Main Restorations Software Audio/Jukebox/MP3 Everything Else Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements Monitor/Video GroovyMAME Merit/JVL Touchscreen Meet Up Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing Woodworking Software Support Forums Consoles Project Arcade Reviews
Automated Projects Artwork Frontend Support Forums Pinball Forum Discussion Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board controls.dat Linux Miscellaneous Arcade Wiki Discussion Old Archives
Lightguns Arcade1Up Try the site in https mode Site News

Unread posts | New Replies | Recent posts | Rules | Chatroom | Wiki | File Repository | RSS | Submit news

  

Author Topic: speaker selection questions  (Read 3126 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Firebat138

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 323
  • Last login:January 23, 2025, 05:14:38 pm
  • Head Brewer and Arcade Enthusiast
speaker selection questions
« on: April 28, 2009, 03:32:01 pm »
I purchased these speakers...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270374790156

Got the idea from the Cool Heavy Metal Cabinet...  Anyways..I guess I should have asked BEFORE I bought...lol...  But...  I would like to hook these up along with a kick butt system.  Anyone have any advice on HOW I wire these to my sound card...I am quite the novice at this...Also...   Do you guys just buy a nice computer system, like an Logitech Z4 series and hook that up?  Thanx guys

Camper
Click below to see my Metal Gear/Splinter Cell Machine... http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=108360.0

Click below to see my PinCab - PinWARS
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,164660.0.html

Sparky2323

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 20
  • Last login:July 24, 2012, 03:56:39 pm
Re: speaker selection questions
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2009, 04:17:51 pm »
You will also need a car amp to run those speakers too.  I use some Polk speakers in my jukebox and they are connected to a car amp and that's connected to a regulated power supply and then from the amp i used 2 rca's with a stereo plug on the end to plug into my sound card. You can used a regular pc power supply too if you feel like hacking one up. I liked the regulated one because it was easier and look better in my opinion.

Firebat138

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 323
  • Last login:January 23, 2025, 05:14:38 pm
  • Head Brewer and Arcade Enthusiast
Re: speaker selection questions
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2009, 04:40:38 pm »
Great...can you post a link or something to the regulated power supply..  I am not quite sure I understand....  Thanx...

Another questions...  I guess the only reason I bought those is that they have the red cone that will illuminate with the marquee light...  If i used some sort of green or red film and then  put the computer speakers upin the hole...  etc..etc..
Click below to see my Metal Gear/Splinter Cell Machine... http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=108360.0

Click below to see my PinCab - PinWARS
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,164660.0.html

MonMotha

  • Trade Count: (+2)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2378
  • Last login:February 19, 2018, 05:45:54 pm
Re: speaker selection questions
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2009, 08:53:22 pm »
MPJA is one of my normal places to go for "enclosed brick" style single output supplies.  Pretty easy to use, and MPJA's prices are decent (though you can do better with used goods or clearance sales sometimes).  You want a 12V supply for a car amp.

Depending on how much output power you need, just using your PC supply may be a good option since you already have it.  Most PC supplies are spec'd to handle a beefy video card and processor which you're likely not using in a jukebox system, so that extra capacity could easily be put to use to power an amp.  PC supplies are regulated, but may have some noise on them from the other PC equipment that may leak through your amp, depending on how well filtered your amp's power inputs are.

Easiest way to pull power off a PC supply is one of the hard drive "molex" connectors.  Grab a SATA power adapter, Y cable, etc. and hack the end off to get wires, or you can buy the actual connector at places like Fry's (it's a 0.093" variant that will usually be identified as a "disk drive connector").  You only want to pull maybe a few amps off that, though, since it's only a single wire.  Be sure to use nice heavy wire (like 18AWG).

A better option for PC supplied power is to use a PCIe connector or multiple HDD connectors.  More wires = more current handling capability.  The PCIe connector is a 6 position AMP 4.2mm PE series (also sold by Molex under the Mini-Fit series as well as several others).  That'll get you 6 beefy wires.  You can easily pull  200-400W off of that, assuming your power supply can deliver that much (check the ratings).


However, a simpler option for many people is to just use a stereo/AV receiver.  These take line level inputs like from a PC and have speaker outputs which are often capable of driving 4 ohm car speakers (but check the specs).  Power for these types of devices is simple: plug it into a wall or power strip.

hobsonschoice

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 75
  • Last login:November 05, 2010, 08:19:21 am
Re: speaker selection questions
« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2009, 03:31:05 am »
I just ordered this for my Touch screen project, Hope it works out, I didn't fancy the idea of having wires coming out of the sytem and love the idea of putting the speaker box anywhere around the room.

SONY SRS-BT100 Wireless BLUETOOTH AMPLIFIED Speaker
http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=200336872668


and this


BLUETOOTH MINI USB DONGLE ADAPTER FOR PC LAPTOPS PDA !!
http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=250432703671

I'll let you know how it sounds when its here!

Fordman

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 389
  • Last login:September 12, 2021, 11:20:27 am
  • MADE in the USA
Re: speaker selection questions
« Reply #5 on: June 11, 2009, 11:09:10 am »
Here is how to get power to the AMP

You need to follow a few steps:

1) You need a stand alone ATX power supply (300 watt or better for better results). I recommend this because the power is dedicated to your amp and not powering anything else. Some will tell you just to attach a wire from your computer power supply, but car amp's need alot of power. Also attaching the power from a computer gives you some harddrive, cd-drive or just bad grounding noises picked up and passed though the amp and you can really hear them loud.

Then take the power supply and follow the diagram below:



After you have done this, then take a wire from port 10 to the main 12V+ power port on the amp. Then take a jumper wire from the 12V+ on the amp to the Remote port on the amp. Run a wire from one of the empty COM ports (Negative or Ground) on the ATX power supply connector to the Ground port on the AMP. Wire the speakers up accordingly and there you have power up the amp. See Below:



Run the audio from your PC to the amp with one of these:



A 3.5mm plug to RCA Male cable. Plug in the RCA cable to the Low input on the Amp.

And there you have the sound you've been looking for. This has worked for me on 3 different projects!


I hope this helps!  :cheers:

Fordman

richms

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 596
  • Last login:January 07, 2025, 06:42:57 pm
  • s92a sucks
    • richms.com
Re: speaker selection questions
« Reply #6 on: June 16, 2009, 06:12:50 am »
Where you have the wire link on the PSU between green and black, you can put a relay so that you can power that off the PC so that the PSU comes on with the computer.

One of my amps needed a delay on power up - trying to just jumper the 2 connections on the amp made it take too much for the PSU - turning it on after a few seconds was ok. Never sorted that out and ended up putting that amp into a car I had.

clickhea

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 418
  • Last login:August 09, 2019, 07:33:40 am
Re: speaker selection questions
« Reply #7 on: June 19, 2009, 08:54:26 pm »