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GZ Speaker Set Up

The stern stock stuff is rubbish.

No matter what you do speakerwise you need a better amplifier!

Literally with about £125 you can upgrade the amp and all the speakers in a stern.

Done several. You can take a line out off the stern main CPU board. The pins you need to connect to are all on the schematic.

I use car speakers off amazon. About £30 a pair.

To quote a certain Stern sound designers - he said it was 'amazing' when he heard my upgrade. :) High praise indeed.
 
For a Spike 2 game upgrading the amp is a waste of money unless you go big with speakers and sub also - the quality of the audio coming out of the MPU is not great.

The LE speakers with the right settings as above will give you a good sound. Pinballlife also do an excellent plug and play sub upgrade with excellent settings advice:

 
Sorry - the stern amp is not good! It is very basic and not a lot of power in it.

The 4/8 ohm setting within the software does not change the characterist of the amplfiier - it just knocks down the input level a few dB.

Most amplifiers will go down to 4 ohm, and unless you are driving your pinball speakers with valve amps impedance is not that important. Some class D amps (normally in bridged mode) will go to 2 ohms.

Apologies to @Andydn - I do not have the time to go to my friends place, take photos and do a tutorial.

I have used these before in Sterns, just search for 8" subwoofer kevlar in amazon.

QTX/Fenton etc are actually the same speakers with a different sticker on them.


 
Thanks for all the advice. I could have sourced the individual parts cheaper but I went with the simpler option of the Pinsound package I linked to earlier. Easy installation and obviously a big improvement in the sound for not too much money, and along with invisi-glass one the best bang for buck upgrades you can do.

I've changed the settings as per the instructions that came with it but always have the option to tweak it in future.
 
I recently played a LE JP and the sound was rich and full compared to my upgraded GZ prem
it has a stock sound system - if mine sounded like that i was be happy
Can see what i have done different ?
 
Go into Utilities and turn on the 10 channel equaliser. Even if you don't change the settings it makes a difference.
Alter the backbox fade to favour the cabinet.
If you have the pro, change the backbox to 4 ohm (set to 8 for Le/Prem and they don't bother changing)

If you change the speakers, I would not go for Aramid, they are too stiff to be driven by the stock amp. Use polypropylene or stick with paper. Anything around 100w is plenty.
 
Go into Utilities and turn on the 10 channel equaliser. Even if you don't change the settings it makes a difference.
Alter the backbox fade to favour the cabinet.
If you have the pro, change the backbox to 4 ohm (set to 8 for Le/Prem and they don't bother changing)

If you change the speakers, I would not go for Aramid, they are too stiff to be driven by the stock amp. Use polypropylene or stick with paper. Anything around 100w is plenty.
if you read through my previous posts on this thread it shows I have done all this and more. My point is when I played JP it was a much fuller sound, deeper and better.

I might try some Dayton speakers in there and see how that goes. It doesn't need a 10EQ in there just some treble mid and bass controlls. and sub control.
 
Different pins will have different sound mixes. Question is does yours sound worse than another of the same model?
I see, ok. No I have not come across another GZ machine to play that has been sound modded
 
My GZ prem has the LE speakers. It doesn't sound as good as my Deadpool Pro with stock backbox speakers and uprated cab speaker which is a polypropylene cone 80w woofer.
Best sounding I ever had was my xmen.
 
Stern audio is rubbish. The speakers are a couple of dollars each and the 2.1 amp they use has such a low output.

Install another amp and speakers.

It is not rocket science.
 
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