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Easy way to upgrade sound?

ronsplooter

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Joined
Jul 21, 2011
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6,470
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Nottingham
Alias
Chris
I've been looking at Ed Cheung's pinball site, in particular the simple mod he's done to improve the sound on his Space Shuttle:



http://www.edcheung.com/album/album05/pinball/shuttlepin.htm



Has anyone tried this, is it as simple as it seems and does it make much difference? I've got a couple of spare 2.1 speakers systems knocking about from old PC's so it looks like all I'd need to do is wire a headphone jack socket to the cabinet speaker.



Other options for sound upgrades seem to be Pinball Pro (which is going to be easy but expensive) or put in my own sub, crossover and in line volume control which is cheaper than Pinball Pro but more complicated than just a headphone socket
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What have other people done in terms of sound upgrades? I'm not too worried about back box speaker upgrades at this time, just something I can do with the cab speaker.



A lot of people Rave about the "pinball pro" speaker upgrades, however they used to be good value for money, but nowadays aren't as good due to the high prohibitive shipping costs - the above article should allow you to do a better upgrade without spending as much £££..
 
http://www.dziedzic.us/wpc_speaker_replacement.html



This talks a lot of sense. I have followed a few of these ideas - upgraded the speakers in my RFM (minus the crossovers, however i have them and it's in my 'to do' list), and the upgrade of the cab speaker was worthwhile - i think i have Alpine bass speakers in mine now...
 
Paul' date=' post: 1678181 said:
http://www.dziedzic.us/wpc_speaker_replacement.html



This talks a lot of sense. I have followed a few of these ideas - upgraded the speakers in my RFM (minus the crossovers, however i have them and it's in my 'to do' list), and the upgrade of the cab speaker was worthwhile - i think i have Alpine bass speakers in mine now...



Just been looking at this site. Myfirst thought was "Someone needs to stock DIY kits for this in the UK". Someone could make a few quid offering just some simple wiring looms and some pre-cut brackets for specific speakers. The customer could do the rest quite easily.
 
http://www.dziedzic.us/wpc_speaker_replacement.html





This talks a lot of sense. I have followed a few of these ideas - upgraded the speakers in my RFM (minus the crossovers, however i have them and it's in my 'to do' list), and the upgrade of the cab speaker was worthwhile - i think i have Alpine bass speakers in mine now...



This looks good for my WCS as it's WPC with DCS so I wouldn't even need a crossover but I wanted to upgrade my WW first (the thunder and deep Whirlwind voice would sound cool with a sub) and this is System11 which that site says it's no good for. What have other people done for Sys11 games?



I might have a go at Ed Cheung's way as it'll only be the cost of the jack socket that I'll lose if it doesn't work. Do you think I can leave the existing cab speaker in and take two wires off it to go to the jack socket or disconnect the cab speaker and replace it with the socket?
 
I went out to Maplins tonight and picked up a 3.5mm phono jack socket so I'll have a go a wiring in it this weekend and test it out. I think I'm going to leave the existing cabinet speaker in and run a couple of wires off the unused lugs to the phono socket. You can never have enough speakers
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I'll take some pics of it and post them on here to show how I get on.....might try and take a vid or record the sound before and after to show if it makes any difference.
 
Not all pins benifit from a speaker upgrade.
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Some titles are better than others.
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Always ask before as not to be dissapointed most people on here will know which do benifit from a upgrade. Addams Family does for a start.
 
to me, all pins get a benefit from changing the standard items, you must use a passive crossover with all pre DCS and modern Stern games, even if you do not change the speakers, it makes a noticeable difference.
 
muwahahahahahahahah!!!! It's alive
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First experiment is a success. I've wired in a mono headphone jack socket off the spare cab speaker lugs and then just connected the 2.1 speaker kit. Some pics below.....



[attachment=141:p1010062.JPG]



[attachment=142:p1010061.JPG]



[attachment=143:p1010064.JPG]



What a difference to the sound!!!!! :eek: The extra bass is a massive improvement. At the moment I've just got the wire coming through the coin door so next step is to have the socket coming out through the bottom of the cab. If anyone else has a spare PC speaker kit knocking about then I can definitely recommend this upgrade.....only cost me £1 for the jack socket from Maplins. I'll put some more pics up in a bit when I've got the socket fitted properly.
 
Job done
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I've fitted the socket through the cab speaker grill the same as on Ed Cheung's Space Shuttle and it makes for a very clean look.



[attachment=144:p1010066.JPG]



[attachment=145:p1010068.JPG]



[attachment=146:p1010069.JPG]



WCS now sounds a bit weedy compared to WW
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Seeing as this is DCS I think I'll go with a proper speaker replacement on this one....but thats a project for another day.
 
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