(Topic ID: 214572)

Williams system 11 Speaker upgrade wiring (backbox connection)

By zene10

6 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 7 posts
  • 4 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 85 days ago by Gunner007
  • Topic is favorited by 21 Pinsiders

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#1 6 years ago

Previously I followed
Tony's Do-It-Yourself Guide to Speaker Replacement on WPC-Era Bally/Williams Pinball Machinesto upgrade my speakers in White Water and was happy with the results.

After the speaker replacement, the previously, barely comprehensible, muffled/distorted call outs were clear and the music sounded great. The cabinet had noticeable bass and you could feel the rumbles. I received complements on the sound at the 2018 TPF.

I brought back a Whirlwind from TPF that I had purchased a few months before. The sound was awful - distorted call-outs and fuzzy music.

I followed Tony's guide again with help from the Topic,
Williams system 11: Cabinet and Backbox speaker upgrading, however the final connection to the backbox sound board was not clear. After consulting the schematics, the pictures below illustrate the wiring (using the colors in Tony's guide) and harness configuration to make Tony's guide work for System 11 games.

Final note:remove the resistor at the volume potentiometer so you can make proper volume adjustments.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/whirlwind-club-members-only/page/43#post-4351883

For reference, I used the following components:

Whirlwind(~$50 for the list below purchased through ebay & amazon)
Right speaker                 BOSS Audio BRS40 50 Watt, 4 Inch (at a later point I'll install larger 6.5 inch with a routed spacer)
Left speaker                   BOSS Audio CH6500 200 Watt (Per Pair), 6.5 Inch
Cabinet speaker              Pyramid WX65X 6.5-Inch Cone Woofer
Cross-over                    Nippon HC-101 4 Ohm 1 channel 400w 120 Hz Low pass Subwoofer Crossover
L-Pad                            Realistic (Radio Shack) 8 ohm L-Pad model 40-977

White Water(previous install)
Right speaker                 Kicker 40CS54 5.25" 2-Way Speaker
Left speaker                   Kicker 40CS54 5.25" 2-Way Speaker
Cabinet speaker              Pyramid WX65X 6.5-Inch Cone Woofer
Cross-over                     QTX 900.582 120Hz Crossover Frequency 400W Passive 4 Ohms Subwoofer Filters
L-Pad                            Realistic (Radio Shack) 8 ohm L-Pad model 40-977

Good luck with your upgrade. It is well worth the time and effort.

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1 week later
#2 6 years ago

How's the woofer in that whirlwind? I got a couple Pyles in my WPCs and get some decent shake from world cup soccer and Indy 500. But when I throw it in Dr dude, I barely feel anything. My guess is that it's an impedence thing since it's a 4 ohm woofer. Are you able to get much shake out of the pyramid on the whirlwind?

#3 6 years ago
Quoted from mixmastapj:

Are you able to get much shake out of the pyramid on the whirlwind?

Yes, bass is great.

I removed the resistor at the volume potentiometer. After doing this and fine tuning with the Lpad, I get proper thunder rumble.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/whirlwind-club-members-only/page/43#post-4351883

#4 6 years ago

Sounds good I'll give it a shot.

If I decide to mount the lpad up in the speakers and not near the coin door, do I even need to make a new harness? It seems a bit overkill if I'm just gonna hook the existing wires up to the lpad or the crossover. I figured I'd just need some speaker wire to take the lpad to the speakers and the crossover into the sub

#5 6 years ago

It should be possible, you’ll need to look at the wiring diagrams for each component

5 years later
#6 4 months ago

Bringing this back to life in case anyone updates a Williams 11b EatPM. My sound was not great. Speech sounded scratchy and most of the music is muffled. The speakers were all original to 1989 so they all got swapped out. Doing a cap kit on it soon but even just the speaker swap helped.

I threw in a Skar Audio FSX65-8 6.5" 8ohm midrange speaker in the cab and it's a drastic improvement in the lower end and drop in replace. Sure it won't have true sub sound but it has a good punch which works for games without much rumble and bass. Have not put a crossover in it yet but that's next. Much more affordable solution with quality results.

I also threw in a pair of Pioneer TS0G1320S 5-1/4" 2 way speakers and now the sound is even and more broad without needing a bunch of adapters. I just used spacers on the right speaker and it works just fine in the original 4" hole with no modifications. I don't think the size of the panel would allow anything larger without a lot of work though.

There is a resistor on my head line that reduces the output to the speakers my guess is so that it's more even with the volume to the cabinet. The problem is it also severely cuts the high frequencies. Removing it adds a ton of clarity at low volume but it means the volume is less balanced between the speaker set.

Cutting the resistor to the potentiometer helped with line noise and volume but I think a better solution might be adding a treble bleed circuit because I do want the high frequencies to cut through at low volumes but not the rest. It reduces Elvira's voice a lot without the treble. I'm planning to try it out and see what happens. I'm wondering if this would be a good fix for the head unit as well to allow some treble bleed on the resistor circuit so it's not cutting everything in the high range. I'm not sure if the potentiometer itself is cutting signal but I know that resistor in the head cuts a huge amount of high end at lower volume. I'll come back with some results but for now if you get an 11b here are some updated bits of info.

1 month later
#7 85 days ago

Reviving, I would like to know if anyone has a newer parts list to update this thread. I started to do this on my rollergames. New sub 2 new speakers in the upper cabinet. I'm in the process of finally getting an L-pad. hard to find in Canada except for amazon. Bought a cheap crossover. It came with 2 so I hope to use one on the WW I'm picking up. Looks straight forward. + - in and +- out to sub. Ignor the trebble +- I think I can just use existing wires in the base for the sub.

The wiring process for the L-Pad is where I'm a bit confused and want to simplify the process.

I wish I could have found a crossover with a volume control built onto the board, I think that would have been a lot easier.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B091BNTSCG

Any simplified pictures for L-pad would be great or if there is a problem with what I'm doing.

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