Building of a DCC Sound System speaker. What's the best medium?

[Fergmiester]

I'm about to install my first sound system and after reading up on installation and talking to one or two people I'm still curious about one thing. Realizing the speaker box should be made of a rigid/hard material is some materials better then others? has anyone experimented with styrene, metal, hard word, etc.?

Regards
Fergie

[dave9999]

Fergie,
I don't know what kind of loco your going to install sound in, but there are many baffles for sale. Some
folks even cut down prescription pill bottles. Of course you can fabricate your own using styrene, easier
to work with than metal. Good luck, Dave

[nfmisso]

Fergie;

Plastic or wood will generally give the best acoustics. The material should be rigid, and well damped. Metals are not well damped, though there are ways around that.

The classic 35mm plastic film can is hard to beat for a small speaker.

[Blind Bruce]

Use a film can dampened with foam tape on the outside. This will also hold the can in place

[Don Gibson]

1. Speakers that FIT.

I have found that mimi speakers don't vibrate enough to worry about materials. If I want reinforcement, I'll choose wood. FAR more important is the'Baffle' - separating the back from the front wave.

The SIZE of HO restricts the frequecies below 500 Hz - an Octave above miidle C on a piano

[howmus]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Don Gibson


The SIZE of HO restricts the frequecies below 500 Hz - an Octave above miidle C on a piano

Too bad I can't put my 18" JBL Sub woofers in there and produce some serious rumble! LOL One of the things that turns me off about sound equiped locos is the fact, for me, the sounds always sound "toy like" without the bass to add the realism. After all those little speakers are really designed to be "tweeters" (ultra high frequencies) and can't produce even the mid-range that well. With all this in mind.....

Has anyone out there experimented with hooking up mobile sound decoders into a good sound system on their layout and if they have does the sound come on as "real"? You would still be able to play the whistles & bells from the throttle but would have better quality sound? A multiple channel mixer in line would allow several locos to be operated at the same time and have background sounds playing from another source as well. The only thing I can think of to prevent doing this would be if the low frequencies are missing in the output generated by the decoder.

[lupo]

Ray, and Don, I fully agree with you on the lack of lower frequencies in those mini speakers, I figured out a way to add a subwoofer to a didtal sound from a locomotive: build in a little wireless microphone, instead of the microphone connect the speaker to the input
of the wireless, pick up the transmission feed and link it to your 18' subwoofers, and if the samples used in the sound decoder are full sound spectrum your locomotive can THUNDER by! ( did not put it to the test allready, but its in the mustdo list !![:)]

[howmus]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo

instead of the microphone connect the speaker to the input
of the wireless, pick up the transmission feed and link it to your 18' subwoofers, and if the samples used in the sound decoder are full sound spectrum your locomotive can THUNDER by! ( did not put it to the test allready, but its in the mustdo list !![:)]

Nice thought, but...... If you were to do that you would most likely fry the mic unit. The impedance (electrical strength) of the speaker output is completely different from that of a microphone. It would tell you very strongly that something was wrong, and then it would go dead. [;)] In order to work you would have to place a transformer of the right type in line with the mic input. There is no way you could fit it into the loco. [:(]

[tomwatkins]

Fergie,
I've gotten good results using sheet lead for the speaker enclosures. I get it from Loy's toys. It can be soldered, but I usually assemble it with superglue. I've also used .080 styrene for the enclosure if I need to keep the weight down. Both materials work well.

Have Fun,
Tom Watkins