[comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware] Can I put a bigger speaker in my 386?

bnk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Bob N Keenan) (07/07/90)

Does anyone know if it is possible to wire a different(larger) speaker into
my 386 clone (Gateway 2000)?  I just got a program that lets my 386 play
MAC soundtracks and samples, and it works very well, but I think it would
sound better if it were not coming through such a small speaker. Any suggestionsor alternatives (besides buying a sound board) would be appreciated.  BTW,
sorry if this was brought up previoulsy, but I just searched through 158
articles (i just subscribed to the group) and the post about common questions,
and saw nothing related, so, i'm posting.................
thanks in advance.
	     Bob K.

grege@gold.GVG.TEK.COM (Greg Ebert) (07/07/90)

In article <4876@uwm.edu> bnk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Bob N Keenan) writes:
>Does anyone know if it is possible to wire a different(larger) speaker into
>my 386 clone (Gateway 2000)?  I just got a program that lets my 386 play
>MAC soundtracks and samples, and it works very well, but I think it would
>sound better if it were not coming through such a small speaker. Any suggestionsor alternatives (besides buying a sound board) would be appreciated.  BTW,

Sheesh, why bother. The 'standard' speaker setup in a PC is like a CD player
with 1 bit resolution; it's basically a clicking device. But to answer your
question, I'd say yes. An 8-ohm speaker is an 8-ohm speaker, no matter what the
size. What I think you want to know is "Can I hook my PC's speaker to my stereo
amp ?" If you're electronically inclined, send me a line and I'll post the
details. There was a spiel on this awhile back on sci.electronics.

Pardon me, but the sound board sounds like a great idea to make some really
high-quality audio effects. 

flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett) (07/10/90)

I assume you are using remac.  A larger/better speaker makes it
sound a lot better.  You might look into a speaker with an
amplifier built in while you're going: then you get a volume
control which is nice for the things you want to turn off as well
as for the ones that aren't loud enough, and you won't have to
worry about the power consumption damaging your PC.
-- 
Flint Pellett, Global Information Systems Technology, Inc.
1800 Woodfield Drive, Savoy, IL  61874     (217) 352-1165
uunet!gistdev!flint or flint@gistdev.gist.com

roy@cs.umn.edu (Roy M. Silvernail) (07/10/90)

flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett) writes:

> 
> I assume you are using remac.  A larger/better speaker makes it
> sound a lot better.

It sure does! I put a surplussed boom-box speaker on my machine today,
and remac really sounds off now!
> You might look into a speaker with an
> amplifier built in while you're going: then you get a volume
> control which is nice for the things you want to turn off as well

I put a switch in to select the internal speaker or external. My
external has no volume control, so error beeps would _definitely_ get my
attention.

I ran into one wierdness, though. My system is an 8-Mhz XT motherboard
with a 12-Mhz Orchid TwinTurbo 286 card. I was playing with clock speeds
and found that remac sounds almost as good at the slow m-board clock.
However, if I turn off the memory cache, the long samples (HAL and
Good Morning, Vietnam!) would sound slow... then toward the end, they
would begin looping the last second or so of sample. I had to use the
BRB (Big Red Button) at this point, as the keyboard wasn't being read at
all.
--
    Roy M. Silvernail   |   "It won't work... I have an  | Opinions found
    now available at:   |   exceptionally large mind."   | herein are mine,
 cybrspc!roy@cs.umn.edu | --Marvin, the paranoid android | but you can rent
(cyberspace... be here!)|                                | them.