was gonna wait until this part was done before posting, but I have other obligations and it will probably be a few weeks, so......
I had planned to use a $25 set of 2.1 computer speakers that I already had, but the more I listened to them, the more dissatisfied I was.
The highs just weren't there and the subwoofer sounded decent in a corner, but not pointed directly at me.
I had some spare car components and bookshelf speakers, but nothing really felt like it was going to work right.
Then I saw these in a newegg sale email:
50w RMS. 3-way (middle speaker is a sealed back mid, bottom is a woofer), very good reviews.
They are bigger than they look.
4" drivers and 15" tall. More like bookshelf speakers than PC speakers.
hmmm.....the space I have to work with is about the size of them laid end to end.
No room to just shove them in there in their current enclosures though:
Had to go around the area the monitor needs to rotate. It was very tight with speaker placement that I wanted.
(they will be divided chambers, the divider is in the cab)
Just a little less tolerance than I was comfortable with, but the monitor will clear
Reused ports from original enclosure. The amount of air space is slightly less than the original enclosure.
Before tearing the speakers down, I put blocks of MDF inside the original enclosures to reduce the air space to what the arcade cab will have.
I was still satisfied with the sound.
The speakers put out pretty good bass. Not as good as a subwoofer in a corner, but the notes are there and aren't as boomy.
The ports firing into the corner between the wall and ceiling should add a little extra bass boost.
What's with the square blocks that the speakers are mounted in.
Those are the blocks from the original enclosures, so the original fronts will fit on them.
The plan is to bridge them together with fiberglass, bondo it, and fiddle with it until I get an
Ond Quality Finish ®
(even if it takes two weeks, which I'm pretty sure it will)
The tweeters mount in the front panel.
The volume and other controls will be moved down around the cp area. Havent' figured out where yet.
The panel isn't glued into place yet. I'm having trouble figuring out what to do about ventilation at the top.
I'd planned to have a vented panel just below the speaker section.
But when I went to do it, I realized that it was going to let light leak in.
I'm relying on the inside of the cab to be dark so nothing can be seen around the monitor.
I fiddled around with some louvered vents, but since they are going on the angled panel and not the back,
I think they will let too much light in. Nothing can be put on the very back of the cab because it's being designed to sit flat against a wall.
Some kind of offset will probably have to be used, but there is zero room inside the cab because the monitor comes so close to the back when it rotates.
Something will present itself as the solution, it always does.
It will probably be a couple weeks before I get much else done.