I have, what is probably a really dumb question. You'll have to excuse me as I'm not good at the mechanics of things. I recently had a Code 3 MicroCom 2 installed. I bought it used and is about a year old. I really don't think the siren is as loud as it should be from a 200 watt siren. It sounds as loud, if not quieter than the 100 watt sirens in our apparatus. Now for my dumb question...I had the siren hooked up to a new STL (I know) 200 watt compact speaker. As the installer was working on the siren he noticed that the power and ground wire had been actually sealed in to the speaker itself. He had to cut the wires out and re caulk around it. I am guessing that’s the reason for the quietness, but I wanted to ask if it could be an issue with the siren amp itself before going and spending the money i should of spent to beginning with and get a good name brand speaker...
Siren not as loud as it should be
- Thread starter fireman1
- Start date
Tom
Member
Definitely could have something to do with the quality of the speaker. I've noticed some brand of speakers are louder than others, the quieter being less expensive/lower quality.
JohnMarcson
Administrator
It's the single 200w speaker from a non-major company. The only reputable 200w speaker is the BP200. Even that is not as effective as 2 100w speakers IMHO.
http://elightbars.org/forums/f14/2-100-watts-1-200-watt-speaker-8796/
http://elightbars.org/forums/f14/2-100-watts-1-200-watt-speaker-8796/
MtnMan
Member
I suspect the speaker as well. If you're near the Lehigh Valley, I have some spares you could use to test.
Ok I figured it was probably the speaker, and probably should of known better lol. And thanks for the offer, but I'm in north western PA.
MtnMan
Member
fireman1 said:
Oh well. There are plenty of decent used speakers for sale here and on the 'Bay for under 75 bucks.
For kicks, I just asked STL about the impedance of their "200 W" speaker, and they said it's 11 ohms, which means it's only going to produce 100 W from a standard siren amp.
twodogs603
Member
JohnMarcson
Administrator
You are actually better off with a good 100w speaker mounted well than a bad 200w one. Make sure the siren is setup and wired for 200w, but the speaker is suspect number one.
MtnMan
Member
JohnMarcson
Administrator
The STL speaker was definitely the problem! I just replaced it with a used Whelen SA314 speaker, and the difference was night and day. With the STL "200 watt" I was able to stand in front of my car with the siren on, and not have to plug my ears! Tried with the Whelen speaker, and almost blew my ear drum out! Haha.
John is right about using two 100-watt speakers for best results. That's what we did with the EQ2B siren we had on our '92 Type II Ford ambulance. It came with a pair of CPI 100 watt speaker/lights built into the grille. The original siren was a PA500 which sounded like crap; so we replaced it with the EQ2. The two speakers handled the siren with no problem....but did they get hot!