Large Scale Central

Enjoy Some Sweet Stuff and Add 10 dBA to Your Sound System

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

I’ve been getting ready to put some Sierra sound systems in the engines and was looking for a suitable enclosure. I picked up an Altec computer system at GW and canabilized the ~2-3/4" speakers from the desk pieces. These are nice, but nothing spectacular.

I found that they fit almost perfectly in the Motts and similar single serving apple sauce cups. The cups have an OD of 2-7/8" so will fit in most anything. With a small hole for the wires, the “enclosure” add about 5 dBA to the sound by placing the speaker within the opening. More importantly, they add a bunch of bass.

So if one cup is good, maybe three are better?

I drilled through the bottom of two cups with a 1-1/2" bit an glued them back-to-back. Then I took an undrilled cup and glued the top of that one to one end so as to form a smaller chamber that the speaker sits in, and a larger chamber of double the size. The resultant enclosure raised the volume by another 5 dBA and really kicks up the bass. The whole stack is <5" long/tall. The unit produces ~94 dBA @ 3" with the mega-enclosure.

#2

Cool idea, Todd.

#3

Can we get a picture of what you did? I’m a visual person and have a hard time picturing something from word descriptions.

Thanks!

#4

It does sound like a neat idea, but that contraption would be hard to fit in some locomotives.

Many times folks don’t realize how much the proper speaker enclosure can affect the performance of any speaker/audio system.

#5

It’s actually quite compact (4-7/8" long x 2-7/8 " diameter), and the shape and flexibility will let it snake around such things as body mount pillers, that can be a real problem for a larger enclosure.