Car speakers in cab?

[lordghaleon]

I have a question.  I just bought the amp audio set from Happ Controls.  I bought 5" speakers for it from Happ (http://www.happcontrols.com/interactive/accessories/49022800.htm).  Well, I got them in today and when I hooked 'em up the sound was very thin and "tinny".  Plus one of the speakers was crackling a bit on really loud parts, even on lower computer audio settings.  Are speakers like this the norm?  I read somewhere that you can buy midrange speakers that produce good balanced sounds.  I need some good overall ones, can anyone suggest good car speakers or something else I can pick up?

[whammoed]

What amp are you using exactly?  Link please.

[lordghaleon]

http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/jukebox/495140200k.htm

[lordghaleon]

By the way, I been hearing from different places that the Sony Xplod car speakers are good for this.  Here's a link to a thread on the SlikStik forum.

http://forums.slikstik.com/lofiversion/index.php/t64.html

[whammoed]

Have you checked the amplifier out on any other speakers yet?  In other words are you positive it is the speakers to blame and not (at least in part) due to the amplifier?

[whammoed]

Also, are you testing those happs speakers out while they are mounted to something or just sitting on a table?  Often speakers will sound like crap until they are in some kind of enclosure.

[lordghaleon]

I put the speakers in a temp enclosure and elevated them where they would be in the cab and they still sounded very thin and "tinny" with zero low end.  I should have guessed they were just simple speakers.  A lot of people on other forums were saying basic arcade speakers like that don't have the punch.  As for trying out other speakers, I really don't have any other ones.  I am planning on taking the mini amp and my laptop to a store and try out some full range speakers, preferrably those Sony Xplod ones. 

[commandcom]

I use a pair of Xplods in my cab.  The speakers are driven by a 30W/channel Boss car amp that I bought off of eBay.  At best, they sounded OK by themselves.  I then added a Bazooka sub-woofer to the mix and that has made a tremendous difference in the sound quality.  Regardless of your speaker/amp combination, I belive any cab/jukebox needs a sub-woofer to get decent sound.  My $0.02.

[lordghaleon]

#1 How do you power that car amp?  Off a wall plug? From the computer?
#2 How in the workd do you plug that amp to your computer?

[commandcom]

Technically, you could probably power the amp from a 12V line from the PC power supply.  However, since I'm also using a sub-woofer, I was not sure if the power supply would be able to handle the amp and the sub.  To get around this, I bought a 12V power supply from Radio Shack (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103960&cp=2032056.2032145&parentPage=search&kw=power+supply&parentPage=family) and hooked the amp and sub into that device.

To hook the PC sound card into the amp, I used a patch cord with 1/8" jacks on either end.  I cut the jack off of one end and spliced the patch cord's wires into the amp's wiring harness.

[Goz]

I'm using the RCA SA-155 Audio amp from Radio Shack and it works great and powers off of regular 110v. You can find them on eBay all the time at a great price.

[Sinner]

I have a set of Sony XPlod speakers running off a set of Creative (I forget the model)...they sound like crap without the sub turned on, but the thing sounds great when sub is on and adjusted...for arcade games I just crank the base all the way up...sounds really good, especially with games like Space Invaders or Asteroids, where you get that thumping, sound in the background that drones on and on... 

[MaximRecoil]

Holy hell, that is a crap amplifier from Happs there.

Approx. 8 Watts RMS per channel 10% THD (10 Watts RMS @ 16v Input)

The 8 watts per channel is a little low but that isn't the problem, that is 8 watts at 10% THD (!). No reputable amp manufacturer rates their amps at 10% THD (Total Harmonic Distorsion). Any distorsion over 1% is perceptable to humans, so realistically, you are only going to get 1 or 2 watts if you are lucky out of that thing before you notice obvious distorsion. You can get a 25 Watts RMS per channel car amp for dirt cheap that is rated at less than 1% THD, many of the better ones are rated at .1% THD, or even .01% THD.

The 10% THD rating thing is generally used for shady advertising like plastering "300 WATTS" on the top of a little amp, and not telling you that they are measuring that at 10% (or greater) THD. Usually to get numbers that big out of small, cheap amps they also use a "max" rating in addition to a 10% THD rating. When you double up on the numerical parlor tricks like that, it is easy to get the numbers up for a 2 or 3 watt amp to somewhere firmly in the hundreds, lol.

Car audio amps and speakers from reputable manufacturers are generally your best bang for the buck when you need a stand-alone pure amp that you want to run off 12V. Plus, they are tough as a bag of badgers.