Speakers, up or down?

[TravelingCarpenter]

Greetings,
     Hello, I have seen multiple n scale speaker installs. The question is, which way results in better sound quality? Facing up from the enclosure or facing down into the enclosure? I plan on using the Soberton SP1208 in 3D printed enclosures from shapeways.
     I am thinking about loading up on sound decoder install parts after hearing the news from ESU. Thanks for any info and pointers.

TC

[tehachapifan]

With all the installs I've done, my conclusion is it isn't significantly different, but may be a tad better with the speaker facing out vs. into the enclosure. The only thing to watch out for with the speaker facing outward is anything (wires, etc.) coming into contact with the diaphragm. I think the biggest factor with speakers is the quality of the enclosure. The bigger it is and the thicker you can make the enclosure walls, the better. Of course, if the speaker is facing outward, you will need to route the wires thru the enclosure. Even though it may sound slightly better facing out, I typically install mine the other way so the diaphragm is protected and the contacts are easily accessed.

[Steveruger45]

I tend to have the diaphragm facing out in personal preference, as the effective enclosure volume for the same space is more.  But you have to keep the diaphragm unobstructed and route the wires through the enclosure.  As Russ said I too sometimes install the diaphragm facing into the enclosure when needs be.  To me it does sound better diaphragm facing out. 

[RBrodzinsky]

With the Soberton 1208s, I too put the diaphragm facing out, and the feed the wires through the enclosure wall. I like not having the wire contacts open to accidentally being shorted, and think it sounds a bit better.  If the speaker has spring style contacts, I usually then put the diaphragm inwards.

[jdcolombo]

The speaker manufacturers run their frequency response curves with the speaker diaphragm facing out.  That should tell you something.  Someone on the ESU Loksound group at groups.io also did extensive testing and posted FR curves that indicate that facing out results in a bit better (flatter) FR than the other way.

That said, I do what prior posters suggested: while I prefer diaphragm facing out, if a particular install seems to work better with the diaphragm facing in, that's what I do.  With the tiny speakers we use, you're really not going to be able to tell much of a difference either way.  We're not setting up a Dolby 7.1 home theater system with Klipshorns here . . .

John C.

[TravelingCarpenter]

Thank you all for the great responses. My installs in the past have had the speaker facing out. I was wanting to know the pros and cons of both options.

Thank you for all the input!!

Now if I could fit a klipsch studio speaker in a loco I would, lol. It would be like that crutchfield ad, where the guy is sitting the chair with his hair being blown back by the sound waves.

TC

[peteski]

Thank you all for the great responses. My installs in the past have had the speaker facing out. I was wanting to know the pros and cons of both options.

Thank you for all the input!!

Now if I could fit a klipsch studio speaker in a loco I would, lol. It would be like that crutchfield ad, where the guy is sitting the chair with his hair being blown back by the sound waves.

TC

Crutchfield?  I thought it was Maxell.   

[TravelingCarpenter]

Old age caught up to me I guess. Still you get the point. Lol

TC

[MK]

Probably got thrown off by Klipsch speakers which Crutchfield pushes.

[peteski]

Back in Compact Cassette days I thought that Teac cassettes (with clear case and miniature reel-to-reel look spools) were so cool!  But I also had lots of Maxell and Memorex cassettes.   



As far as the speaker mounting goes, I'm nto sound engineer, but I know that sound waves in the air travel in a similar way to waves on water. Here is some Peteski logic.

When the diaphragm is facing out then there is a single source of the waves. Imagine how the water waves would look like if  you were poking a stick into the water in the edge of a pool.

If the speaker is mounted with the back facing out. the sound waves have to come out through small multiple openings (usually 4).  I woudl visually compare that to having 4 dowels mounted on corners of a rectangular piece of wood and the ends of those dowels being dipped into water.  That would result in 4 distinct sources of waves, which would then interact with each other, and depending on frequency, some would get stronger, some would cancel out, and everything in between.  While it seems like a bad idea, the sound resulting from those complex wave  interactions might actually sound better to  some people than the less complex waves produced by the out-facing diaphragm.

[perezbill]

I have always preferred facing downward when possible as the sound will bounce off the track and roadbed so to me it seems a bit louder than pointing it upwards. That's just my opinion based on what I hear. You may have to test different configurations within the engine and see what is acceptable for you.

[TravelingCarpenter]

A huge thank you to everyone who posted!!

     I am working on my third install in the past 4 days. They are all Atlas locos and use the 73100 chip. All the speakers face up from the enclosure. They all sound awesome. 1 GP9, 1 GP30 and 1 GP38-2. The 38-2 is a re-work project, was not happy with it. I need to solder 2 603 LED’s for the headlight. The onboard LED’s are just not cutting it for me.

     I have 2 more 73100’s to install. Both rock island units. One blue gp7 and a maroon gp40.

Once again thank you again for all the information. I even made a word file to save in MR notes on my hard drive

    TC