Sound install - raising speaker?

[tbdanny]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of installing sound in a brass West Side models C-25, and I'm not entirely sure if the speaker cone will have enough space to oscillate against the floor.  I'm thinking of shimming it up with some stryrene, and I was wondering if I need to create a sealed enclosure around the speaker, or if just on the corners will be enough?

EDIT: I mean that the front of the speaker may not have enough space above the floor.

Thanks in advance,

tbdanny

[rrinker]

 You NEED an enclosure of some sort to get decent sound. If you wer eplanning on using the entire tender shell, with the speaker mounted to the floor, this will work fine, but if you need to raise the speaker up then you can't just put standoffs on teh corners, you need to use something more akin to a gasket to seal all around the speaker. Many of the palstic enclosure 'kits' have additional rings of various thicknesses to make the enclosure larger - if one is made for the size of speaker you are using, these rings would be the thing to use, and it wouldn;t be a bad thing to run a bead of caulk around the outside of it all once it's in place

                                                 --Randy

[cacole]

The spacer needs to be an airtight seal if you have holes drilled into the bottom of the model so the sound can escape, and you need to have the speaker inside a baffle.

Raising the speaker but not having it completely sealed, and having no enclosure around the back of the speaker, will cause the front and back sound waves to cancel each other and you'll get very weak sound.

 

[tbdanny]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the advice so far.  This is what I've come up with:

It's just short enough to fit into the tender.  The gaps between the styrene strips at the corners have been filled with gap-filling CA.  I'm thinking of just gluing it to the tender floor with CA, and sealing up the screw holes on the edges - would I need to worry about the vibrations from the speaker working the CA loose?

Also, would it be advisable to drill a couple of holes in the coal load for ventilation at all?

Thanks,

tbdanny

[WPAllen]

You need to totally inclose(box in) the back side of the speaker. Then mount the Tsunami to the speaker box. Like was side you make sure there is some room or the speaker to pulsate. I am in the process of mounting a Tsunami in a Westside SP 4-10-2 myself at the moment. I bought a speaker with box to make it easier.

[tbdanny]

Allen,

Unfortunately, the only sort of enclosure space I'll have will be the tender shell itself - there's not enough space to put in anything other than the module I have above.

Thanks,

tbdanny

[rrinker]

 In which case the ONLY opening in the tender should be below the speaker. Do NOT cut additional holes in it under the coal load, and try to seal up the rest of it as tightly as posisble - obviously the wires have to come out to connect to the loco.

                              --Randy

 

[NeO6874]

looks like it'll do the trick.  since the screw holes are in the mounting body of the speaker, I don't think you'll have to worry about vibration.  The cone *SHOULD* have some form of a flexible gasket between it and the mounting plate (probably just folded paper or the like, I can't tell from the pics).

 

if you're running the sound out from under the tender floor -- under no means should you add any holes to the coal load -- this will just let out the "back wave" (ie the soundwave made by the back of the speaker cone) out, which will likely cancel out the "front wave" coming from the tender floor.

 

edit -- yay for fain internet tonight ... looks like everyone's beaten me to the answer