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http://pinballbash.com/forum/index.php?topic=21654.0
Troy over on pinball bash posted some info on upgrading the subwoofer on spike machines and adding a crossover. My LZ actually came from him and has the upgraded sub with crossover. It sounds pretty good to me.
Quoted from davegauth:DIY - Side Round
Amplifier Buzzzz/Hummmmm.... Dealing with line noise..
So you plug your new amplifier in and it's awesome. Until you hear an annoying humm or buzzzz - the line noise sound that is constantly there, or tied directly to increasing the volume.
I've had a couple people reach out to me about line noise, and I've also ran into it with testing amps myself. Generally it hasn't been a big problem, and most of the time it's not going to be an issue. But if you do run into this, then the good news is it can be an easy fix. As I've mentioned before I'm not an engineer, and I don't often stay at Holiday Inn's sooooooo...... Here is some research and testing I was able to do to come up with some layman's results.
First off - this humm can be associated with a few things.
1 - The amplifier itself, and the circuitry it uses to process and amplify the input signal.
2 - The power supply, some of the cheaper power supplies can create issues. Different power supplies plugged into different amps tend to produce differing results. (probably related to ground loops listed next)
3 - Ground loops and power line noise. This is basically noise that finds it's way into your audio signal going from the pin to the amp. This can happen for a ton of reasons. Take a look at the first 8 minutes or so of this video as it does a good job of explaining this:
Let's dig a little deeper...
#1 - Amps have a certain amount of noise to them. It's just a fact of life. Since we are not working with $5,000+ audiophile amps(and why should we be) we will need to expect some level of noise. But there is some great news here, most of these mini amps are absolutely just fine and the noise is no where near a problem. It's the other two problems that are usually the issue and not the amp itself. In order to quickly test your amp, plug your amp into your speakers and power supply - turn the amp on and cycle the volume up and down(be sure to turn all the dials up). Do this without any type of cable or audio signal plugged into the amp, only the speaker cables, and power power cable. That is generally going to be your noise floor you are working with, and it's probably more than acceptable. (odds of this being your noise problem - low)
#2 - Power supplies, yuk.... This has become a bane of mine. I have a bunch of amps laying around, and also a bunch of power supplies that came with them. I don't always plug the same power supply into the same amp when I'm sitting on the floor switching between amps. One amp maybe sounding great, then I switch it up, and plug that amp back in later and its full of noise. WTH - turns out, each amp reacts differently to different power supplies. Soo a good learning moment. If you do the test above, and you get some noise - then try switching the power supply, if you have another one available. If you have to purchase your own power supply to begin with - then consider spending just a little more on a quality power supply. (odds of this being your noise problem - low/mid)
#3 - Ground loop noise. First watch that video I posted for a better overview of ground loop issues, and noise that can get into your audio signal. Do the test I mentioned in #1 above. Sound good to you? Now plug your audio cable into the amplifier. Was the amp quiet and now you hear the noise? (odds of this being your noise problem - high)
With #3 being the most likely cause of your noise problem - what can you do? First, try plugging your amplifier into the same outlet as your pin(Even the service outlet inside the pin could help). Second, try a different power supply if you have one available. Third, go to amazon and purchase a $10 3.5mm ground loop noise eliminator: amazon.com link » and plug it inline with your audio signal. More often than not, the ground loop eliminator will do the job, there have been times when it has made the noise worse depending on the power supply.
When I get to the amplifier writeups and comparisons - I will be sure to mention it's line noise level, and any specific fixes that worked.
With these steps, and some mixing and matching trials, you should be able to greatly reduce any levels of line humm/noise you may be running into.
Hope this helps.
***Note: there are some amplifiers that use sound circuitry to temporarily "Mute" an audio input signal when it doesn't detect an input. That means it is like an on/off switch for line noise that maybe present. This is both good and bad. You won't hear the line noise just buzzing away when there is no sound to be played as it will cut itself off. On the other hand, that noise is still there when the sound is being played and it is turned on. This can be annoying during moments when there are passages in the audio when you can clearly hear the noise just buzzing in the background. Think of it this way - Listening to Offspring and you will probably not hear the buzzing because the sound is non-stop. Listen to Phil Collins In the Air Tonight - and you will be hearing all that buzzing in the background.
Those ground loop isolators do a good job on JJP machines too in my experience. Stock, hobbit and dialed in had pretty annoying him from the speakers. Those isolators cleaned it right up.
Pinball life has a $99 kit that includes the kenwood 5.25" speakers, the plates, and a speaker light kit. I know many didn't rate the kenwoods as high as others, but its a pretty solid deal for the kit.
https://www.pinballlife.com/rgb-led-round-speaker-upgrade-and-light-kit-for-most-stern-spike-2-pro-premium-machines.html
Or for 60 bucks you can get the kit without speakers. So pretty much lights on top of the plates for only 10 bucks extra.
https://www.pinballlife.com/rgb-led-speaker-light-kit-for-stern-spike-2-machines-copy.html
I have the 99 dollar kit coming. I am not sure if I will put it in Godzilla or Deadpool yet though.
Did the PBL speaker upgrade with the light kit. So Kenwood backbox and then added the Skar cabinet. Nice improvement. Just picked up two pairs of the kickers of ebay for 86 shipped. So I will see which games those go in. One set probably in Deadpool. Then may swap out the Godzilla speakers and put the Kenwood's in my IJ. I am planning to swap out that speaker panel with one that does 5.25 speakers along with the 3 jackpot light cutouts.
Ok, so I have been playing pretty much just Godzilla with the upgrades mentioned previously and my Rick and Morty which has the amp and speakers, etc. Was kinda wondering just how much of an improvement the upgrades were... Went to play Deadpool tonight with the stock sound and yep, sounds way different. It will be getting some upgrades now soon as well. Its crazy just how fast I got accustomed to the upgrades on Godzilla.
So the two sets of kickers I bought on ebay... those never shipped. I paid immediately on winning. Got a message saying they would ship the next morning, then nothing for over a week. Messaged twice asking for tracking. Then I got refunded out of the blue. The 8inch speaker I grabbed from amazon did show up. I will have to scrounge up another pair of 5.25 for deadpool.
Quoted from Spiderpin:Wrong Thread, this is DIY
If you want Phenomenal instead of amazing start at post #1 and read.
I saw you had done the rockford fosgate speakers (even saw your review on amazon 
). Have you used any other speakers and if so, how would you compare them?
Quoted from pete_d:Exact cost will depend on print settings, but for a single mounting plate the slicer puts the total filament at around 75 g. That's for 0.1 mm layer height, 10% infill, and no supports. Assuming $30/kg for filament, that puts the direct materials cost at just over $2. Of course, electricity will add some pennies to that price -- rough guess, 100W for 10 hours of printing is 1 kWh, which is around 10-20 cents depending on where you live -- and there's your friend's time. Double all of that for two plates.
Hopefully your friend can help, but if not many people have a local library that provide 3D printing services, there are also services online (Xometry and Shapeways, for example), and I have read that many UPS shipping stores include 3D printing services. Apparently FedEx has also been threatening to include 3D printing services in its stores (https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/fedex-3d-printing-forward-depots-inventory-repair-supply-chain-127980/), but I know even less about that.
As for photos, sure. Here are some photos of the speaker with an actual test print (not quite the final one, but pretty close), and a screenshot of the plate in PrusaSlicer.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Pretty cool design. Have you mounted it yet? Wondering how easy it is to install the two small screws that go into the display. I suppose a 90 degree screw driver could do it.
Quoted from Ashram56:Has anyone designed a spacer ring for the subwoofer in the cabinet, to increase clearance between the woofer and the grid?
I can probably quickly design one though
I think many of us are simply removing the grill/grid/screen piece as it also reduces vibration/noise.
Quoted from jackd104:Searched thread for CGC discussion but didn’t find much.
What’s the consensus on the SE remakes, Cactus Canton, for example. The marketing touts “upgraded sound” but how real is that? Are the stock speakers decent or crap like Stern? Any advice on good swap in replacements for backbox and cab for CGC?
Thanks much.
I have owned a few of the CGC games. The machines with the upgraded sound were just fine. Honestly the classic AFM I had didn't sound bad at all either, the LE had more punch.
I grabbed a set of the Infinity 4032 4" speakers for the backbox and the GRS 8" for the cabinet to go in my Rush. I had done a couple sets of 5 1/4 backbox, but wanted to try the 4" to skip the plate replacement or spacer deal. These speakers turned out to just not quite be flush. I got out the dremel and cut out the thinner inner cross pattern portion of the factory 4" speaker plate. This allowed the speaker to be mounted to the plate, but the tweeter still hit the honeycomb part when installed. I ended up using washers between the plate and lcd/speaker panel. With the foam in place you can just make out the tweeter.
Sound overall is much improved. I will probably tweak the EQ settings some more. Right now all are set at 8 ohm.
Quoted from MANTO1975:I'm wanting to upgrade my 4" 4 ohm speakers in the following games, Transformers LE, Ghostbusters LE, Game Of Thrones LE and Star Trek LE, i would like to replace them with Infinity 4032cfx 4" speakers which are 3 ohm, will the factory stern sound board/amp be able to handle these speakers and not have any issues?
cheers
Trevor
They aren't quite flush. The tweeter protrudes just a small bit. Your options would be spacer (or light kit which would include one), or remove the grill. Otherwise, I don't see why they wouldn't work on the spike/sam machines you mentioned. They sound pretty good on my Rush.
https://www.amazon.com/GRS-8SW-4-Poly-Cone-Subwoofer/dp/B072YJZWMM
I have used this on Deadpool and Rush. Big improvement over stock. 30 bucks right now. Easy install. I removed the mesh on both when installing.
Quoted from GCS2000:Upgrading my GZ premium are the Kenwoods still the go to for this or is the Kickers now?
And planning to do the JBL 8" sub as well unless there is a better option.
TIA
I would give the nod to the Kickers over the Kenwoods. I even like the 4 inch infinity set over the 5.25 kenwoods. The kit that pinballlife sells with the lights, plates, kenwoods, and acrylic ring is a nice value package though. I have it in my Godzilla.
Quoted from davegauth:Someone out there is hooking up Monster 8ga speaker wire to their Fosi right now.... Gonna be killa.....
I only use the finest Pear audio cables...
Blast from the past:
https://gizmodo.com/7-250-speaker-cables-turn-you-into-a-dancin-fool-302478
Quoted from BW1029:Any thoughts on the Kicker 5.25 KSC line vs the CSC? Most people on here reference the CSC line and its only a $30 difference in price between the pairs but they seem to have mostly the same specs.
Not a huge price difference, but it adds up if doing a few games. Otherwise I would say on games with more focus on the music, that is where to me the bump in cost may be worth it. I see you have GZ and 007, not sure I personally would go for it on those two. GZ has sound effects and callouts running pretty constantly. 007 I have mostly played on location and can't hear as well, may be worth it there.
Quoted from gumnut01:So I can find 5.25” spacer rings on thingiverse but no 8”. Can someone do me a solid and add or point me to a 3D print for the cabinet speaker? Thanks in advance.
Dave,
I have put this even cheaper Skar in a couple machines so far:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K3QUBZU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title
It punches well above its weight class. For a guy like me who has been around too many aircraft and bang bang boomy things... It is a pretty great upgrade. Its also under $25. I haven't used a spacer. Simply removed the grill and dropped it on the stock studs.
Quoted from PinTweeter:I was tasked to locate an early post showing our 4in to 5.25in interposer to drive home the point that we originated what is now our mature design with countless units in the field. Below is an early post from about 12/26/2019. We have other old website photos as well, but this should work OK:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-amplified-subwoofer-kits-by-pinwoofer/page/7#post-5380004
We have sold our interposer for years and have zero issues with the current and mature design.
It should not be up to us to support a copy of our design, and that fails in the field only to provide a set of our rings (known to work and have proper specs for just about any speaker) free of charge to preserve our speaker sales and to support an inferior design. Our customer comes first and we can't tolerate design misses out in the free downloadable content space.
The thingiverse model had a ring pocket that is too shallow and a typical coaxial (our) tweeter assembly makes contact with the front of the speaker panel preventing a flush mount. This may not be our problem to solve, but we will do it out of good will again for our customers.
We messaged John_I to call the shop to explain what's going on, but as of yet no phone call.
This was not the only model we protested by the way.
Truly bad form here. This is how you get folks to go around and form a downvote/bad-mouth brigade for you.
Quoted from Falc0nWing:folks! Is it possible to install 5.25 speakers into Stern SAM machines? which off the shelves speakers are the best for these machines? adapter rings are not a problem. thanks for the input!
If you have a later run SAM game with the metal/angled speaker grill, I would say probably not worth the trouble. The spike stuff with the removable/modifiable plates really helps since it all still looks stock from the front. If you have the older square wooden speaker panel you could drill new holes to mount your speakers. You will still run into the flush mount requirement though as I believe the mesh is mounted to the back. Or you would need to remove it.
Dave is the 5x7 plate STL floating around? I understand if not as some folks don't play nice with others by making strike claims.
Quoted from Animal:Im looking for help on this forum to upgrade the amplifier on a Rush LE. I presently have upgraded to the headphone/volume on the coin door and I have alligator clips clipped to the cabinet speaker for a subwoofer.
Can someone recommend an upgraded amplifier and also specify connectors (and how to power it) and where to attach it to the soundboard? As well, Id be looking for advise on a proper connector to a subwoofer. Id be looking for an amplifier in the $200 - $300 dollar range. As from Ive gleamed from this thread, going with an amplifier would give me the biggest bag for my buck as I have the upgraded speaker for my Rush LE.
Im a nub in this area, so any "how-to" details would be greatly appreciated as I will undoubtedly need them.
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