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Hi, My name is Don Beach and I live in Seminole Florida. I have 8 pinball games in my home game room that I like to keep in top operating condition. We entertain a lot and my “Arcade” is a highlight for many of our friends. I’m a little hard of hearing and like to turn up the volume occasionally. My wife thinks differently but that’s another story. A few months ago I decided to see if I could make my machines sound better, so I made it a little project. I’m an Electrical Engineer and pretty picky about how things work. A friend of mine is an importer and he put me in touch with an engineer at a prominent speaker manufacturer. I’ve been designing speaker systems for over 30 years (probably why I’m a little hard of hearing) and this was no easy task. It took me three tries and 6 months to develop the system I am satisfied with. The frame, magnet, and cone shape and weight have to be tuned to the free air resonant frequency of the box for optimum results. Also the roll-off and frequency diversion to the back box speakers is a factor. The results with my system is you get a 15% load reduction on the electronics that will not harm, but help your sound card, and you get a 3 times bass to mid-range ratio boost. These systems sound good at all volume levels, but mid level gives good clean powerful sound you can “feel” in the game as you play it. It really adds excitement to the game play. People finish a game and say “WOW”. The system can be put in a machine in a few minutes and removed without a trace. The speaker mounts to the base cabinet with an adapter board system so no mechanical change in the cabinet is needed. A power diverter attaches to the back box speakers with alligator clips. All this takes just a few minutes. Once installed, you will notice the sound level is a little lower than just before installation. This is because the system loading is 15% less. Just re-adjust the volume for the level you want, and flip away. A list of the kits at this time is: SW-1 Speaker Upgrade for Williams WPC-89 Pinball Machines (what you would want for Addams Family) This kit includes an 8 inch sub-woofer with attached network, cabinet adapter plate, and clip-on power diverter. This sub-woofer extends bass reproduction to for unbelievable sound. No permanent modification is required to the pinball machine. The special design of the sub-woofer network routes the low frequencies to the sub-woofer, the full spectrum to the left back-box speaker, and the high frequencies to the right back-box speaker. Due to the special nature of the network, this speaker system is not compatible with home hi-fi systems and will not work properly with Williams WPC-95 or Data East systems. For machines manufactured from 1989 through 1994 and having a sound board with one speaker driver output. SW-2 Speaker Upgrade for Williams WPC-95 Pinball Machines This kit includes an 8 inch sub-woofer with attached network, cabinet adapter plate, and clip-on power diverter. This sub-woofer extends bass reproduction to for unbelievable sound. No permanent modification is required to the pinball machine. The special design of the sub-woofer network routes the low frequencies to the sub-woofer. Due to the special nature of the network, this speaker system is not compatible with Williams WPC-89 systems. For machines manufactured from 1995 and up having a sound board with two speaker driver outputs. SW-3 Speaker Upgrade for Data East Pinball Machines This kit consists of an 8 inch sub-woofer with attached network and spacer plate. This sub-woofer extends bass reproduction for unbelievable sound. No permanent modification is required to the pinball machine. This sub-woofer replaces the original 8 inch speaker. The special design of the sub-woofer network routes the low frequencies to the sub-woofer. For use in Data East pinball machines only. DO NOT use in Williams machines, see models above. I don’t have a Sega machine to work on, so I’ll have to work with a friend to develop a network on that series. The sub-woofer characteristics are common to all the pinball base cabinets. It even couples well in the wide body Williams. The SW-1 and 2 kits are priced at $59.95, the SW-3 is $49.95. Shipping and insurance runs $10 each for Priority Mail. The components for my systems are more expensive than mass-market stuff because of the special nature and lower production volumes. You can see more info at www.decoratorsupply.com/pinball/ You can order with the site order form and use Mastercard or Visa or you can order directly from me and use PayPal to donbeach@ij.net if you like.
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