After dealing with some really, really cold weather, and fixing up a MB, I'm back to the CFTBL project.
Since I am still waiting on a couple parts for my new rotisserie, I decided to go ahead and tackle the sound system.
The original speakers all had some damage. After digging through parts bins, it became obvious that I was out of 'good used' speakers, and doing some searching, new speakers were available for the most part, and for 30-35 USD, I should be able to source a NOS set of speakers.
I've always been intrigued by the 'Pinball Pro' speakers, but being a cheap arse, I decided that I would try to roll my own solution.
I've read Tony Dziedzic's speaker replacement guide more than once. It has lots of good info. After reading through it several times, I decided on the scope of my project.
Anything I do to the machine must be 100% reversible, since it's a rare game. While some of the ultra cool speaker setups involve using car audio amplifiers, huge subwoofers etc, that's not what I'm looking for in this machine. Other machines in my restoration queue may get that treatment, though. I would like to get slightly better sound. I would like to keep the price lower than pinball pro speakers, but realize that it may take a few games to get the average down - meaning specialized tools may be required that would make the first game, or first couple games, on average cost more than a pinball pro setup. Of course, the project must be *fun*, otherwise, it's not worth doing.
So, I decided to go the route of replacing the original cabinet speaker with another 6.5 inch woofer, but of better quality. One challenge with CFTBL is the cabinet projector assy. While there are many good 8 inch woofers on the market, I don't want to permanently modify the cabinet - and even if I wanted to, I'm not sure I could make it clear the projector beam. I settled on a 6.5 inch pioneer speaker.
So, I unbolted the original speaker, and installed the new one
Some folks re-wire, add mixers, etc so they can balance the sound as they like. Maybe on my next project!
The speaker panel was the major level of contention. I went to the parts pile, and grabbed a speaker panel from a game I've parted out in the past. I don't recall exactly which game, that's not important. For the most part, the games are the same - unless there's a lamp board below the DMD. Since CFTBL didn't have one, that made it a lot easier, I can leave the 'original' board 'original'. The original design had a 3 inch tweeter on one side, and a 5-1/4 midrange on the other. The sound isn't balanced, as the speakers on each side aren't equivalent. A good solution is to put a 5-1/4 '2 way' speaker (meaning it is a 2-piece speaker with a midrange and a tweeter in one package, plus internal circuitry to send the right sound frequencies to each of the speakers). However, they won't bolt right up to the original panel. So, that's why I'm modifying an extra panel.
Employing the help of my father, I set out to make an alignment jig, to hopefully speed this process up in the future - if you remember, the design was to be able to repeat this job on other games. The jig took the longest - Dad is a perfectionist. We ended up with this after some hours. It has stops to align the speaker panel correctly, a pilot hole to center the circle cutter in the speaker panel, and a hole to hang it on the wall. The materials are really much nicer material than necessary, the nice thing of working with my Father is that he has scrap piles of stuff, so I often get better quality parts than I would if I were just buying stuff off shelf at a hardware store.
Once bolting the speaker panel to the jig, I cut the hole for the 5-1/4 speaker, so both sides match. The circle cutter used takes a good 10 minutes to slowly make the cut. It also might be my underpowered hobbyist drill press, which was a 'hand me down' from Dad's wood shop years ago when he upgraded. It still suits my needs, so I'll use it til it dies. By then, Dad may be ready for another upgrade :) If not, I'll venture out and replace it.
I pressed 4 new tee nuts into the panel to receive the new speaker. Sorry, I neglected to take a picture of drilling the holes, or the recesses for the tee nuts, but Tony's webpage explains it, really not hard. He makes a nice template to tape on the panel to indicate where to drill, and tells you what types of bits to use. Then, instead of hammering a tee nut in, I use a screw with a large washer to pull the new tee nuts in. I have better luck this way.
I picked up a set of 5-1/4 car speakers made by pyle. Back in my young, rude days when I had one of those cars with 2000 watts of power, thousands of dollars of subwoofers and rims etc, I would've turned my nose up at pyle. However, I'm not looking for high performance, I'm looking for a reasonable price that will sound OK on the 25 watt amp on the sound board that is shared with the sub. One challenge with car audio speakers like these is that they have the dome tweeter, which projects in front of the speaker. This presents a problem due to depth, as if the tweeter touches the speaker grill, you have to make spacers. I cheated a little here, talked with a buddy who had recently done this job. He used this brand and model of speakers, so I just ordered the same ones. Here they are, mounted
And another pic, with some plain speaker grilles (I'll put the Creature ones on later)
And a rear pic, before cleaning up the panel:
Sanded (slightly stained under the weatherstripping that seals stray light from sneaking in around the DMD, which will get covered again, so no issue). Front gets roughed up too so paint will stick.
Masked (so paint won't run behind the panel and ruin my work sanding it out), vacuumed off, tac ragged, etc. Ready for paint!
Paint sprayed
I don't have to be as careful painting this piece, as the final product will be covered up. Just need to make sure everything is painted. So, I laid on a slightly thick coat, and didn't worry if it had slight runs, or took longer to dry.
I'll adapt a harness from a junk game so I can keep the original panel plug and play.
So, let's look at costs
Cab speaker - $25
Panel speakers - $25
Subtotal 50 USD
Specialized tools for the project
Circle Cutter - $20
Specialized drill bits for drilling panel and making tee nut recesses - $20
Subtotal $40 USD
Not bad. Cheaper than a set of pinball pros. Of course, the jig took time to make, and I already had the drill press.
