A mildly interesting speaker development - Seltech (Knowles) knows we're alive

[jdcolombo]

A rep from Seltech (which owns Knowles, which produces the small cell-phone-type speakers that many of us have used in sound installations and which are also sold by a number of DCC/Sound dealers) posted a sort of "hi, we're here and can help" note over on Trainboard in two threads on the DCC forum that ended up talking about Knowles speakers.

In one thread, I replied to the Seltech message with a "how about an 8-ohm 8x12mm speaker" which we could really use in N scale.  Will be interesting to see if there is any follow-up.

http://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/thoughts-on-the-atlas-s-2-esu-loksound-and-a-speaker-transplant.84110/

John C.

[peteski]

That's good to know - thanks John!

[lyled1117]

PLEASE let that 8x12mm come to fruition!!    I have a small stockpile of the Fox speaker, but have run out of the Star-Micronics one that was smaller. I am going to be needing some as small as the suggested ones, let's hope they become real, and soon

Lyle

[jdcolombo]

PLEASE let that 8x12mm come to fruition!!    I have a small stockpile of the Fox speaker, but have run out of the Star-Micronics one that was smaller. I am going to be needing some as small as the suggested ones, let's hope they become real, and soon

Lyle

Well, even though they apparently know we (model railroaders) are using their products, we are almost certainly a very, very tiny market for them.  The best hope would be if they could easily take their 8x12mm Petra near-field 32-ohm speaker and make it into a "regular" 8-ohm without having to re-engineer the whole thing.  It would need a new voice coil, but if everything else could be kept pretty much the same, maybe it would be doable for a small market.

Not holding my breath, but since they reached out to the MRR market, one can dream . . .

John C.

[jdcolombo]

And . . . I did get a reply.  It turns out that Seltech is NOT the owner of Knowles; it's a value-added distributor of Knowles products.  I did ask the Seltech rep to pass along to Knowles the idea of an 8x12mm (apparently, Knowles at one time DID produce an 8x12mm, called the "Tiny," but it's been out of production for some time).

John C.

[Lemosteam]

Out of production can still be good- meaning they have already spent on the tooling/design etc. and if there is a large enough market they could make more if they decided to dust off the tooling!

[R L Smith]

And . . . I did get a reply.  It turns out that Seltech is NOT the owner of Knowles; it's a value-added distributor of Knowles products.  I did ask the Seltech rep to pass along to Knowles the idea of an 8x12mm (apparently, Knowles at one time DID produce an 8x12mm, called the "Tiny," but it's been out of production for some time).

John C.

Now I feel better.  Since I work for a Knowles company and never heard of Seltech, I was about to update my resume...   

[rhiadon]

There actually is an 8mmx12mm speaker you can get with a sound chamber on modeltrainstuff.com. I just ordered two. The Streamlined Backshop has them as well.

[jdcolombo]

There actually is an 8mmx12mm speaker you can get with a sound chamber on modeltrainstuff.com. I just ordered two. The Streamlined Backshop has them as well.

Yes, but for those of us who would like to make custom enclosures for specific applications, $10 per speaker is a lot.  You can get bare Knowles speakers from Digikey or Mouser for $2-$3 each. 

John C.