Speaker Placement

[Yoji]

From what I've seen, satellite speakers are usually placed behind the marquee and a subwoofer (if the cabinet has one) is placed more towards the bottom. I'd stick to this convention, but the cables on the speakers I've picked out are only about 3 feet long.

Since I'm not too keen on slicing up and potentially destroying some perfectly fine cables, I'm thinking of putting them to either side of the monitor. But would this have any adverse effects at all? Any interference? could the magnets in the speakers do anything to the monitor?

[horseboy]

Since I'm not too keen on slicing up and potentially destroying some perfectly fine cables, I'm thinking of putting them to either side of the monitor. But would this have any adverse effects at all? Any interference? could the magnets in the speakers do anything to the monitor?

Maybe. Maybe. Ummm, yeah, maybe.

Dude, first off, if your speakers come with the cables already attached and they don't come out, odds are they aren't the greatest cable in the world. I am about as technically sound with electronics as my grandma, but I know that cutting speaker wire doesn't ruin it. It makes it shorter. I don't think cutting it would help in the first place.

Here is what you do get some cheap speaker wire and twist it onto the ends of the other wire. Wrap with electrical tape. That's it. Pretty simple. You can surely find a couple of feet of speaker wire for super cheap. Heck, you could pull a PinballJim and start a thread in the BST forum asking for free speaker wire.

[Ninten-doh]

Heck, you could pull a PinballJim and start a thread in the BST forum asking for free speaker wire.

 

[Pasqualz]

Yoji, I have seen some arcade cabnets with speakers on the sides of the monitor, but i have to say that nohing makes the experience authentic like hearing the sound come down at you. It creates the encompassing sonic curtain that allowed you to play a game in a packed, noisy arcade, yet concentrate only on your game! It sounds like you have a standard 2.1 (left & right speakers and subwoofer.) computer speaker system. If this is the case, then trust me, CUT THE WIRES and splice in more cable to make them stretch up to the marquee. Go to your local home depot or radio shack and buy speaker wire tha is approximately teh same gauge as the original wire. You may not even be able to find wire of such a high gauge (computer speakers typically use 16 or 18 gauge wire.0 but don't worry, just get the closest thing you can find and do like horseboy says. Twist and tape! you're done and it makes teh cabinet authentic!

[Hockeyboy]

You *could* put the speakers near your monitor but unless they are magnetically shielded you are going to get lots of "bloom" or focus spots on your monitor. Then you'll have to continually degauss it...what a pain...

Splice in some extra speaker wire and mount 'em up high so they point almost down on top of you.

[Xam]

While it is true that you will get a slight loss of signal transfer when splicing wires, I don't think arcade games have enough sound tecnology behind them to notice. In fact, most people would not be able to notice any difference in sound. There are some audiophiles that have been able to distinguish the difference, but the human ear is usually not that sensitive.

Xam