sweetest mame speakers ever

discgolfer72

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k this is kinda off topic but this would aply really well to a custom mame build or even a arcade game that requires a amp


i went out the other day hunting the fleamarkets for some old crap
and i ended up picking up a verry nice set of vitage speakers for 3.99

well i wanted to hook them up to my shop pc
so i could have awsome sound while playing music in my shop and all my music is on my pc

so i hacked up a old pair of cheap 6$ pc speakers and hooked up the speakers using the amp i gutted from them

well they sucked the shitty 8watt pc speaker amp was not even close to enough to push these nice high quality drivers

so
today i went to 3 diffrent pc stores trying to find a amp made to drive speakes from a pc (no luck at all ) and the best set of pc speakers i could find did 18 watts and were 99$ so that was not a option (im trying to stay chep lol)


so back to the fleamarket's hunting again trying to find a old vintage reciver i could use to amp the speakers

no luck at all 5 diffrent flea markets and goodwill and savl army and all i saw was some old tape decks that had 10watts output


so before i decided to give up i stopped in a local pawn shop to see if they might have an older reciver cheap

bahhhh no luck they wanted 128$ for the cheapest one

buttttt they had a 400 watt car amp for 40$ i talked em down to 20$

got home and went to work


jumperd a a old atx 250w pc power supply so it would always be on (grounded the green wire)

hooked up the ground and +12 v from the atx ps to the amp and nothing the amp would not come on
read a bit on the net and some amps require the remote wire to be hooked up
ran the +5v from the atx to the remote input on the amp boom we have a powerd on car amp

then hooked up my pc to the amp (3.99 for rca 2 mini jack adaptor) and hoked up the
old vintage speakers

fired up the old pc and
holy freaking crap i can play music for the whole naborhood from my workshop in the basment right from my pc


using an old smaller car amp is ideal for a mame rig or a real arcade game that uses an ext amp (i may just have to replace the qsound amp in my cps2 cab and run a sub in that beeatch)

the car amp runs on 12 and 5 v and you can get them dirt cheap at pawn shops
and their output is way higher than a comparable priced amp made for that applaction

my total cost
3.99$ vintage speakers
20$ 400watt car amp
3.99$ for mini jack to rca cable
free old ars atx ps from a pc

so 28$ and i have a set of speakers 4 my pc that rock the hell out of anything i could ever buy in a store


HPIM0412.jpg
 
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OK well I can't judge this by size. I also have a modfified speaker setup but my sub looks to be about the size of one of the ones you posted. Mine has 4 satellite speakers too. But still a good pickup and definately if you know what to look for and also know how to mod it to work with your setup.
 
each one of of thoes boxes has a horn driver and a 8 inch sub
i also just added a bass box as well


hell my dad has a aiwa reciver on his ss system and he paid over 200$ for it and its only 100X3 100 per channel


with more and more people going to media center boxes for their movies and music im suprised the big box stores dont start to carry a amp system designed for use with a pc


tommorow im going to build a small box (the size of the amp) and cover it in carpet
so i can install the pc power supply in and then screw the amp on top of the box so i dont just have the atx ps just sittting on my floor with a ton of wires laying around

hell i have a few extra cold cathode light lying around and plenty of extra outputs on the atx ps i might fancy it up as well lol
 
i have a pair of vintage 6x9s powered by an old guitar amp in mine, fucker CRANKS!!!
 
i have a pair of vintage 6x9s powered by an old guitar amp in mine, fucker CRANKS!!!


i had thought about using one of my guitar amps for the job but since i was hooking it up to my pc i would have had to go to crap shack and find a converter to convert the rca-mini jack to the proper pl ug for the amp wich if i rember last time i was converting a older vocal's mic to use on my guitar amp was not cheap (think it was like 8$ just for the adaptor)


in my mind a old ars reciver was my best bet because i rember seeing theme all the time for dirt cheap at tthe fleas and junk stores but for the life of me i could not find one today


im actually kinda glad i didnt because this car amp is pretty small but packs a punch (the old recivers are usually 80x2) and is really kinda cool looking

once i get a housing for the atx ps i think its going to be a nice looking device that serves mutiple puropses

with the rca - mini jack i can plug the amp to my iphone cd player really pretty much any thing with a standard mic jack


ps if you like guitars check out the other sweet deal i got yesterday
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=147629
 
cool! i have a danelectro longhorn bass.

i used the guitar amp because it was just sitting here anyways, and i have a million cords and adapters laying everywhere.
 
That's not a MAME machine - it's offically an Arcade Ambience Juke box lol. I love threads like this. I love to see who's doing what.
My approach was very simplistic. I used two harmon Kardon speakers for the highs and mids. Then I used an 8" powered sub woofer "has built in x-over as well) mounted face down in the cabinet. Now I run the audio out from my PC via 1/8" stereo jack cable on one end and R/L composite on the other end. The composite R/L plugs into the subwoofer. The other speakers plug into the audio out jacks on the sub woofer. The sound is soooo incredibly even and crystal clear across all frequencies. It sounds better than 90% of the games I've ever played. HArd to beat a DDR sound system though ;-)
 
hey discgolfer,

one thing.
the car amp should be 4 OHMS and those home stereo speakers are surely 8 OHMS.

while this configuration probably won't kill the amp (the opposite config would burn it up over time), it is not ideal. car stereo and home stereo are different types of equipment and aren't meant to be mixed. i've 'upgraded' a few games over the years with car amps and 4ohm speakers, sometimes even a sub, but i try to get all the numbers right. another thing to consider is if the amp puts out, say, 80watts per channel RMS and the spkrs are rated much much higher, you won't get the ideal tone and clarity.

just trying to help.
it's confusing at first.
 
well ill just have to get me some cheap ass 8's made for cars and swap them into the cabs


lol


at this point this setup serves me for what i needed a sound system for my shop that i could play music from my pc

and i did it for less than i could buy cheap ass pc speakers for

last night after i adjusted the gain on the amp my dad started blasting his home theater system uggggggg it sounds like shit at full blast can you say crakle crakel buzz buzz


i cranked this setup i just built and is 100% mor quality sound than his 200$ aiwa reciver with ss bose speakers

whit these venturi speakes and the amp if i turn it up as loud as possible with the sound not being distorted or sounding like it straining the speakers it so effin loud it hurts my ears bad

my dads reciver is 100x3
tjhis car amp is 400 i have not looked it up yet to see if its 400x2 or 200x2
i addded a bass box to the whole setup running it bridged
 
yeah man today's "home theatre" kits are garbage.
YES, i'm now hearing extra channels of sound behind me
from the surrounds, but those tiny speakers are crap. plus
the mids are gone. i can hear the dialog, and feel the explosions
but when a door slams or a gun goes off, it's lost in the
frequency range that that equipment cannot properly reproduce.

it's considered stylish to have a small footprint on your
theatre system, but bigger is still better in audio.
big speakers move more air and create more distinct
vibrations. your vintage guns will overpower your pops
tin can setup three ways to sunday.
 
and now the amp no longer sitting on the floor with a atx ps sitting next to it
HPIM0414.jpg


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HPIM0418.jpg




im going to run out tommorow and pick up a fan to install in the hole i cut in the front and ill get one of thoes fancy computer side fan covers as well to cover the hole then i need to bust out the dremml and cut a mesh peice to cover the hole in the back



i call it
PORTA POWER ! lol
 
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added a 60 mm 26 cfm pc fan
and installed a fan cover on the front

also added a 4 port rca jack in the back(left out,right out,and 2 bridged out's for bass)



and now its totaly self contained and the atx ps has plenty of cooling power incase it getting a little over drivven by the amp

all thats left is to fond a medium i can use to make a grill to cover the back hole where the power plug goes


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Remote turn on is +12VDC not +5VDC. I suppose it would work but if the +5 drops too low and depending on the type of power supply thats in the Amp you may get a half on/half off situation with the amp. I've seen it in really old Infinity amps (I'm talking 20 years old).

Matt
 
well on the schems for this amp it said 5v for the remote

but if i start having problems ill just change it to 12v


im using a 500w server atx ps so i have plenty of spare rails left over if the need arises



i have been jamming in the shop for 3 days now with the setup and it seems to be holding up great even on full blast

at this rate i may have to swap out the amp for a larger one (found a 1400 w for 60$) and swap the old vintage speakers for a custom setup with some banging 12's adn 2 6x9's
 
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Be careful with that power supply. It's not enough for that amp. I'm suprised you haven't smoked it yet.

You might want to find a cheap 20amp power supply at the very least.
 
I've got these pumping the sound on my DK
nautilus.jpg


Too much? Anybody know how to get rid of that annoying buzz?
 
Be careful with that power supply. It's not enough for that amp. I'm suprised you haven't smoked it yet.

You might want to find a cheap 20amp power supply at the very least.


lol yea i was suprised the little ps would even power the amp but since i had it laying around it was worth a shot
it seems to be holding up ok
the ps is staying nice and cool (even before i ran the fan)
and the amp stays cooler than the 2k w i have in my elcamino thats driving 2 15's


at this point i have more in speaker wire and the parts used to make the box than the amp and ps

so if somthing smokes then ill upgrade lol untill then im enjoying my cheap ass contraption
 
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