Hacking PC speakers for cocktail cab

[DarkSoul1]

I've hacked a pair of cheap PC speakers to use in the cab.  Each speaker is 4ohm, 3 watt and are OK but I'm considering something better.

Just wondering if anyone has done similar but replaced the speakers with ones a bit better but still using the pc speaker amp?One speaker will be about 6 inches from my HDD, do I really need to use shielded speakers?

[paigeoliver]

I am sure you could, but do you really want to? Even the $10 PC speakers I use in my cabinets are uncomfortably loud at anything over half volume. And even the cheapest PC speakers are equal in quality to the average arcade speaker.

[PedroSilva]

Hi,

I've used the same ... bought a 4" cheap car round columns (20W) ... Haven't tested it yet ... hope it works  

[team OBryan]

I took apart a pair of $10 pc speaker and connected the amp part to a pair of  4 1/2"  8 ohm speakers  and put them in my cocktail cab. It Sounds way better than the original speakers did.Not sure what ohm the pc speakers were but I have had it setup like this for 2 years with no problems. Also the bottom of my control panels are plexiglass so i mounted the amp in the player one panel facing down with the power button and volume control stickin out of 2 small holes in the plexi .This makes it very easy to control the volume or turn ithe sound off completely.I wish I would have made the headset jack usable.

[dhansen]

If your computer has an ISA slot, the old Soundblaster 16 cards have an onboard 3w amp that will power the speakers. It can get pretty loud but since my three machines are so close to each other I usually keep the volume pretty low.  Except with Robotron or Tempest!

Doug