Which baffle and speaker for Athearn AMD-103 HO engine?

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

All-

I recently installed a soundtraxx decoder and installed an el-cheapo radio shack speaker which doesn’t quite do the job. Can anyone recommend a speaker and baffle set that can fit into one of these engines without any type of frame modification?

Thanks in advance,

2

Probably need more details. Did you put the speaker in any type of enclosure? What was the speaker part number? I have been building enclosures out of styrene sheets, and the resulting sound has been quite good, although lacking in bass. Try http://www.tonystrains.com/ for an assortment of speakers and enclosures. I think larger enclosures are better.

Jim

3

Thanks for the response. I didn’t install any type of baffle - I klnow a baffle will help with the sound but was wondering if a radio shack speaker can be as “good” as the ones that are sold at a place like Tony’s.

4

We need more information. Which sound decoder are you using?

David B

5

To hear what the speaker you have can do, mount it (or another one like it) to an enclosure and connect it to the decoder (or another one like it). It’s imperative that the enclosure be sealed and that the speaker is sealed to it to prevent sound waves from the back of the speaker from traveling around and canceling the waves coming from the front. These waves are out of phase and will cancel, dramaticaly wiping out the sound. You can mape a temporary enclosure out of almost anything. I made one out of a pill bottle for the 1.1 inch speaker that came with the Digitrax. I suspect even the radio shack speaker would be ok. Does it have a published frequency response range? It will have a specified impedance, like “8 ohms”. That impedance should meet the decoder specification.

Jim

6

Let me shamelessly turn you towards my old thread…

http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1339186/ShowPost.aspx

David B

7

David- Good stuff, thanks. I’ll pickup some board from my hobby shop tomorrow and give this a shot. One last question - what gauge styrene/model number did you use ?

Thanks again,

8

Sheet styrene (one size up from the thinnist) and shaped ‘rectangular’ styrene.

David B

9

Jim- Thanks as well - the Radio Shack speaker is 8 Ohm and slightly larger than 1 ".

10

Its best to look at fequency ranges of speakers rather than base your purchase on speaker size.

David B