I recently picked up a late model MDC RS3 with the updated drive with a Soundtraxx decoder in it. ( Got a great deal on it, $50. bucks![:D]) The model ran and sounded fine, but was the wrong road name for me and is currently stripped and disassembled and soon will be superdetailed and painted as a Western Maryland “hammerhead” RS3. Oh[:0], before I forget, thanks to EVERYONE [bow]who responded when I was looking for the hammerhead kit. Thanks to forum members, I found it!
My question regards the speaker. It has a large oval speaker in a frame that was located in the long hood just below the fan at the end. One of the detail parts I was going to add is a photo-etched grill for the fan. My thought is I would get better (or more) sound from the speaker with this, but I have been told that this might hurt the sound output since the speaker was originally mounted facing downward, and used the hood as an enclosure. The fact supposedly being that the speaker was enclosed by the hood, causing the speaker to project its sound better. Before I take a dremel to the hood and remove the stock cast fan, any thoughts on this out there?[%-)]
Karl;
You need to maintain a sealed enclosure for the speaker.
As long as the speaker has a sealed rim and baffle interface, any number of holes in the nose will only improve sound, not impede it. The determinant of audible sound from the tiny speakers is not letting sound waves go anywhere but up the baffle. I have proof. I lifted the lid on my Niagara tender and found that the speaker was facing forward, sitting at the rear of the tender, unanchored on the tender frame. The baffle was well secured to the rim of the speaker, with no gaps or fissures. As for the speaker/baffle assembly, it was loose and open at the back…the back of the speaker faced the tail end of the tender, but it was not mounted in any way. Yet, the sound was fine (although I had opened the tender to find out why the whistle seemed a bit scratchy…all other sounds were rich and as loud as I wanted them to be).
The sound is not loud in any event, so the enclosure must have a vent/grid/holes to let it out.
Well if it was firing down before, and sealed against the hood, the sound would come out throught he openings in the frame for the trucks. You MUST maintain some sort of enclosure, or you will really have no volume to the sound, and loose what little low end you get from small speakers. I don’t know if the clearance is enough, but you could mount the speaker to an enclosure made of plastic bits and put that under the grill firing up throught he new mesh - be about the same as you have no, just facing the other way. You might just try the speaker alone - the not so wide open path around the mechanism MIGHT be enough of a baffle to work, but somehow I doubt it. In any case, the edge of the speaker under the grill must be sealed.
–Rand
The only path for sound to reach your ears must be from the front of the speaker.
The back of the moving speaker cone generates just as much sound as the front does. This sound leaks around the edges of the speaker, moreso in the bass regions than the midrange and treble.
The waves from the back of the cone are exactly out of phase with the waves from the front, and they cancel each other out. That’s whay a naked speaker sounds so tinny, all the bass from the front and back cancel each other out.
A sealed, preferably dense and soundproof, enclosure, is required for good sound.
[:)] Hmmmmmm, I think I’ll leave well enough alone for now. I still may use the mesh grill and fan, but with a piece of black styrene under it.[;)]