Let's see (or hear) your speaker upgrades

No one has upgraded a speaker?

Ok... I'll start.  I've had some success with Tang Band.  But would like to hear what others have had success with.

Anyone try the Super Bass or Mega Bass?

Ron,

A few months ago I needed to do an audio upgrade with a Dallee sound module in an engine with a very tight space. For comparison testing purposes, I bought a variety of 2" 8 ohm external magnetic speakers and a cheap 1.2" x 1.1" MakerHawk Arduino speaker. To my amazement, the inexpensive Arduino speaker--which is an internal magnet cavity device-- sounded the best in terms of volume and clarity. I did not expect that result.  Obviously the result would be different if the comparison was among 3" speakers.

I would have to get a whole education on what makes one speaker better than another speaker in this application.

What sort of stuff might look for to figure out if a speaker is worth trying? I had to replace a speaker that rotted out and I just got two that would fit and went with the speaker that sounded better.

Well, I just watched this video and ordered these speakers.  The board I have is rated for 3W 8 Ohm.  I will wire in series as he suggests.  Two small might be better that one big.  We'll see.  I will report outcomes.

Thanks for sharing. I'll check out the video tomorrow.

Any chance Lionel has sounds designed for the speakers they use?

@Ron045 very impressive difference in sound! How and where did you mount yours? Face down, or on their side? Did you make any special holes, slots, etc. to let the sound out?

As a side comment, I have always been impressed with the sound quality of the iPhone speakers, when they're not half-way blown out or water soaked! If I recall, I've seen several for sale of a very similar design, but don't recall where I saw them.

My only approach thus far, has been the el-cheapo 2" speakers glued into a small Dixie cup for a baffle. Hardly outstanding, but they get the sound out...

George

@GeoPeg posted:

@Ron045 very impressive difference in sound! How and where did you mount yours? Face down, or on their side? Did you make any special holes, slots, etc. to let the sound out?

George

George.  I mounted face down in the fuel tank.  It was only natural as that was the area of the original speaker where holes existed.

Ron

Added sound to these locos including special cams on the tender axles for the cab forward.

The Overland Alco C425 has a Tang Band T1-1925S module firing down and out the radiator intake grills. That module is my "go-to" for narrow car bodies.

The 3 P&D F3s have old (and no longer available) QSI 2.07 inch "High Bass" speakers firing upwards and out through the dynamic brake air intake and exhaust grills. Speakers are in sealed styrene enclosures filled with fiberglass batting.

All units are Loksound V4L decoders. When setting up the decoders in the consisted F3s, use a LokProgrammer or Decoder Pro to vary the playback speeds of the prime movers and dynamic radiator fans. That makes them sound like 3 separate locomotives instead of one decoder driving 3 speakers. The effect is more prominent in-person than through an external cell-phone stereo microphone.

Not shown in the video: ABA set of Alco FA1s with Tang Band T1-1931 modules. On all TB modules I cut off the mounting tabs which makes them easier to fit in available space.

https://bobsobol.smugmug.com/T...-Ohio-20/i-KGbgvdr/A

That video was interesting @Ron045. I wouldn't mind tinkering a bit with speakers. Seems like something that's not too difficult and can make a big difference.

I don't mean to reply twice back to back but in addition to speakers on the locomotives, what about speakers in scenery? Has anyone tinkered with that? It's something I'm very interested in. Steel mills made a ruckus that carried for some distance. It would be correct on my model railroad to have speakers for the noise but I wouldn't know the first thing about what speaker would be right. It seems like a baffle would be necessary.

Atlas speaker, early TMCC speaker could fail. Later speaker replacements were much better.

8 ohm works with TMCC railsounds.     MTH Protosound 16 ohm.

@BillYo414 posted:

.... what about speakers in scenery? Has anyone tinkered with that? ...

Yes,  I have two Sound Bloxx self contained speaker sound system boxes at work.

One with steam sounds placed between two of the main steam TT's whisker tracks and another one with Diesel sounds in my Diesel service yard.  They provide a tasteful essence to the immediate area.

Sound Bloxx also made a variety of industrial and farm sounds.  I have had them for a long time, not sure of current availability.

Hey all,

What locomotives are you all putting these speakers inside of?  Overall, I think the Lionel speakers sound better then the MTH.  So, for me, I have more MTH locos, so I would replace those first if there is a noticeable difference from the original.

Here is the speaker that is in my MTH Premier F7.

Te recommended speaker for my Soundtraxx board is 3W 8ohm. 

Since the MTH speaker is rated 4w 4ohm does that mean I have too much speaker?

Or does it mean I just have specs to spare?

Ron

@Tom Tee posted:

Sound Bloxx also made a variety of industrial and farm sounds.  I have had them for a long time, not sure of current availability.

Thanks for the tip! I would be very interested in the industrial sounds.

@Ron045 posted:

Here is the speaker that is in my MTH Premier F7.

Te recommended speaker for my Soundtraxx board is 3W 8ohm.

Since the MTH speaker is rated 4w 4ohm does that mean I have too much speaker?

Or does it mean I just have specs to spare?

Ron

You want 8 ohms or more, 4 ohms can damage your audio amp, if your watts are higher than the spec for the speaker you can damage the speaker. A 4 watt speaker on a 3 amp board is ok, a 3 amp speaker on a 4 watt board can overdrive and damage the speaker. The 4 ohm speaker on a 8 ohm board does the same thing to your audio amp, overdrives it that could lead to damage.

@Darrell posted:

You want 8 ohms or more, 4 ohms can damage your audio amp, if your watts are higher than the spec for the speaker you can damage the speaker. A 4 watt speaker on a 3 amp board is ok, a 3 amp speaker on a 4 watt board can overdrive and damage the speaker. The 4 ohm speaker on a 8 ohm board does the same thing to your audio amp, overdrives it that could lead to damage.

Thanks for the education.  I did try the MTH speaker.  It was super loud.  I had to reduce the volume to 25% to be at a tolerable loudness. 

Unfortunately I did this before I read your post.  Fortunately I did not damage anything.

Will go back to the dual 3w 8ohm in series I just purchased.  They sounded good.

Thanks.

Ron

No problem, I was doing some DCC research on the soundtraxx site and found a webinar they had posted that explained it all, LOL.

Thanks for the speaker information. Those would be a better alternative to the replacement speakers I've had to scrounge when an MTH speaker fails.

Somewhere I have the diagram I drew up to put sound into an ABBA F-unit set using a series/parallel hookup of 4 Ohm speakers. Never implemented it, but I thought it would be pretty nice to have sound emanating from all four units in the consist.

@Ron045 posted:

Excellent video.

Here are some pictures of a speaker upgrade I just performed on a RK 2-8-0 along with some other modifications.  The sound is 1000% better vs. the stock MTH speaker. The replacement speaker is a Dayton Audio DMA58-4.

I’ve done three in my fleet so far.

All have been replaced with Visaton speakers.

MTH C&O H-8 Allegheny:

MTH C&O 4-8-4 Greenbrier:

Lionel PRR T-1: