Putting speakers in your cab

[Drew]

I was going to use comp speakers in my mame cab and want a volume control that I can access without a lot of trouble (ie either the back or under the control panel, anywhere but the inside).

I've heard about ripping out the amp and wiring it somewhere, but how does this work for a volume control?

Too bad this rules out getting nice speakers, I'm not gonna risk ruining 100+ dollar speakers =)

[Thenasty]

Get the Cambridge speakers. This has an external volume control. This is what I have in mine. Get the one with the 4 satellite and a sufwoofer (4 point surround system).

[lightspeed]

My speakers are mounted in the top of the cab behind the marquee.  

I drilled a hole where the volume control knob is, and (haven't done this yet) but am going to jury-rig a round  light dimmer switch that will mount on the outside of the cabinet that will allow me adjust the volume via the knob.   Shouldn't be too hard.

[SirPoonga]

I got the cheap compusa speakers, don't sound bad.

See under the marquee how I mounted....

http://kevin.jonas.com/images/y_cab5.jpg
The two speakers and subwoofer ar there.  Just notched the right side for the volume and power controls.

[Rick Osborn]

Just add an EQ to your PC system...you'll now have a remote control for volume too.  

My audio cables run from my A/V selector, then into the EQ then into my car amp and speakers.  The included controls the PC sound, Dreamcast and TV sound.  Will control the volume of anything I connect to my A/V switch.

I needed this because the DC has no sound control when running through my car amp and speakers.  I could've used the TV speakers, but I wanted one button to swap between any components.  

The EQ looks super in the PC and there are all sorts of graphic settings and controls to custom tailor your sound.

http://www.directron.com/2379d.html

Rick

I was going to use comp speakers in my mame cab and want a volume control that I can access without a lot of trouble (ie either the back or under the control panel, anywhere but the inside).

I've heard about ripping out the amp and wiring it somewhere, but how does this work for a volume control?

Too bad this rules out getting nice speakers, I'm not gonna risk ruining 100+ dollar speakers =)

[CthulhuLuke]

Well what they were talking about Amps for your speakers Drew, was that if your cabinet has speakers in it already, you can power them by ripping apart a really cheap pair of speakers then using the amplifier out of that cheap set (should be a stereo set of speakers), because the amplifier of a cheap set of speakers can make a good set of speakers sound just as good as if you put an expensive amp in there.
 If you don't want to spend a lot of money on the speakers but want better than computer speaker quality, here's my suggestion:
  go to Happs website and find their speaker section.  Pick out a set of speakers that has a good frequency range that will get most arcade sounds, get em, then buy the cheapest pair of stereo computer speakers you can find.  Open up the computer speakers, cut the wires to the two cheap speakers, rewire them to the two happs speakers, put the amp somewhere (which contains the volume control and what not) easy to access, and presto, good sounding arcade speakers for not that much money.
If you just want to have a volume control, almost every computer speaker I've seen has one on it, like on the front of it, so I woulnd't worry about accessing the volume control.  If you have a set of speakers that have a sub with the volume control, it's possible to take out the amp, place it somewhere that is convenient for volume changing, and just extending the wires to the different speakers.
  If all this information just flew by your head, cause I definitely admit it's WAYY confusing when it's just in words, then look around some projects that have this amp hack.  http://www.russprince.com/cabinet/speakers.html    it's not mine, but it's what I used for the basis of my own personal hack.
I kind of put a twist on the speakers hack, because I left the two cheap satellites and the 3" subwoofer on the cabinet, and re-wired the speakers, so that the speakers that came stock in my cabinet I got were all hooked up to the amplifier.  The subwoofer makes the cabinet resonate, so the bass sounds great, the cheap satellites get Excellent Mid-range frequencies, but not good at all high range, and the stock arcade speakers from the early 90s get really really good high range frequencies.  The complete deal sounds awesome.   http://www.geocities.com/cthulhuluke/
-good luck
  -CthulhuLuke

[Frobozz]

Hmm... those Cambridge speakers sound like a pretty cool idea.  Drop 2 under the marquee, two in the cabinet sidewalls and the sub in the base.  

Where do you have them mounted?

[SteveJ34]

I was going to use comp speakers in my mame cab and want a volume control that I can access without a lot of trouble (ie either the back or under the control panel, anywhere but the inside).

I've heard about ripping out the amp and wiring it somewhere, but how does this work for a volume control?

I took the approach that others have done....

I took a set of approx $10.00 computer speakers, gutted to acquire the amp and volume control board.

I acquired 4" shielded speakers from Happs (and the 4" round black mesh grill covers. These were mounted in the speaker panel just below the marquee.

I drilled holes in the amp board with volume control and mounted in my control panel box. The top of my cp is hinged on the front, so it is easy to lift and adjust the volume if necessary.

There's a hole drilled in the bottom of my cp box through which the wires from speakers above, power to a power strip, and cable to the sound card in the computer pass through.

I left a little wire from the computer amp board where the original speaker wires ran and mounted a 4 port terminal strip. Wires from amp screw on one side, wires from speakers screw on the other. I have to remove my CP to get my cab through a door so this allows easy unhook without having to solder some connector.

I am very pleased with the sound from the happs speakers in combination with the little amp.

I trust the above "makes sense".

Steve

[tetsu96]

Heh, I just bought a stereo amp for $3 from a local goodwill type store (I'd never have thought they had anything but clothing and such).  Best part is if I ever get bored or just want music, I can break out tunes on the built in 8-track or turntable...   groovy...  

Thing is a tank - it's going on the bottom of my next cab...