Tales from the Crypt
Data East, 1993Hi I just bought a nice Tales from the Crypt. I noticed the other day the sound was very thin, even by DE standards. Sound setting is set to 100% for the music compared to SFX.
When digging further I saw that the cabinet speaker was replaced with the one pictured. It works and sound is coming out. The sound is beefier (subwoofer?) but it's very low. Is there a way to boost its volume?
Was it originally a subwoofer type speaker in the cabinet?
No that’s not original. I see its 8 ohm, im not sure if that system runs on 8ohms... all my pins use 4 ohm speakers.. an 8 ohm speaker on a 4 ohm system would make it Much quieter.. I’d do some more research before throwing a different speaker in there but i think your on the right track.
Quoted from tilted81:No that’s not original. I see its 8 ohm, im not sure if that system runs on 8ohms... all my pins use 4 ohm speakers.. an 8 ohm speaker on a 4 ohm system would make it Much quieter.. I’d do some more research before throwing a different speaker in there but i think your on the right track.
Ok, thank you. If the system is running 4ohm amp then it will "half" the power to the speaker if it's twice the load (8 ohm) like in this case? Will it mess up the amplification to the backbox speakers?
Also, I checked the manual and wiring now, the wires are connected wrong. Yellow/black is center+. Will swap it around and see how much difference it made.
Thanks, I will consider recapping the amps when I have it properly setup with a 4 ohm center speaker.
I don't have volume issues with the backbox speakers.
Swapped the polarity of the cabinet speaker and got a noticeable increase in bass. Also better clarity from backbox speakers. Don't know if it actually affected the two channels since there are three amplifiers @ 14 W each but I'd like to think so.
Since the speaker is running at 8ohms it's a bit too quiet. But I will buy a separate cheap 5V or 12V amp to boost it so I can lower the overall front speaker volume.
Although using a lower ohm speaker can make the amp work harder (and thus put out more watts), the main thing you want to look for in a speaker is the EFFICIENCY rating.
A low efficiency speaker will be very quiet.
If we had two 4 ohm speakers, one with a 94db efficiency rating and one with a 91db efficiency rating, the 91db unit would require TWICE the wattage to achieve the same volume.
Also, get a FULL RANGE speaker not a subwoofer speaker, as those tend to be very inefficient.
Finally, get a low wattage speaker. A speaker rated for 500w is not going to be happy being driven by an 8w pinball amp, lol.
Thank you for the advice Vid. I could replace the speaker for an original full range woofer for about 20 bucks, but since the installed speaker seems to be brand new I'd like to try to amplify it separately before replacing it.
Maybe I should be thinking the other way round? Put some resistors on the backbox speakers so I can turn up the volume without them screaming at me.
It will pump a bit more juice to the center speaker and not be too loud on top.
Ok I swapped for a 4 ohm speaker which improved it further. very good bass when volume is turned up.
Don't know if it's available other than by one shop here in Sweden. It's probably a Chinese story.
Brand is MGR and sensitivity is decent. It's very recommended to install a stereo (for data east) L-pad to lower the backbox speakers though since they're too loud when cranking the volume up.
Specs on the speaker
Eff.160 W. Imp. 4 Ohm. Känsl. 91 dB. Frekv. omf. 35-5000 Hz. Rek. deln.frekv. <3500 Hz. Qts 0,75. Vas 10,62 l Fs 50,80 Hz. yttermått 211 mm. Baffelhål 181 mm. Djup 95 mm. Vikt 1,9 kg.
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