Aesthetically, I really like the look of The lit speakers of Stern LEs. I’m too poor to buy LEs, and I generally spring for Pro models.

I have upgraded all My Sterns pros and premiums to LE speakers with the deluxe 13 speaker lights from DugFreez and following this thread:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guide-to-converting-spike-2-pro-prem-to-le-speakers-lighting#post-6646639

I tried to find examples of WPC games doing the same but didn’t see much…so documenting here for anyone that wants to get the same upgrade on WPC titles

It took about 1 hour, very minor soldering, and $150+ shipping/taxes.

Speakers: Kenwood KFC-1366s. You can get a pair at Amazon or PinballLife.com for $32-40

Speaker panel: wpc DMD from VirtuaPin.Net for $30. Sure one could drill the right speaker hole larger in existing panel, but this allows for a completely reversible mod and there’s way less work. Panel comes t-nutted.

Speaker lights: deluxe 13 model for $75 from SpeakerLightKits.com - and I specified to Doug that I’d like a normal 2 blade US power adapter rather than adapted for Sterns Spike 2 system in the back box.

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1. Buy The parts

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2. Use spray paint to paint front of panel from virtuapin black.

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3. Add speaker light rings and speakers. (Note: at some point I’d like some colored acrylic to add aesthetic depth, but they’d have to be smaller that what Doug currently stocks to be seen given the wpc acrylic panel)

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4. Add DMD and brackets. Unsolder wires from old speakers and solder to new speakers. Add acrylic panel to front and top plastic channel.

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5. Reattach to back box: ribbon cable, grounds, etc. I mounted the speaker light adapter in the upper right which made it easy to run the plug out the existing holes at top of back box. This is plugged into the same power switch my game is plugged into - so when the switch is tripped - the lights turn on with the game.

Done.

A few things you may want to do different:

Maybe you don’t like seeing the speakers - you can transfer the speaker grill from original panel onto the new virtuapin panel first thing. I like seeing the speaker tweeter.

I do like having an additional solid colored acrylic panel just inside the existing speaker panel holes that light shines through as it gives additional visual depth - I was hoping light might actually penetrate the existing acrylic panel given the acrylic holes are smaller than the wooden panel holes…but no dice.

So…who wants to make some colored acrylic for me that would fit this application?!?!?!

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These are the colored acrylic speaker surrounds - and I’d like to source these with a slight smaller opening than the current WPC acrylic panels to get that visual depth.
DugFreez or TFK ??

http://speakerlightkits.com/5.25-SPIKE-2-Speaker-Surrounds.html

Game #2 done: the Shadow baby! Fortunately the lights do come through some of the acrylic on this one. I like it.

This run was about 30 minutes instead of an hour given I was repeating a process.

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Bickety bickety bam! Let’s go fishing boys!

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