Haven’t seen much about using Cel phone speakers. Good, bad, or? I’ve used them in about ten or more installs. Seem to be every bit as good as “real” speakers. They’re a little big, but you can cut them down. Carefully.
Hello,
I’ve been using both cell phone and sugar cube speakers in almost all of my sound DCC installs. In most cases I like the sound from the sugar cube types a little better.
In this big Alco Century I used one of each:
Bowser_Century_DCC by Edmund, on Flickr
In most HO installations I can usually fit two speakers in along with the decoder.
GP9b_PRR_Tsunami2b by Edmund, on Flickr
BLI_BLE_RS15dcc by Edmund, on Flickr
In steam engines where there is plenty of room in the tender I still like to use a hi-bass 28-32 mm round speaker.
On a few large steam engines I managed to fit a sugar cube under the stack in place of the worthless smoke puffer.
My favorite sugar cube enclosure is the ESU 50321 modular one that allows several configurations.
I always “audition” my speakers before installing them and after they’re in place but before wiring to the decoder. I’ve had a few duds along the way and it also allows me to make sure I have the phasing correct. I also check to see if there is any appreciable difference in wiring series or parallel.
SPKR_test2 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/p
Are you talking about the Iphone 4 speakers. I could be wrong but I think Rapido put them in one of their locos. They are big, where can you safely cut them?
I have also been pleased with the results using cell phone / sugar cube / micro speakers in a number of DCC conversions I have completed.
I did put some pairs of 1.1" “HiBass” speakers in a couple of cab units, and found those pretty good, and I compare my micro installs to those (just listening).
For the micros, I wondered what to choose. For size, I found that the 13 x 18mm will fit across the HO hood units, so tend to use those. There are so many available (e.g., at Digikey) but I stumbled across some comments and technical measurement comparisons on another forum that were very helpful. One issue is that a given item can fairly quickly become obsolete (out of production) so I had to change a couple of times to something newer. After awhile I decided to buy in moderate quantities to have a fair number on hand. The brands I used were typically Knowles (first), then CUI. I’m out of date, as I switched gears to finishing the layout as a priority (and have filled out my loco roster pretty much).
I build my own enclosures with 0.040" styrene. That gives me lots of flexibility for the uniqueness of a loco interior. I learned that larger enclosure size matters, significantly, so strive to maximize that. In some cases, I milled the frame to optimize.
Many of the speakers I used were very moderately priced, so I typically added a pair, sometimes four and at least once, three. Just for the heck of it.
If you do a steamer with a moderate or larger size tender, consider squeezing in a Tang Bend (TI-1925S) conventional speaker in enclosure. It is teriffic by comparison to most other setups but requires a fair amount of room. I managed to g
One thing I am planning on trying on new installs are the curved speaker enslosures that Streamlined Backshop has. They fit up under the curve of the cab roof on Alco switchers and steam locos. Larrry Puckett, the DCC Guy, has a YouTube video showing them installed in an Alco switcher. Sounds pretty good when he demos it after, too.
–Randy
Something to remember when using cel phone speakers in their factory enclosure … that enclosure is purposely designed to get optimum performance in sound quality from the speaker it uses. Any modification to that sound chamber will affect the sound output. Sure, it will probably still sound ok, just not the best it could be.
Mark.
A great source to learn about cellphone speaker use in model railroading is a 2020 NMRA-X Clinic Titled “Using Cellular Speakers for DCC Sound” by Kaylee Zhang. The clinic video is available at several locations on Facebook and YouTube - a quick search should give a URL. As a result I ordered some iPhone4 speakers for less than $2 each. They are impressive.
This is one link:
I have read good reports about the iPhone4 speakers improving sound from stock speakers factory installed in HO engines. A guy on TrainOrders, apparently a sound connoisseur, commented that he is excited about a new speaker that fit certain engines (ST Dash 9 and tunnel motors) that he says there is no comparison between it and the iPhone speaker.
The iPhone 4 speakers can be purchased for about a dollar each from some sources, but this new speaker is $17. Apparently it’s “that good” and worth it to some.
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,5128842,5128842#msg-5128842