Advice needed for speakers and amplification

[Grant]

I have found conflicting messages on what type of speaker setup to use. Some say the sound is not important and others that a good pair of speakers and proper amp (non pc) should be used to get that real experience. I have gone through various example sites but none mention amplification (RMS), speaker watts, or screening. I know some have hooked up their electronics of PC speakers to the system but little in the way of details are provided.

My current thinking is that I want a good sounding 2.1 speaker system (buy a Creative labs or Altec if in the PC range) and I intend to use a small subwoofer and then replace the PC speakers with decent 8ohm speakers and mount them inside the marquee area.  Or should I go with one of those RadioShack amps? And watts/rms etc.  Any thoughts on subwoofers too?

I have also bought the BYOAC book and while providing some info on this topic - it mentions no actual specifications.

I currently have a 2.1 PC speaker system. No name brand Eastern import. Sound is not great but has a woofer  

 

[Grant]

Well I'll answer my own question  

The new search facility is excellent. Lots of good answers

http://www.mameworld.net/massive/How-to/how-to.html
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=20398
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/speaker/
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=20823
Google Link


Edit by moderator: fixed last URL

[Xiaou2]

 I decided a while ago - to rip appart one of my 12" 3way techniques speakers.  I did this because of space limitations.   I coudnt get good spacialization and clear highs because the speakers were behind doors and other poor places...

 I took the tweaters out and made seperate small boxes for them, and placed them up high. I put the woofer in a custom box under some furnature.   (i dont like powerfull midrange - so removed those long ago)    

 I thought this would work great... however.. the tweater sounds were so dominate when seperated far from the bass.   It was too hard on the ears - piercing.

  I grabbed some cheapie pc speakers - which had 3" bass speakers in them - and rebuilt my boxes to hold them both in there.  Took a  bit to get the shape right to produce the bass reflex...

  The result: sound was great!   All this leads to some discoverys... that a full range of sound must come from the same area to sound decent.  In fact - a full range speaker is what they used in most arcade machines.  Seperation of the lows and highs might not blend well enough at such close ranges.. that and or they didnt want to add to the costs.   Ohh, and also because there were so many other games arround - that it hardly mattered..

  When you are that close to a speaker... you dont really need too much volume.   And the cabnet acts as a bass chamber at decent volume... so that helps on the loe end.  

 However... if you look at the new dance games... you can see that they go to town with a huge powerfull sound system.  

  And if you were going to play any music, movies, or anything else with good clarity and volume... it certainly wouldnt hurt to have a really nice setup.

 Ohh, and btw - try to hunt down some bass shakers.  They are like subwoofers but do not move air.  They create huge amounts of vibration for awesome sub & bass effect... without needing huge speakers, loud volume and power.

  Some thoughts about Ohms...  I think that car stereos use low ohms to preserve power... as ohms are how much resistence there is... the less the better to conserve.  However... i think that might limit the depth of the sounds - thus reducing the clairity.   This might only be noticible at higher volumes though.

 I was recently at a walmart looking at a portable stereo system that suprisingly used 6 ohms speakers!   The reason I checked - is because it had the best sound I had ever heard.

 It was one of the ones that has the 'woox'  thingys in it by philips.   The Woox device really added a nice deep and powerfull bass !!!  And the highs were crystal clear...  what a beauty.   Im considering buying one to add to my system..
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Philips - Home Audio/Shelf Systems

[Minwah]

I use a SoundsBlaster 16 PCI's built-in (tiny) amp to drive 2 Happ arcade speakers.  While the quality is not exactly audiophile, it sounds great for arcade games IMHO.  It even goes *really* loud considering the amp is something like 2 watts!!

[Apollo]

I used 2X10W shielded speakers out of an arcade machine and bought the Happs kiosk amp and I've got to say the sound is AWESOME! Way too loud to have up full and totally authentic.

[sofakng]

I used Polk Audio 6 1/2" car speakers in my cabinet along with a JBL 40Wx2 car amplifier.  It definitely has enough power to crank it up LOUD.  The only problem is that it's a little hard to hear them clearly because of the direction they are facing (they are angled slightly forward but mostly facing down at the TV).

To power the amplifier all I'm using is the +12V from the PC power supply.  I haven't tested it throughly yet, but it seems to be working just fine.

Not to hijack the thread, but does anybody else have the sound problem I mentioned above?  I doubt I'm the only one...

[Silverwind]

I used Polk Audio 6 1/2" car speakers in my cabinet along with a JBL 40Wx2 car amplifier.  It definitely has enough power to crank it up LOUD.  The only problem is that it's a little hard to hear them clearly because of the direction they are facing (they are angled slightly forward but mostly facing down at the TV).

To power the amplifier all I'm using is the +12V from the PC power supply.  I haven't tested it throughly yet, but it seems to be working just fine.

Not to hijack the thread, but does anybody else have the sound problem I mentioned above?  I doubt I'm the only one...

I have a set of polk audio 6.5" speakers also.. that I am going to use for my cab. (ex2560 component).  Digital out on sound card -> receiver -> speakers.

Mine are not mounted in a cab yet, but I can tell the off-axis response drops if my head is off center from the speaker.