of course sound is all personal opinion and preference, just my opinion on how I hear the sound, everybody is different but a side by side comparison using same decoder/engine and installation I found to be a marked difference in "quality" between the iphone speakers and supersonic minis. I don't know any method to measure sound quality and don't really care what any measurements might show, I go with what sounds best to me. I'm sure that 30 years of working around heavy equipment has affected my hearing and how I perceive sound. But i have yet to find anybody in my circles who choose the iphone speaker over the supersonic minis in a blind test and it's not even close.

Pretty decent sound for only about $2 I thought...

Does the iphone speaker even need a separate enclosure to be added?

I would hope the supersonic mini  sounds better, otherwise why spend the extra money to get it.

It's hard to beat Bill's price, IMO.

Regards,

Does the iphone speaker even need a separate enclosure to be added?

Kevin, see my photo on page 2. No enclosure needed it has it's own already. I pretty much slapped the iPhone 4 speaker as is right on top of the Athearn gear tower. 

Kevin, see my photo on page 2. No enclosure needed it has it's own already. I pretty much slapped the iPhone 4 speaker as is right on top of the Athearn gear tower. 

Chris Ellis

Thanks for pointing that out Chris!

Regards,

Dear Randy,

I'm not aledging that you didn't hear what you say you heard in direct A/B comparison. Far from it. However, if the difference was that night/day obvious, then it should be easily recorded (break out the smartphone), for quick analysis and hopefully wider understanding of "just what went soo wrong"...

Happy modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

..........using the stereo function of a QSI  Titan decoder.  I connected the i-Phone (P) speaker to the left channel and an HB .97"(HB) in it's enclosure to the right channel.  It was easy to slide the balance control fully each way to instantly hear the difference.  My 69 year old ears heard the following:

The P had a more "accurate" overall sound than the HB producing noticeable differences in the higher frequencies while the HB had more bass "presence" but lacked a lot of the high sounds and sounded almost muffled.  I then tried 2 P speakers vs the HB and these sounded better overall than the HB throughout the range, having an equal bass presence. 

Last I tried A/Bing the P speaker with a "sugar cube" from SBS and the P speaker was hands down a winner.  A single P produced much more bass than the SBS sugar cube.

Peter

I cut mine between the speaker contacts and the brass screw hole on the long neck part. Main thing is you HAVE to seal this hole back up or there will be almost no sound from the speaker! I use hot glue to fill the hole and make sure it covers the void and I smooth out the end so it does not hang on anything when I install it.

I have a Soundtraxx 750 steam decoder hooked to my ESU tester so after sealing the speaker case, I hook it up and test the sound quality. It is almost always the same quality as the full speaker case 99% of the time. The other 1% that I find low quality sound, it is almost always I didn't get the hot glue sealed good enough.

I have been super happy with these and have just about stopped using any other style of speaker.

Also, check out this extensive comparison test:
mrhmag.com/node/28498

It turns out, leaving the tail on the iPhone4s speaker improves base response. Good insight.

The Iphone 5 replacement speaker is the only one I have used for years.  I have installed these in 20 + units and in some have nstall as many as two in a locomotive.  You can pick them up on Ebay for as little as $12.00 for 5 with free shipping.

Joe, thanks for th idea I will try that out on my next install to compair the sound quality.

Andy

No enclosure needed and it is my goto speaker for most installs.   And yes you can chop it by at least 2/3 and it still sounds sweet.

See ya sugar cube speakers and custom baffle boxes. 

And you can't beat the price, I buy mine on ebay just search for iphone 4 speaker.