Is it best to place the speaker facing down on the bottom of the tender chassis?
How about facing up throught the load of coal?
Any other best positions?
I find that even in the bigger tenders, there is not all that much room due to the size and placement of the decoder and the weight sheet.
Any and all advice would be appreciated.
Rich
Well…If You put it facing up under the coal load, you would have to drill holes in the coal to let the sound out, which would not look too cool, so I guess the bottom would be the easiest.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
I have seen three different methods.
I use two methods. One is the traditional with the speaker firing out through holes in the bottom of the tender.
One method I have is the speaker under the coal load firing down. The tender frame is solid. the coal load has a bunch of tiny holes drilled in it with a thin coating of white glue and coal dust sprinkled on it. Sound comes out of the rear of the speaker also and is sealed from the from inside thee tender. I saw an article by Bruce, formerly of Litchfield Station DCC using that method.
Remember, what is Best for you is what sounds Best to you. Best sometimes depends on experimentation.
Some people turn the speaker opposite but the front is still isolated from the rear.
Rich
Richg1998,
I do agree that there are many ways to mount a speaker…but the best sound will always come out the front of the speaker. Pizo speakers the sound can only come out the front. I don’t believe they make them small enough to fit in a HO scale tender though. Been awhile since I’ve messed with any. Wasn’t there a thread not long ago about the cube speakers? I would probably use those.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
I’m less interested at this point in the brand or type of speaker.
My concern right now is for the ideal location inside the tender for the best sound.
Should the speaker opening be in the top, bottom, front or back of the tender?
Rich
The bottom…that’s the less noticeable place to drill the holes to let the sound out. If You don’t drill holes somewhere, it will sound like talking with a bucket over Your head.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
True, but if you recall my original post, on the steamers that I want to add sound to, the bottom provides the least space due to the placement of the decoder and the sheet of metal used to add weight to the tender.
I am curious where people have installed speakers in the tender other than on the bottom and whether other locations for the opening have proved satisfactory.
Rich
I understood Your post perfectly. If there were no holes already drilled through the metal weight, then You have to drill some or remove the flat weight and add different weight to go around the speaker. Wherever You put it…You still need to have holes for the sound to come out. You were in a disscussion like this one before. The easiest is the bottom in a tender.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Well, there we will have to disagree, Frank. In this case, the easiest installation is not the bottom of the tender. It is probably the most difficult because of the presence of the weight. That would basically involve some major surgery inside the tender. That is why I am asking about alternative locations for the speaker opening.
Rich
In some cases, i have made small openings in front of the tender, for sound and heat evacuation. It doesn’t show much if the loco is close to the tender. Simon
Rich, if I understand you correctly, that could be the solution.
Are you suggesting that the speaker be mounted to the underside of the coal load, facing the bottom of the tender? Would it work to do that and then cut holes in the bottom of the tender? Or, should the speaker be flush up against the opening, wherever that opening may be cut?
Rich
Thanks for that reply, Simon. That would be an ideal location in this case.
Are you happy with the sound quality in those instances?
Rich
I prefer the speakers to be in the engine, not the tender ! That’s where the sound from a real steam engine comes from.
With todays cell phone speakers (sugar cube speakers), this is a much easier task than it used to be.
Fortunately, the majority of sounds a steam engine makes are higher frequencies than those produced by a diesel engine. A small speaker is more than capable of reproducing steam sounds quite well. As a matter of fact, a good many of todays cell phone speakers rival a standard speaker more than twice its size.
Mark.
I’ve done both downward-firing through the tender floor with holes in it and upward firing concealed under the coal. The upward firing will give a bit better high and mid-frequency response, because they tend to be more directional than low frequencies are. If you’re just worried about volume, either way will work unless your they kind of guy who runs these things turned up as loud as possible.
Here’s a pic of the install in the tender of my K-36.
Then I used some of that dark gray fairly dense foam, like the stuff NCE uses to pack their throttle and stuff in, and trimmed out a nice looking load of “coal” then painted it black. No actual coal involved on this.
You’ll note that I used the coal bunker and some plastic to make a custom enclosure. This needs to be sealed tightly, including where the wires to the speaker enter.
It would appear you and I are interested in finding out information on the same thing, Rich. I am ordering a sound system for a brass Northern Pacific Y-1 consolidation, soon. Right now I have a Digitrax sound system I am working on installing in an MDC Roundhouse Ten Wheeler I converted to an N.P. S-4.
FWIW:
I have installed speakers in two tenders where I drilled a large number of small holes (#68 or so) through the coal load so the speakers faced out the top. Maybe my eyes are no good, but I have a hard time spotting the holes even when the locomotive is standing still. I think the trick is to drill the holes in the crevices between the ‘chunks’ of coal so they are hidden in the shadows and masked by the glint of the coal.
I have also done the ‘holes in the bottom’ thing. I don’t like the resulting devastation to the bottom of the tender. Maybe I should have used a smaller drill. IMHO the coal load holes are preferable.
Both are tedious!
[2c]
Dave
Which raises an interesting question.
How many is a “large number of small holes”? Can you drill too few holes and lose the sound quality?
Rich
Rich:
I’m sure too few holes would negatively impact the sound quality. I didn’t bother to count how many holes I drilled. Here is one tender (yes, its Hogwarts Express!)
Pardon the dust! Even when photographed from a few inches the holes are hard to see. They are spotted on about a 1/8" grid, maybe closer depending on the pattern of the coal. I’m guessing there are about 80 holes.
I’m happy with the sound. It is an old Soundtrax LC so you can’t expect miracles from it, but it doesn’t sound tinney or muted. It sounds about the same as another steamer that I have that has 9 x 1/4" holes drilled in the tender floor. Both have 1" round speakers. The LC is perhaps not the best decoder to use for comparisons, but my point is that the holes in the coal load don’t show very much.
Dave
Holes?
I don’t see no stinkin’ holes.
Nice work, Dave.
That may be the way to go, if I can get up enough nerve to drill into the coal loads.
Rich
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall…
Lennon-McCartney
[:D] Ed