Candy Cab Speaker Solution

I have never really been satisfied with the quality of sound that my candy cab puts out. The speakers are cheap and the sound produced by them is tiny - to put it nicely. I was intrigued by 68k's post a few months back where he replaced the speakers in his Astro City.

Astro City speakers sound like shit

So I started to look around for some possible replacements. I wanted something 3" to 4" in diameter, shielded, and 8 ohm because I recently installed a stereo/mono switch in my Super Neo 29. My other obvious requirement was that they produce better quality sound than the stock speakers.

I found a pair that met my requirements on egay and bought them a few days ago. Here is a pic of the stock oval speakers and the new 3" round.




Here is the technical info:

3" round shielded
Impedance: 8 Ohms.
Frequency Range: 140hz - 20khz
Pressure level: 86db/w/m
Rated input: 180 watts
Maximum input: 360 watts

They had a very large shielded magnet and appeared to be nicely constructed. The speakers weigh about 1.2 lbs each.

As it turns out, the speakers were from a Samsung home theater center channel. Due to their intended purpose I thought there was a good chance that whatever sound that they produced would be better quality - but I wondered how loud they would be? The 180w rated input really concerned me...I was not sure what would happen when I hooked them up. I expected with the low power from the amp on the 4 slot MVS board (12 watts - possibly less) that the volume would be very low.

So when they arrived, I hooked them up. To my disappointment, they only sounded marginally better than the stock speakers. They seemed loud enough....Well back to the drawing boa...wait! The guy I bought the speakers from sent the original enclosure along, I wondered if putting them in a box would make any difference?




I was really shocked at the difference that the speaker enclosure made. I knew that from building my own car audio speaker boxes that mounting the speakers inside an enclosure made a big difference. So I started to think of possibly building small boxes from wood to place inside the marquee area. I knew that might take significant time, so on a whim, I decided to cut the center channel box in to two pieces. I used a Dremmel and wand attachment with a cut-off wheel to cut the box in to two equal pieces. I filed the plastic on the ends to make a flat surface to attach the plastic end pieces. Next, I used my soldering tip to heat the plastic on the cut edge of each box and stuck the net covering back down to keep it from riding up.




Inside, I soldered wires to each speaker so that there was quick disconnects in case I needed to remove the speakers from the cab later. Once that was done, I used transparent silicone to completely seal the boxes - Along the edges where I cut the box in half, I used the decorative black molding that belonged on the outside (left and right sides of the original center channel speaker box). You can see them on the top of each speaker box in the pictures that have the speakers mounted inside the cab. Those pieces were the perfect size to cover the opening in the picture above. After the silicone was dry, I placed them into the cab to test them out.




They sounded great! The quality of the sound they produce surpasses the stock speakers many times over. As far as my concern for the volume goes, I found that I achieve adequate sound between one quarter and just under one half of the volume. At half way, I can hear it from any room on the second floor. (I keep my cabs on the first floor) Here is one more pic with the marquee bezel in place.




There is just enough room to place the speakers in the marquee area with about a millimeter to spare. I think at this point there is only one adjustment that needs to be made. I want to add some sort of a spacer below the speaker to lift it up about an inch. The speaker cone is a little low when compared to the speaker grill for the stock speaker attachment. The spacer can also be some sort of soft foam to absorb any vibrations that the speaker might cause - dampening any noise produced by the enclosure rattling against the metal cab.


Project costs:

Speakers $.99 on ebay
Shipping $10.05
Transparent Silicone from Home Depot $4.21
Wire, solder, quick disconnects - already had everything - maybe $1.00 ???
Dremmel - already had it

Total Project cost - $16.25

I hope my solution helps anyone else out there that might be looking for an answer to their arcade cab sound issue.



Here are some links to my Super Neo 29 Type II restoration projects:

Super Neo 29 Powder Coating Pics

Painting Candy Cab Plastic Parts - My $.02 and Pics of my Super Neo 29 parts

Super Neo 29 Digital Picture Frame Custom Marquee Project

Finally a Cure for Cancer - Pics of my Super Neo 29 Control Panel

Super Neo-29 - Hitachi GMK-29FS2 Monitor Cap Kit at Zanen Electronics

Awesome write up.

Thanks for posting up your experience. I love my candies but they never sounded that great. It's nice to see someone getting creative; I feel inspired to try something like this myself. Of course, I already have about 3 projects that I need to finish first.

Thanks Astrodan88. My American cab has always had a much better sound - Its a Midway Killer Instinct - with the obvious difference being it has 6" speakers mounted in a giant wooden box. I think this is a good way of improving the sound quality and at the same time not making any permanent changes. I am keeping the original speakers and mounting screws, though I doubt I would ever go back to them.

I wish I could say it was all part of the plan, but it was honestly dumb luck that the center channel case fit so perfectly in my cab after it was separated into two halves. I did not even know that the ebay seller was going to include it. I only bought the speakers for 99 cents...imho, this was just a project that turned out much better than I ever planned for.

I would be interested in hearing if/when someone else tries this and what their experience turns out to be.

I'm intrigued by this. I hate the sound on my Super Neo 29.

It's actually not that horrible if I turn it up a bit louder than I want it, but at low volumes it's really terrible. Oddly enough even my older Neo25 is better in this regard.

Thanks for sharing. Very nice project. I'll have to recommend it to my buddy. He's an audiophile and always bitching about the sound in his Astro.

Wow, very interesting solution! It might be a little difficult to replicate, but it give me lots of ideas now

Here are some additional details. The center channel speaker was marked as 3 ohms on the outside, inside it was a pair 3" at 8 ohm and a small 4 ohm tweeter. All three speakers were wired in series. I guess the thing to take away is that if you are considering using a prefabbed speaker from a home theater kit, you may be surprised on what is inside vs what the speaker is rated on the outside.

Replicating it exactly might be difficult, but there are plenty of these home theater kits (amp, and 5 or 6 speakers and a sub) being sold these days. If you know anyone that is upgrading some of the speakers, you might be able to do something similar. My other idea was to use 4 ohm car speakers (was thinking of BA or alpine - maybe 4") and perhaps making some custom enclosures. That type solution might work for someone that is only planning on running a neo geo setup in stereo.

I think you mean parallel..

Surely it wouldnt be marked as 3R if it was 20R.