Woofers & Dinosuars
I’m an audiophile. No, you can’t go to prison for that. Means I like good sound. Been that way since the late 70’s when my neighbor came over and asked if I would like to listen to some of his “records”. This was 1977 and I didn’t know music from a hole in the ground. I listened to what he had – Thin Lizzy, The Commodores, Toto, Steve Miller Band and Queen (he had good taste) and I fell in love with music and the gear. Before you know it I had purchased a Sears “all-in-one” record player, preamp, amp unit. It sounded terrible but I was (for a while) in heaven. I became interested in better sound and became friends with a guy that owned a stereo shop.
I spent hours helping him with installs (OK, getting in his way) and learning the “business” of Hi-Fi. The next summer I worked in the hay fields at $1.10 hour to earn enough cash to mail order a set of Kenwood LS-408B speakers from a company a thousand miles away – Wisconsin Discount Stereo. They were delivered via tractor trailer and I was again – in heaven.
I’ve spent an insane amount of money on audio equipment since then. In 1984 I had a little under $7,000 in a car stereo setup that won the first ever “sound off” car stereo event in Syracuse NY – in the unlimited wattage division (660 watts per channel at that time was unheard of). I won a radar detector and a plaque. 10 years later similar contests netted winners $10K and up!
Home system upgrades followed and in every house I’ve owned there has always been a form of a “listening room” in each house. I started collecting records again in the early 2000’s and by the time I sold the collection I had amassed over 7,000 lps. Today, I have a few hundred albums, thousands of CDs and a huge library of digital music. The albums are played on a JA Michell Gyrodec SE and are still my favorite way to listen. I’ve wired a half dozen cars, 2 large boats, 6-8 houses and at least 3 entire home theaters for sound. I know good sound when I hear it
So what on earth does all this have to do with Pinball? Everything. Pinball fidelity sucks – pretty much across the board. There are some exceptions. JJP’s Wizard of Oz for example is excellent. Nice crisp highs, mid range is smooth for voices and not “peaky” or strident and there is enough bass to satisfy (although a sub on that title is a must). Generally though, the sound quality, the frequency response and dynamic range on most pinballs is not good – OK at best. I had just bought a NIB Stern Jurassic Park Premium. I was impressed with the game to say the least. You can read about it on this blog. As good as the T-Rex sounds were, they still lacked impact – I wanted him to shake the room when he roared and to really be able to hear the nuances in “roar” – it should raise the hair on your arm if done right!!
So what to do about it? Well the short answer is “buy a Pinwoofer kit”! Why you say? Because it is a huge upgrade, it’s fully contained within the pinball (unlike adding a sub), it’s very affordable, it’s not a horrifically complicated install, it’s adjustable to your sound preferences and … it sounds fantastic!
Full disclosure here. I’m an external subwoofer guy. I normally buy a Pinnovators subwoofer output board, then wire up a Polk 10″ powered sub for almost all of my new pins. Adjust the sound a little – dial in the output and crossover of the sub and you are done. I’m up to 14 Polk subs in the Loft. I am also a “sound and brand snob”. My listening system would never include a sub, my home theater and party systems MUST have a sub (or two!) but no way will “just a Polk” do – those setups have dual SVS subs with big digital amps.
Back in the day (30 years ago) my fellow audiophiles wouldn’t be caught dead with Pyle or Jensen speakers installed in their cars – it was considered entry level gear for guys that didn’t know what they were doing (Alpine was the mid/high end brand at the time). Pyle may still be considered entry level gear but I can vouch for the fact that what Dan has done with these speakers and his custom amps simply works – whatever the label on the speaker says
I received my order pretty quickly and popped the box open. Packaging and sorting of the components was well done. The backbox speakers came in the original box – well protected of course. The sub/cabinet woofer came with the spacer ring pre-installed. This saves a bunch of time – thank you Dan. The amps were packed safely in bubble wrap and the wiring harnesses, bolts, washers, nuts and electrical connectors were all sorted into 5 bags as follows:
- Sub amp bag
- Backbox amp bag
- Power connector “A” bag
- Power connector “B” bag
- Glass shake tape bag
I had 2 small niggles on the entire Pinwoofer experience. First, there were extra small parts – nuts/bolts, etc. It’s hard to blame Pinwoofer for adding extra small parts because it’s probably easier to create a master small parts list and ship that instead of constantly trying to create a custom “nut & bolt” list for the dozens of variety of pinballs out there. Anyway, when there are extra parts – there is confusion.
Secondly, the way the install instructions are delivered is a little “unwieldy”. You must go to Google Drive to retrieve them AND they are supplied in 6 different (individual) documents – some of which don’t apply to your install. Way better (and way harder) to print and include (in the box) the install instructions specific to my game. This isn’t academic. I’m up in my Pinball Loft trying to install this kit and scrolling back and forth on an iPad screen while tabbing between docs. I got it done, the instructions were good AND accurate, but it could have been easier. You get it. Paper print-outs win every time – rant over
On the kudos to Pinwoofer side, is the fact that Dan reached out to me via email to offer any assistance I might need during the install. A gracious offer and one that he offers to ALL customers. Reviewing comments on Pinside would suggest that lots of people take him up on the offer – good on him as that is not an easy task.
Before I ordered the Pinwoofer kit, I spent the better part of 2 weeks convincing myself that the sound on my new pinball was “good enough” … I knew it could be better than it was, but there are so many paths to get there. I decided to start with an external sub like I had done 13 other times. Done – added a Polk sub using the Pinnovator board attachment. I could have simply left it at that but the mids and highs were never going to get any better. I considered replacing the backbox speakers (done it before) but the last time I did that the change was barely noticeable. So … off to the Pinside forums to see what others had done. The name Pinwoofer kept popping up and all the feedback was positive. Some reviews were downright glowing and others were over-the-top holy cow, you’ve got to buy this thing ’cause it’s the best mod I’ve ever bought! I discounted the latter but couldn’t ignore all the rest. After considering it for a few days, I pulled the trigger and ordered the entire “Super Kit”
- What you get in a Stern JJP “Pinwoofer Super Kit” is:
- New 2 way Pyle backbox speaker pair
- New Pyle cabinet woofer
- Pin-Specific 12V Power Cable
- Subwoofer Amp Kit 50W x 2
- Backbox Amplifier Kit 50W x 2
- 8″ Dual Voice Coil Subwoofer Driver
- Playfield glass shake reduction tape
- Mounting Hardware and Electrical Connectors
Some of the marketing verbiage on the Pyle products is neither relevant to the product nor “real” – this is no fault of Dan or Pinwoofer. This stuff has been going on forever. I was not shocked that the Pyle sub box said it was “rated” for 800 watts max power. Upon review of the Pyle website, it actually rated for 400 watts RMS. So what. It will likely never see more than 25-30 watts RMS from the little Pinwoofer amp because it simply doesn’t NEED it. I’ve got the amp in my game set to 30% of max and it shakes the game as hard as my shaker does! Like pinball games that have (over time) driven scores up into the “billions”, the wattage game played by speaker and amp makers continues. Here is what you need to know. Ignore the wattage rating – you will never “blow” that Pyle speaker unless you over-drive it with an amp that is TOO SMALL. That being said, there is a feature on the Pyle sub that is very useful for this application – the dual voice coils. When wired in dual mode, the sub presents a 2 ohm load (read easier to drive) and thus improves power output and lowers distortion throughout the amplifiers range.
The supplied “class D” amps from Dan are absolutely sufficient to drive both the backbox and cabinet speaker within their expected use range. The Wattage rating on these types (sizes) of amplifiers is always dependent upon supplied voltage but 50 watts running from 12 volts is in the hunt and it’s probably delivered with around 10% THD. Again, they work fantastic so it matters not.
How’s it sound? Fantastic. It really does. Not just better than factory – this is a HUGE improvement. Especially if you are going from “just factory” and do not have an external sub wired up. The difference is night and day. Voices and call-outs are clearer. The high/mid-range sounds are sharp/distinct and have impact (spinner sounds for instance). I am certainly hearing stuff I never heard before. The cabinet sub does something an external sub could not – it physically moves the cabinet.
- During the T-Rex Chase mode, you can feel the T-Rex footsteps and he runs you down.
- In the ball drain animation segment, where the jeep skids off the cliff you can hear the screams from people in the jeep – I never heard it with the factory set up.
- The timpani drums of the theme music as the game starts have punch and the crashing cymbals have the appropriate splash and high end – Dum, Dum dumdy-dumdy Dum Dum – Duh Duh Dum, Dum dumdy-Dum crrrrashhhhhhh! It sounds like your a hand full of rows back from the orchestra pit and dead center in the sweet spot. Love it.
Dan really put some thought into making certain that you can get the best sound out of his system. He includes output pots on his amps to allow you to dial down the output and reduce/remove noise in the system (should there be any). I did not have to use the adjustment pots at all. The sound was outstanding with the factory (Dan) adjustments.
Guess what – the Polk external subwoofer is unplugged. It’s off. Not needed. I pulled it because I was trying to get more clarity from the bass, more definition in the mid-range – voices specifically. It worked. It was pretty dramatic too – enough for me to leave it that way. Dan’s Pinwoofer Super Kit does the job BETTER by itself, than having an external sub alongside. I “might” be missing a tiny bit of the very bottom end … say around 50/60 Hz or so, but the sound just got cleaner and tighter. Now, as I look at the row of Stern machines sitting opposite JP, I wish I had found Pinwoofer sooner. The system sounds great!
So what settings did I use? I keep my master volume at 30. Then I use these settings for the backbox speakers – and I utilized the 10 band EQ that is included in the menu. No way would I ever set an EQ this way for a home listening setup but – hey, it sounds good this way so here you go. I set the “sliders” as follows:
- 31 Hz -15
- 62 Hz -7
- 125 Hz -2
- 250 Hz 0
- 500 Hz +2
- 1 kHz +6
- 2 kHz +7
- 4 kHz +8
- 8 kHz +8
- 16 kHz +13
Admittedly, these are “hot settings” on the mids and highs. I like it that way as my hearing around these frequencies has been dulled by a half century of walking the earth (and too many of those years listening to music much too loud!). As I made adjustments I noticed that there was not much impact at 250 Hz and below and … not much change in sound at the 16 kHz band either. If there is too much “sizzle” for your younger ears just drop the 1/2/4 kHz down to your liking. The cabinet speaker is still set to flat. I believe that Dan’s amplifier includes a built in low pass filter anyway to remove most of the highs so I just left that setting at factory.
The volume knobs on each amp have a roughly 270 degree range of motion. To mimic my output settings simply turn the amp on, then turn the output/power knob as far as you can toward “off” without actually shutting it down. For the backbox speakers, turn the knob 135 degrees (about halfway). The cabinet speaker setting was roughly 90 degrees (about 1/3rd of the total range of motion). These speaker outputs are a very personal setting and you may want it higher output or lower. The point is you can tune it just the way YOU like it. Want more bass? The amp can handle the power output needed. Trust me – it’s there if you need it. Feels like enough power to break the playfield glass. I found about 1/3rd of the available output was plenty.
Want to hear how it sounds? Check out the video and crank it up!
I would be remiss to not at least throw in a plug for John Williams score for the movie that was used in this game. It’s an outstanding piece of music. John Williams was a “given” for Steven Spielberg even before the filming started – he knew he wanted John to score it. Thankfully Williams accepted the challenge and we are grateful for it. Here’s a great link to a review of the score where it is listed as one of the top 100 greatest movie scores of all time https://moviemusicuk.us/2019/02/25/jurassic-park-john-williams/
Final verdict? Buy it, buy several. I’m going to.
Buy your Pinwoofer kit here