For reasons known only to my wife, I can't get a new subwoofer even though the one I have now is a piece of junk. It's an old ported Onkyo from a HTIB, but I now have some pretty good JBL speakers but the same old crappy sub. Is there any DIY stuff I can do to improve its sound? What will sealing it do? How about adding some polyfill? Many thanks for any ideas or suggestions.

Get rid of the wife and buy a good sub.:rolleyes:

Get a Dayton Sub100 or Sub120...Inexpensive but will blow the Onkyo away...The only improvement you can really do to the Onkyo is replace the driver with a good driver and that will cost you close to the same as one of the Dayton subs...
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-633
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-635

The old one could mysteriously fail, requiring replacment.....

unless the wife was making the money ... i'd put my foot down and get a new sub. (looking back to check if my wife is around)

A couple years ago, someone talked about stuffing polyfil in a cheap sub and they put something on the back of the driver to stiffen it. They were amazed how much better their cheap sub sounded. It won't produce miracles, but could help.

Otherwise, buy a better sub, hide it in the room and leave the HTIB sub in plain site. Tell the wife your mods made significant improvements.

Or, buy your wife an all expense paid 4 day cruise for her and her best friend.

While she's gone, install an IB with Fi 18" drivers and EP2500 amplification. Cover the manifold with a loosely woven tapestry. Tell her, well, nothing other than you bought a new tapestry while she was gone. :D

... Keep old POS HTIB sub where it was, and use it as a plant stand.


Tim

unless the wife was making the money ... I'd put my foot down and get a new sub. (looking back to check if my wife is around)



Ian :D

You know the saying "better to ask for forgiveness than permission"?

Pick a subwoofer that is the same color as what you have, and not too outrageously bigger, like one of the small sealed subs. Find a day when she is out to take delivery of the subwoofer ... get it delivered to a friend's place or your workplace if necessary so you can take it home another time when she's gone. Bring it home and set it up in the same place as the old sub and don't say anything, or in some hidden place like behind the couch. Maybe she won't even notice. When she notices, you can say that you've had it since X days/weeks ago and you deliberately picked one that would be unnoticeable so it wouldn't interfere with the decor, and you wanted to see if she'd notice it.

Otherwise, if she notices it right away and puts up a huge fight about it and you still lose, you can send it back.

I don't tell mine that I get a mileage check

I tell her my friends are selling thier used equipment for $25, have it shipped to work pay with Money Order (leave box somewhere) and bring it home without the box

She still comes up with excuses not to get it

For reasons known only to my wife, I can't get a new subwoofer even though the one I have now is a piece of junk.
I hate to ruin the surprise, but... maybe she's getting you one for Christmas???? :eek:

For reasons known only to my wife, I can't get a new subwoofer even though the one I have now is a piece of junk. It's an old ported Onkyo from a HTIB, but I now have some pretty good JBL speakers but the same old crappy sub. Is there any DIY stuff I can do to improve its sound? What will sealing it do? How about adding some polyfill? Many thanks for any ideas or suggestions.

A sledge hammer could always "accidentally" fall on it. Stranger things have happened. Or even better, if you're around north FL/south GA, drop it off with me, I'll take it to work and crush it with the jaws of life, write the whole thing up as training, and you can write the value off as a "donation" on your taxes. :D

Thanks for all the comments, guys. I suppose I knew the answer when I asked the question, but I guess there's really nothing I can do aside from getting a new one (sub, that is). Since this has become the thread on sneaky ways to incorporate a new sub into the system, any help would be appreciated. How about I disable it before we watch the Dark Knight BD tonight? If she complains, it's like I'm doing her a favor by getting a brand new awesome subwoofer:)

A twist on craig john's idea, get it and tell her it's HER Christmas present.