Need help with my speakers and amp (what parts do I need?)

[sofakng]

I've pretty much finished constructing my first arcade cabinet and I'm now ready to figure out how to get audio for this thing.

After doing a bit of research (and reading the Project Arcade book), I've discovered that a lot of people use car speakers and car amplifiers for their arcades.  Well, I have some decent quality equipment that I'm hoping to use:

Amplifier--  JBL DA4002 (2-channel car amplifier) -- 40W x 2 @ 4 ohms or 50W x 2 @ 2 ohms (check here for more information: http://www.jbl.com/car/products/product_detail.aspx?ProdId=DA4002&CheckProduct=Y

Speakers-- Polk Audio dxSeries dX6 Coaxial 6 1/2" model- dx628238 (impedance: 4 ohms)

Now I realize this is probably overkill for an arcade, but these parts have literally been sitting in a box for about 2 or 3 years now.  Does anybody think these speakers are TOO BIG (6 1/2") for the cabinet?

What do I need to hook these up to my cabinet and computer?  I'm guessing I will need:

1) A way to power the car amplifier -- What do I need for this?
2) A way to shield the speaker magnets -- Do I need a bucking magnet from partsexpress.com?  What size or kind?
3) A 6 1/2" speaker grill -- These speakers came with one but they have a whole in a middle of them.  Can I use ANY 6 1/2" speaker grill for my cabinet? (partsexpress.com?)  Any suggestions?

[moloch]

1) A way to power the car amplifier -- What do I need for this?

I used an Astron Power supply that I bought on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5700471066&sspagename=STRK%3AMEAFB%3AIT&rd=1

You just have to be sure that the amp draw on the Amp does not exceed the power supply. The Amp I use has a 5 amp fuse and the power supply can handle up to 7 amps.

2) A way to shield the speaker magnets -- Do I need a bucking magnet from partsexpress.com?  What size or kind?

Look through this and it should give you some good ideas on what to do:
http://www.audiovideo101.com/learn/askus/displayaskus.asp?questionid=89&List=6



3) A 6 1/2" speaker grill -- These speakers came with one but they have a whole in a middle of them.  Can I use ANY 6 1/2" speaker grill for my cabinet? (partsexpress.com?)  Any suggestions?

I am using a converted cabinet and just had the slits cut into it and I just mounted the speakers behind the holes on PCB feet. I am going to have to add some shielding to mine as well and I will replace the feet with true speaker spacers later this week, but I just put the speakers in this weekend.

You may want to check out the Oscar control how to add a volume: http://www.oscarcontrols.com/volume/index.shtml

I built one this weekend it is really nice to have a volume knob. Instead of cutting an RCA cable like Oscar I bought RCA input jacks at Radio Shack and built it all in a little hobby box. Later I will be adding a couple of headphone jacks as well.

Good Luck.

[sofakng]

1) Is there a power supply I can order from PartsExpress.com?  ...or do I need a certain type or anything?   I see the Astron one you got, but I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for...

2) What size bucking magnet should I get?  I really have no idea what size the magnet is on the back of this speaker (it doesnt seem all that big compared to other speakers)

3) Do you know if the "Ultimate CSG60E 6 1/2" speaker grill at PartsExpress.com will fit my Polk dx6 speaker?  I'd like to order at least the grill by tomorrow (if possible) so I'll get it by the end of the week and I can finish the drilling on my cabinet...  

...or do I need to order another grill somewhere else?  The Polk dx6 speaker has a tweeter in a middle that extends beyond the speaker (so the speaker cannot be mounted flush) -- so, I need a grill that extends outward at least a little bit...  any suggestions?

[moloch]

I did not see anything at Partsexpress site that was a suitable power supply. I went with the Astron supply only because it put out the right Amprage for the car amp I wanted to use. Hopefully someone else that has maybe added a car amp would have some insite and respond as well. I did mine by just looking at the power requirments and going from there. I have read accounts of people using computer power supplies to power car amps, I just thought that the load may be too much so I went the route I did.

Fry's electronics sells the same type of power supply that I used for between $24.99 for up to 4 Amps to around $49.95 for up to 7 Amps. It is basically the power supply for a Ham Radio.

What you are looking for is something that will put out at least 13.1 volts or so and handle the Amp load of your Amplifier. Look at the documentation for your Amplifier and it should say what it's Amp draw is. You can also look to see if you have a fuse on it and that will tell you what its maximum draw is. Mine has a Five Amp fuse so I know that a power supply that can provide 7 Amps is sufficient, this also means that the Amplifier will not allways draw the maximum of my power supply.

As far as the speaker stuff I am at a loss. I am not familiar with your speakers well enough to say, but if you have a Best Buy or Circut City near by you may want to go and take a look at what they have for speaker mounting kits. I know that in my last car when I wanted to mount some MB Quart 6x9's I bought a kit that came with some spacers to account for the tweeter that stuck out. I am going to add some spacers to the speakers that I have now and I was just goint to hit up Car Toys or Best Buy or whoever had them. I even saw some speaker installation kits at Fry's when I bought my amp and speakers so you could try them as well if you have one......

[sofakng]

Hmmm... Do you think I would be better off with buying a brand new amplifier?  (one that would work in-house right out of the box)

What would one cost?  I realize I could create my own setup by using cheap computer speakers, but what other alternatives would I have?

[AmericanDemon]

I am using a spare surround sound receiver.  Going to be using the optical cable output from my SB Audigy 2 Platinum as the source to the amp.  Then to some JVC Speakers.

[krick]

If you're wiring your cabinet JAMMA in case you install a real JAMMA board in the future, you might want to wire your speakers to 4 pin molex connectors like the diagram below.

[sofakng]

Well, I'm building a custom cabinet so I don't use JAMMA (and almost definitely never will.)

Regarding the amplifier, last night I hooked it up to my PC's power supply.  What I did was connect the "Remote-ON" AND "Power" to the +12V on my power supply.  After that I connected the ground on the amplifier to the ground on the power supply.

It sounds GREAT!!

I'm worried that by doing that I'm somehow damaging the amplifier or the power supply.  Is this true?  If not then I don't even need to buy any DC --> AC converters.  This works wonderfully!

However I still have the problem about obtaining a speaker grill for my 6 1/2" speaker.  Do you think Best Buy or Circuit City might carry standard-size speaker grills that will work for me?  Where else might I be able to get one?

[Craig]

Well, I'm building a custom cabinet so I don't use JAMMA (and almost definitely never will.)

Regarding the amplifier, last night I hooked it up to my PC's power supply.  What I did was connect the "Remote-ON" AND "Power" to the +12V on my power supply.  After that I connected the ground on the amplifier to the ground on the power supply.

It sounds GREAT!!

I'm worried that by doing that I'm somehow damaging the amplifier or the power supply.  Is this true?  If not then I don't even need to buy any DC --> AC converters.  This works wonderfully!

Good to hear your amp sounds good. Depending on the power supply or amplifier don't drive it overboard until you know the current draw etc.

Why would you need a DC to AC converter? It's a DC supply and it is working for you. Car amplifiers work off DC and are boosted from around 12VDC to up to 40VDC via an internal inverter circuit.