iPhone I6 speaker question


WVrailfan

Member
I am putting a Tsunami decoder in an old Athearn F7. I was thinking of using the iPhone I6 speaker that a lot of folks have used with sound decoders.
Any pros or cons you can share? Can the little plastic appendage be removed if needed?

JB

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I have installed several of those, usually with good results. There are a lot of cheap generics in the market. Best if you can get ones that are stated as genuine OEM replacement. That bracket is just a mounting, clip it off close to the body. That end is also where the sound comes out of.
 
I got a couple on line, about $4.00 each. I'm sure they are not actual OEM. I am however pleasantly surprised. Plenty of volume and very clear. A little weak in the bass department, but overall, pretty darn good. At about 5mm thick they are easy to find room for.
I'll be operating them at half, or less then half, volume, so hopefully they will give a good long service life.

Thanks
JB
 
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The night before last, I finished installing the TSU-1000 Tsunami decoder into one of the two Atlas Gold SD35, QSI Quantum sound locos I have, retaining the twin (1 either side, facing each other) 30mm round speakers they have in a cast metal enclosure that straddles the rear driveshaft and firing down past that shaft.
I had previously installed another of the TSU-1000 into a Silver DCC/sound ready SD35's, (same twin speaker mounting supplied), with the iP6s plus speaker, sandwiched in between the decoder and the Dynamic brake fans. I had removed the thin plastic baffle from under those fans. As the iP6s speaker exits the sound from the end, that was forward of those openings and close up towards the Cab.

Tried each individually on my 6 foot test track. There doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference (neither have had any tuning as yet) except for the horn sounds. The iP6s was not loud, where as the bell was. The one with the original twin 30mm speakers horn was loud, to the point of a bit of distortion, bell, about the same. My club is closed, so I won't get to try them out fully till it re-opens, unfortunately.
I have one more to do, with the same decoder, a DCC non sound ready version with a solid rear weight, so that too will get an iP6s in it. I may cut some material from the top of the weight and place the speaker there. I do this with Athearn's SD40's with the step down in the speaker overhanging the decoder on top of the motor. A bit of insulating tape on top of the weight to insulate any bare metal on the speaker and give a slightly padded seating and a strip over it and down onto each side to secure. I use ordinary Scotch tape for this to keep it thin, and not interfere with the shell sliding down over.
I'll put up some pics later to illustrate.
 
I did some experimenting with these iP6s+ speakers last night, stacked and connected 2 together, which does seem to improve the sound with a little more sort of "bulk" to it, versus a single unit. But the biggest improvement was in providing a semi open enclosure for them/it to fire into. I had them side by side on a board and the improvement was quite startling, even just cupping the hand over them. Closing them off completely muffled them, but allowing an exit gave much better responses all round.. I wonder if it could be discovered how much volume is provided in the phones themselves.
 
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Well, I watched a youtube video about replacing the exact same speaker as the one in question and it is obvious that no extra space is provided between the sound exit on the speaker and the casing. Apart from what looks like some soft plastic sheeting that it rests on/in, that's it. I have at least one installation that the sound is not great, especially noticeable with the horn volume. I'll see if adjusting the CV's on that one alters that, but also whether, where it's firing into or at can be improved. As I found with my fiddling around, the provision of some partial enclosure made a profound difference to all frequencies.

My next project is an Athearn SD70ACe #1201 Caterpillar livery, which of course is an older model now and uses a single 28mm speaker mounted vertically on one side of a cast metal enclosure, over the front driveshaft. I have already replaced the factory speaker with a Railmaster Hobbies one and have been investigating the possibility of adding a second one of another type of iPhone (shorter and broader) at the rear, inside the radiator shroud. That will need some removal of plastic from the main shell to get it in. The main difficulty will be wiring the pair together in such a way that the combined speaker impedance value is not too low. The decoder will be an ESU Loksound Select.
 



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