they are so heavily discounted. These are 5.25", which is exactly what you want
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sony-XS-G...7?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item2345fd35c5
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And if they do work out you've still got at least £140 to find a big speaker to put in the main cabinet. I bet you could find a really good one and still have at least £100 change. Whilst I'm sure those Pinball Pro and Flipper Fidelity speaker sets are very good quality (and handily pre-selected to fit your chosen pin) they are f***ing expensive. At that price I'd expect the amp too!
