Nice - You'll like them. I do have much more info coming with more speaker DIY mods.

I'm getting some serious air balls when hitting the power line targets on either side of the building. Ball flies halfway down the playfield, sometimes even making it into a wire ramp. Any fixes for this? Maybe an extension of the plastic over those shots?

I got impatient its been one hell of a last hour trying to find screws Juuust long enough to work and then get those damn sensors mounted! They should send me a damn building after that lol I scuffed up my stern building trying to get the damn thing to work with the stock set of screws and their bracket and FML was that a PITA! Not a great way to spend my actual playing time now I gotta get dinner ready and that'll probably be my night. Welp. Ok one quick game!

Thanks for the helps everyone!

Just a slight alignment adjustment and what a difference! That destruction jackpot shot is now more make-able. Also, shots that don't quite make it up the right ramp are not draining SDTM, but hitting the left flipper. The wallop shot is less brutal, too. And one other difference worth noting is that the Godzilla multiball release doesn't result in all 3 balls SDTM. Thanks for everyone's advice!

DIY Speaker mod round 2..

I mentioned I would try out some 5.25" speakers in the back box for the next post. But it was driving me nuts that I couldn't find a good consistent balance with the stock sub.

So I spent some time playing with the cabinet woofer instead.

FREE Sub Upgrade, well kinda.... Even at what I would consider lower volumes I was getting that familiar crackle when a speaker is reaching its limits.. I thought surely this shouldn't be the case unless I already blew the speaker. After some looking - the problem was with the plastic speaker mesh Stern uses between the cabinet and the speaker. The cone and the mesh are way too close togetehr, once the cone gets moving the two of them strike a nice vibe together.

If you think this maybe the case and want to test it on your machine - use the DJ mixer and turn up the volume to replicate the crackling. Then use a pick to pull the plastic mesh away from the speaker. If the sound goes away you have a free mod coming.. Just remove the mesh and instant upgrade. Now you can push the stock sub a bit more.

Ok - Back on track.... The stock sub acts more like a mid bass. Though it covers a range from about 125-4k ish it's a garbled spongy sounding mess, it doesn't particularly stand out for anything other than providing filler noise between those frequencies. An unexpected finding is It also throws a bunch of this garbled sound up through the back box. Try it for youself, turn your back box speakers off using the fader in the utilities menu. Turn up the volume- listen to all that trash sound that eminates from the back box.

This reverberating trash coming up through the backbox competes with the backbox speakers.. I found that all of the back box speaker upgrades I was testing sounded good by themselves, but sounded like crap once I tried bringing in the stock sub to balance everything out. The additional garbage coming up the backbox made everything sound so off and disconnected.

Conclusion - Upgrading backbox speakers themselves may not be worth it. There is no doubt that new back box speakers will sound better than the stock ones. Even given less than ideal situations. But they are too small to provide a good full sound by themselves. As you bring the stock sub into play to try filling in the gap - well things just sound wrong. Finding that balance is really difficult and it only worked on lower volumes. Oddly - the crappy back box speakers and crappy sub harmonize and suck really well together...

Anyway - food for thought. Next post I'll add a new sub to the mix and see what happens.

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I'm getting my machine (Premium) in March. Do I need to pick up a memory card of any kind? If yes, what do you suggest? TiA

The machines are now WiFi enabled and you can download game updates wirelessly as long as your machine is Insider Connect enabled and registered or you can download the update via the Stern website on to a USB drive and do it manually, which is the method I still use. A 32GB USB flash drive would be more then enough.

The microsd card is already pre installed. If you plan on sing the IC and running the updates through that, you dont need anything extra to run updates.

Glad your machine is straightened away now. It really does take as little as a quarter turn of a leg leveler to make a difference. Haven't seen a game setup this sensitive since Star Wars.

Yeah, it's not really a sub, but a woofer. And a crappy one, at that.

DIY sound upgrades round 3

Frustrated with the stock sub muddling up the sound of the back box speakers. It's time to throw down with a new sub.

Subwoofers can present a challenge in a pin. First it's by no means an ideal enclosure. Second they are power hungry and require a lot of power to truly shine. Third good subs get expensive fast.

Much of this can be solved by just going to a separate powered subwoofer that can live under your pin. But that option runs around $150-$250 and doesn't address the muddling sound of the stock sub messing up the sound.

I found a renewed JBL Stage 810 for $50. Renewed is a gamble. But I figure if this nice JBL didn't work there is no hope for anything lower/cheaper making a difference.

So how did it go - Ohhhhhh Myyyyyyyy... This did the trick and then some. Finally it's coming alive. The base is very tight and punchy. It also cuts off closer to 1-2k without filtering. This means much less mid is projecting through the backbox. What does make it up the backbox is nice and crisp without interfering with the new 4" Kickers.

Pro's - this is the missing piece needed to make upgrading your speakers worth while. Once balanced with the backbox speakers they stayed that way through all volume levels. Even lower volume levels still gave that nice bass/puch feel.

Con's - It is a power hungry sub. Even though it's 4ohms, you will need to run it as 8ohm to be able to balance more evenly with the back box speakers. Mounting is not a simple bolt in replacement. The bolts in the cabinet will need to be replaced with longer ones, as the lip on this JBL is really thick. Alternatively, a couple wood screws could be used to fasten the speaker to the inside of the cabinet using the other holes in the speaker rim.

Overall - Speaker upgrades may only be worth it if you change out that crappy sub as well. Once you do - it just opens everything up.

Next up - I'll get back to testing some quality 5.25" options, and I have another sub coming to test.
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Fantastic series, thank you! This is definitely on my list for my Godzilla (stock speakers just hint at the awesome that I know is there)

Have you played with a baby amp for the JBL? Godzilla stomps aren't quite as demanding on quality as Reiner "Scheherazade"

Looking forward for the next posts in the series!

Thank you. I'll keep posting as long as people like following it.

I haven't tried an amp yet, but I do have an eye on a couple.

I'm working my way up from mild to wild to truly bonkers... We are still at the mild stage of things.

I've had good success on a few machines using the Pyle PL412BK 4" speakers for the backbox and Skar Audio FSX8-4 8" Mid-Range Woofer for the cabinet. Around $50 - $60 total for those. I use 8 ohm setting for cab and tweak settings to my liking.
Also use a Monoprice 8" or 12" for an external powered sub... and of course shaker as well!
Don't have my Godzilla Premium yet, but used this same setup several times now and have them waiting...

Meat is tasty!

oh cool. thanks! can you take a pic of your equalizer settings and what do you have your voice and music contenium set to?

Sure thing - This is how I have them now with the JBL sub. It's not too much different than with the stock sub. No changes to voice or music attenuation.

I had seen your post a couple weeks back. I have 5 machines to upgrade, so I may be trying out your combo for comparison in the future.

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ya, that's the mechanic; he "digs underground", and you have to wait for him to surface to hit him. it's so much harder than the other 3 at that level

The rulesheet on tilt forums explains it well.

Megalon - 7 flashing shots
A random flashing yellow shot will light for about 10 seconds. Hitting the flashing shot before it times out will 3 award million + 1 million per lit shot and light a new, different flashing shot. Hitting flashing shots in succession without them timing out will multiply the shot value by +1x, to a maximum of 8x.

Failing to hit the flashing shot before time expires will allow Megalon to hide; while in hiding, two shots will light solid yellow. Hitting either shot will award ? points, clear both solid shots, and return Megalon to fighting mode as describe above. If neither shot is hit for ? seconds, both shots will clear and Megalon will return to fighting mode.

The two solid lit arrows are always the ramps ime. There’s never nothing lit in the mode.

Thank you so very much!! Installed the CS4’s and love them. Definitely sounds better. Adding my Polk psw10

Here’s a video of them playing. Hard to hear and really appreciate the difference from stock speakers.

I wonder if building a box around the sub with a ‘breather’ hole would isolate the backbox speakers and the sub a little better?

For anyone with pinstadiums, what is the best flasher to tie into? I had it in the one behind mecha Godzilla but it flashes continually when you need to hit the shot. I’m thinking back right of the building.

i have mine on the middle spinner/heat ray charge.

Yea Im getting some airballs too when hitting some targets. Once in a while itll end up into a wireform or hitting the wireform.

Wow, I never get airballs like this. Is your table pitch really low? Flipper strength turned up high?

davegauth

Could you post a 10band picture of your cabinet settings also ? I saw you already posted the Backbox picture

I always hook the Pinstadium flashers to the Shaker Motor.

I installed a external subwoofer. Any recommendations as far as changing the settings or equalizer? I still have all the stock speakers.

I had a similar difficulty, though (for anyone else doing the same down the road) their recommendation to put sticky notes on the outside of the building facade did help me prevent serious scratching, cheers... (Wish I had thought of just sticky-taping the thing.)

So I've had to do it on every single modern stern in the last few years, so it's no surprise...

But, I've been having such a good time playing the Godzilla that even though Ive noticed some weakness of the flipper strength despite bringing the power of the coil up a couple notches , I haven't done much else knowing that the next move is to change out the coil stops.

I happened to have some extra stern coil stops from pinball life and went ahead and installed them (along with some fresh coil sleeves) this morning and played a game.
Man, it's like having brand new flippers! Woohoo!! Strong as hell, and I can probably even come down on the coil settings back to factory, haha...but everything flowed so good, I think I'll just leave it as it is for now.

But just wanted to post another vote for changing out your coil stops!

Where do you plug it Into? I have just the pins so would need to stick in the back of the connector. I assume they just light up every time it shakes?

how did you wire the subwoofer? hard to tell from the pics
thanks

I will say this, and mind you, I was talking with Scott from Pinstadium about this very thing just last week.

The connection into the shaker motor is not absolutely guaranteed to work if you have an aftermarket shaker. Meaning, you'll experience it briefly (and yes, it is a very cool effect), but it may not be a durable result. Meaning, by the second ball or so, you'll notice that both the UV Pinstadium flashers and the shaker cease to function. In those cases, power down, disconnect the Pinstadium connection from the shaker, reboot the machine and the shaker works back to normal.

In talking with Scott about this, he has noticed that for all games that come with a stern shaker already installed from the factory, they seem to work reliably, nearly 100% of the time. However, aftermarket shaker motors, while they work great as a shaker motor itself in the game, for whatever reason (a good portion of time) have a difficult time uniformly working with this particular Pinstadium hookup. He says it has been somewhat random as to who's aftermarket shakers work and don't work with this hookup, sometimes +/- from the very same company (PBL, Cointaker, Game Room Guys, etc, etc).

So, if you currently have a game that has a shaker motor installed from the factory, it'll probably work great. You can check the Pinstadium thread here on Pinside and do a forum/topic search for "Godzilla" and you will see a nice post on how it hooks up to the shaker motor via the provided splicer wires.

For me, I have aftermarket shaker, and it did not work reliably with the Pinstadium hookup. I opted to use the splicer wires to tie the UV flasher into the center spinner flasher, and I think the effect is really great, especially with the Tesla strike towers from tdiddy . When you rip that spinner, it really looks electric back there!

Hope this helps.

Just tie them into the two wires that connect to the shaker.

**SOLD**

If anyone is interested.

I have a second set of Xilien Controllers that I was going to use for a project that I scrapped. I know they are a bit pricey I guess because they are so hard to find but I'm looking what I paid for them $70.00 shipped in the US and I do accept PP as FF. If your interested just shoot me a PM thanks.
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**

Really appreciate hearing the results of your experiments. I think too many people are too quick to just throw money at a packaged audio replacement kit instead of going the DIY route for much less. This tip alone made a big difference for me. I had a bad crackle that I suspected was coming from that speaker grill, but all efforts to tighten it down or shim it did not completely resolve the issue, so I thought maybe the speaker was blown. After reading your comments, I went ahead and removed it altogether and my game sounds SO much better. Keep up the good work.

It is lalmost like the targets are spring loaded.. I think the pitch is about 6.5 and flipper strength is at factory setting. What do you have your flippers set at?

Make sure theres no debris from posts or the blue rubbers in the area. Little bit of flakes can give it enough momentum to come off the playfield. also see if the targets are perpendicular to the field. If they're slightly bent at an angle either factory or from repetive hits, it can give it an upward trajectory on the return from the bounce

How is changing coil stops making the flippers stronger? I am getting to 400 games, did not notice weak flippers yet

Maybe not stronger by default standards, but its been fairly common that Stern coil stops can degrade quicker for some people. Much sooner than your 400 games where you're at...even as soon as sub 100 games. Using some better quality ones stops and sleeves (as needed if the stock ones dirtied them up) can get the flipper strength up to par to where they're supposed to be. I replaced mine early just to be safe since they're fairly cheap and had spares lying around. My other game needed them very early in its life and was having issues at sub 200 games to hit several ramps and shots.

They are referring to the stern coil stops that self-destruct. When the stop works its way loose, your first symptom will be weak flippers.

Pitch is 6.8 and factory flipper settings.

Never mind

I thought someone created a new bracket to eliminate this problem?

Here's some speaker for WPC BUT also relevant to the work --

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-to-add-a-cheap-sub-under-40-that-sounds-awesome-to-your-wpc-game/page/2#post-6028324

Here's the spike2 upgrade info--

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guide-to-converting-spike-2-pro-prem-to-le-speakers-lighting#post-5273139

Personally I already bought and have waiting the exact same speakers as the LE's stern puts in them..

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B079SFC3P9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00

I thought that I figured it out but balls are still flying around. I will search for this bracket. Thank you.