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Stern speaker expression lights kit; 5.25" speakers

Den - aka Wolfgang

Den - aka Wolfgang

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5Years
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Oct 22, 2019
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Afternoon all 🖐🏻,
So I have a game hopefully arriving in the not too distant future (Met remastered Premium)
In preparation, I bought all the extras for when it arrives.
As it's a premium, I ordered the Pro/premium official stern speaker expression lights kit.
I'm now toying with the idea of fitting some of those Kenwood 5.25" speakers when it arrives (KFC-1366s car speakers are the same as in LE's??)
With this in mind, I was initially gutted that I'd bought the pro/premium kit and would have to try and swap for the LE kit, but having watched this video below from Stern, am I correct in saying that the kit is identical - it's just that with the smaller speakers you have to screw them on to the light rings, and with the 5.25" speakers they just mount over the same screws that the light rings mount over and you do/don't need the mounting plates which come with the pro/premium kit?

As side note, if anyone has a reliable place I can buy the 5.25" kenwoods from (apparently they should cost around £20/£25?) I'd be grateful.

Cheers,
Den
 
Hey Den,

The speakers are the same as the ones here:
Kenwood KFC-S1366 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-Sp...9324&sprefix=kenwood+kfc-s1366,aps,155&sr=8-1)

And yes I can confirm the speaker ring itself has the led strip hosted in a black insert, the insert itself has fixings for 5.25 and 4" speakers attached via rivets instead of the screws that hold them in place.

I bought the pro/premium one and installed 5.25 speakers no problem - In fact I would recommend upgrading the speakers to fix these as the plastic rivets to fit to the pro 4"s are a bit crap!
 
Devil-Mish said:
Hey Den,

The speakers are the same as the ones here:
Kenwood KFC-S1366 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-Speakers-2-Way-13-cm-Black/dp/B0799CLK4T/ref=sr_1_1?crid=LF9KXDW97GEV&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.vrP8YagNnADzWnpCtlM9nw.ZLKLfC_LLJNb0OnHj5oUzxEQzZYOOEdSjXwY7Xk4Hgo&dib_tag=se&keywords=Kenwood+KFC-S1366&qid=1756819324&sprefix=kenwood+kfc-s1366,aps,155&sr=8-1)

And yes I can confirm the speaker ring itself has the led strip hosted in a black insert, the insert itself has fixings for 5.25 and 4" speakers attached via rivets instead of the screws that hold them in place.

I bought the pro/premium one and installed 5.25 speakers no problem - In fact I would recommend upgrading the speakers to fix these as the plastic rivets to fit to the pro 4"s are a bit crap!
Click to expand...
Thanks mate! Was just going to edit my post, as found a bunch of places which sold the speakers, but I got confused re; the S at the end of the model number.
I think I'd mainly be putting them in for aesthetic reasons, as from what I heard playing met rem at Finland (albeit in a loud room) the sound was really good, but for the sake of £25, might as well upgrade even if the sound is a little better with the kenwoods.
 
Indeed, I may get shot for this but I find in a home environment with the speakers reasonably low there's little difference between the 4" and the 5.25" but I'm sure that's personal opinion.

The one pain for the 5inchs is if you have to desolder and resolder the harness that comes off your speakers, or buy speakers that have it pre-soldered and pay a premium.

Either way, your speaker rings will fit, and if you bought the kit, it comes with the 5.25" speaker grill to add it for the future so you'll have everything you need with that kit to upgrade the speakers.

Be nice if Stern used quick-connectors for the speakers to make upgrading easier with spike 3 but that requires slightly more cost so I doubt it'll happen
 
Devil-Mish said:
Indeed, I may get shot for this but I find in a home environment with the speakers reasonably low there's little difference between the 4" and the 5.25" but I'm sure that's personal opinion.

The one pain for the 5inchs is if you have to desolder and resolder the harness that comes off your speakers, or buy speakers that have it pre-soldered and pay a premium.

Either way, your speaker rings will fit, and if you bought the kit, it comes with the 5.25" speaker grill to add it for the future so you'll have everything you need with that kit to upgrade the speakers.

Be nice if Stern used quick-connectors for the speakers to make upgrading easier with spike 3 but that requires slightly more cost so I doubt it'll happen
Click to expand...
Yeah, the de/soldering is what's putting me off a bit (I'm not good at it and think I threw my soldering iron away a while back), but am going to see if any of our neighbours are any good at it.
At school I was pretty good, but that was like 30 years ago:-)
 
Some useful info linked below. The PinSound speakers didn't fit with the Expression Lights, but the Kenwood's did.

Marvello

For Sale Post in thread 'Retro Arcade Specialists Pinball parts and mods for sale'

Marvello said:
Has anyone added the Stern Expression Pro/Premium speaker lights to 5.25" speakers, specifically the PinSound ones?

I noticed in the Black Friday sale that both PinSound speakers (5.25") and Pro/Premium expression lights were included when you bought a Premium machine. They do an LE Expression Lights kit (5.25") but that doesn't seem to be readily available over here.

Found a Pinside article saying the Pro/Premium kit works fine with 5.25" speakers with no perceivable issues.

'The Premium kits work just fine with 5.25 inch speakers, there is only a smaller black ring on the led...
Click to expand...
 
Marvello said:
Some useful info linked below. The PinSound speakers didn't fit with the Expression Lights, but the Kenwood's did.

Marvello

For Sale Post in thread 'Retro Arcade Specialists Pinball parts and mods for sale'

Marvello said:
Has anyone added the Stern Expression Pro/Premium speaker lights to 5.25" speakers, specifically the PinSound ones?

I noticed in the Black Friday sale that both PinSound speakers (5.25") and Pro/Premium expression lights were included when you bought a Premium machine. They do an LE Expression Lights kit (5.25") but that doesn't seem to be readily available over here.

Found a Pinside article saying the Pro/Premium kit works fine with 5.25" speakers with no perceivable issues.

'The Premium kits work just fine with 5.25 inch speakers, there is only a smaller black ring on the led...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
I can attest to this too, I wish I said this thread before I tried it on the pinsounds I had.

I've tested it with the JBL Stage 2s, and the Kenwoods with success on those.

Den - aka Wolfgang said:
Yeah, the de/soldering is what's putting me off a bit (I'm not good at it and think I threw my soldering iron away a while back), but am going to see if any of our neighbours are any good at it.
At school I was pretty good, but that was like 30 years ago:-)
Click to expand...

Maybe someone here could make some quick-connect adapters for you?
 
Speakers are one of the easiest things to solder in a pinball machine since you can take them out by disconnecting the molex connectors, so no chance of dripping on something else, you don’t have to do it at an awkward angle, the 2 solder points are far apart so there’s no chance of bridging anything, the points you’re soldering are large and finally it’s all hidden so it can look a bit messy as long as it’s secure.

That said, if you don’t want to solder get a harness from pinball life and plug and play. https://www.pinballlife.com/kenwood-speaker-harness-for-spike-2-machines.html

I like the jbl speakers over the kenwoods but no idea if they fit the expression light kits.
 
Marvello said:
They already do don't they? At least with recent releases. My Beatles has them, my Star Wars didn't. Pretty sure some of my others had them too, like Godzilla.

View attachment 287217
Click to expand...
Kong has this setup too. Really easy soldering job to put the wires on new speakers, probably the easiest you’ll find in pinball!
 
If you swop over from stock 4" to JBL or Kenwoods etc check what impedance (Ohm)
the system is set to. My 2021 Deadpool pro had 8 ohm stock speakers.
Most car type speakers are 4 Ohm. The power curve for speakers should be changed
to suit in your volume settings.

Just spent the last week looking at various posts here and on pinside for my spike 1.
It needed an update to get the option to swop between 4 and 8 Ohm

There are older posts with more detailed settings to get the best out of your stern sound.
 
Jib said:
Speakers are one of the easiest things to solder in a pinball machine since you can take them out by disconnecting the molex connectors, so no chance of dripping on something else, you don’t have to do it at an awkward angle, the 2 solder points are far apart so there’s no chance of bridging anything, the points you’re soldering are large and finally it’s all hidden so it can look a bit messy as long as it’s secure.

That said, if you don’t want to solder get a harness from pinball life and plug and play. https://www.pinballlife.com/kenwood-speaker-harness-for-spike-2-machines.html

I like the jbl speakers over the kenwoods but no idea if they fit the expression light kits.
Click to expand...
I can confirm they do, the Rush I just sold were using JBL speakers with the expression speaker lights.
 
Jib said:
Speakers are one of the easiest things to solder in a pinball machine since you can take them out by disconnecting the molex connectors, so no chance of dripping on something else, you don’t have to do it at an awkward angle, the 2 solder points are far apart so there’s no chance of bridging anything, the points you’re soldering are large and finally it’s all hidden so it can look a bit messy as long as it’s secure.

That said, if you don’t want to solder get a harness from pinball life and plug and play. https://www.pinballlife.com/kenwood-speaker-harness-for-spike-2-machines.html

I like the jbl speakers over the kenwoods but no idea if they fit the expression light kits.
Click to expand...
Nice! Will have to see if anywherr in the u.k sells those harnesses; prob cheaper than buying a new soldering iron (although less satisfying than diy...)
 
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Den - aka Wolfgang said:
Nice! Will have to see if anywherr in the u.k sells those harnesses; prob cheaper than buying a new soldering iron (although less satisfying than diy...)
Click to expand...
Given the newer machines seem to have the quick connects already based on what others have said, it might be worth picking up the speakers, assuming the metallica remastered will have the quick connectors and then worrying about it later if it doesn't for some reason.
 
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