Opinions on soundboards

[DareDevil45]

I was looking to build a few sabers with sound and was wanting to know every bodies educated opinion on the different boards. I accept that there is no single "best" board and that everyone's opinions vary. The main things I'm looking for is excellent sound quality (which probably is solved by a quality speaker), greater volume, FoC ability, and customizable sensitivity. I haven't been able to personally sample any boards, but I have watched a fair amount of YouTube. So far the Obsidian 3.0 has caught my eye because the customizable interface, FoC, and it's a sealed board so no on board soldering. If anyone has heard of or had any opinions on this board or any other sound boards I'm interested to hear about it.

[GFJedi]

The Petit Crouton can do everything you want and is an excellent choice. There is also an enormous selection of sound fonts available for that brand of boards.

The Nano Biscotte is a basic board, but still a great choice, no foc but still has fade in/out, flicker effects and a pseudo foc effect with randomized light fluctuations on impact.

Both these are available on the TCSS store.

[Silver Serpent]

Many of us have opinions on the Obsidian board, but they're not appropriate to repeat in polite company.

The Petit Crouton is an excellent choice that will do everything you've listed. It comes in a pre-wired version that will minimize any soldering you'll need to do. Check out www.saberfont.com to find a wide variety of fonts that will work on that board. All the Nano Biscotte, Petit Crouton, and Crystal Focus sound boards use the same fonts.

The current top end boards in our hobby are the Crystal Focus (big brother to the Petit Crouton), and the Igniter. They're more feature-filled than the PC, but are significantly more expensive, and generally not recommended for the beginner. Both of those will require a good steady hand to solder connections to the board.

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

Other boards have their various features with merits [and in Obsidian case also demerits which I also will not repeat here] but if sound quality is of the utmost importance to you then because of Erv's expertise in sound as well as electrical engineering you will not go wrong with any of the Plecterlabs boards: the entry level Nano Biscotte, its big brother Petit Crouton [both available at TCSS] or the great Crystal Focus Saber Core [the 'gold standard' of saber boards] which all have excellent sound first and foremost.

[Ty_Bomber]

I have to agree with the others here regarding Obsidian. Having a sealed board isn't something you want in a board you plan on putting in a metal tube and banging around, as it simply makes troubleshooting and repairing impossible. This is a great business model for the manufacturer of said board, however.

The PC is an amazing board, and much less intimidating to wire in practice than it is in theory. I wired mine up with practically no soldering experience beforehand, and it came out fantastic. The plecterboards are the industry standard at any level for good reasons, namely the quality of the product and the massive amount of information available for those who want to use them. They have the largest selection of fonts available for that platform, as well as a great user interface that allows you to adjust the settings on the board to exactly what you want in real time on your computer.

The third option is the boards offered by naigons electronics. While they are newer boards without the same kinds of following the pl boards enjoy, they have a very passionate (and growing) community of users, and are slightly more feature rich than pl boards for the price. They also have flash on clash and a great user interface for your desktop or laptop.

Based on what you are looking for, i would suggest the PC. It can handle everything you asked for, is readily available, and a great value for the price. Good luck.

[DareDevil45]

Ok, thanks guys. Looks like its going to be the PC board. I have plenty of soldering experience on wires because I'm a motorcycle technician, but chip boards make me uneasy because I've never messed with them. I'm sure I'm just psyching myself out.

[GFJedi]

Ok, thanks guys. Looks like its going to be the PC board. I have plenty of soldering experience on wires because I'm a motorcycle technician, but chip boards make me uneasy because I've never messed with them. I'm sure I'm just psyching myself out.

Just have a good soldering pencil with a very small conical point tip, a helping hands, and tiny soldering wire. Ive been using THIS solder and it works fantastic.

You are definitely psyching yourself out, the PC will be super easy to work with. Good Luck!

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

I could add that pretinning also helps but since you have soldering experience you know that lol...you've made a good choice in the Petit Crouton it is more than enough board for the vast majority of saber applications with excellent sound quality and really not so hard to work with...good luck with your build and please post pics when you're done - we love seeing new sabers.