New Life for an Old Subwoofer  

Just wanted to share my recent experience with upgrading a Radio Shack 12" subwoofer. I first thought about purchasing a HSU or an Outlaw model, but then realized the enclosure and the 200 watt rms amp of the RS subwoofer could serve well with a new speaker. I found a 12" Dayton dual voice coil model that most closely fit the size of the existing speaker. The Dayton also had impressive specifications that put it well beyond the OEM speaker that RS used.

I changed the design from vented to sealed and added a pound of the nylon acoustic fill material. The new speaker went in with only some minor work required on the enclosure. The result is in my opinion a much better sounding subwoofer. Not as much distortion as with the original speaker and the vented design. Now I can hear down to 25hz instead of 35hz. Much tighter sound as well.

So, if any of you are experiencing upgraditis (I have had three such attacks myself this year), consider doing what I did for the subwoofer.

And yes, for my listening levels, the 200 watt rms amp has plenty of drive even in the sealed enclosure.

DMF:

I realize that a sealed enclosure requires more power, but at my listening levels the 200 watts rms should be fine. I am driving old AR-4x acoustic suspension speakers for the front channels and they work fine with the 100 or so watts the Denon 2803 supplies them. If the amp does melt, then it will be back to Parts Express for a larger amp. I like the sound of the sealed enclosure and found the sound better even with the "old" speaker temporarily put back before the new one arrived.

jermy4:

No pictures since the sub looks exactly as it did before the modification.

jermy4:

I don't think pictures would show much. Basically I had to remove about 1/16 of an inch of the opening to allow the new speaker to fit flush. I emoved the tuned port and cover the opening with a piece of 3/4 plywood glued and screwed to the bottom inside of the enclosure. Packed the acoustic nylon material into the enclosure and mounted the new speaker. Actually not much to show.

The new Dayton has a heavier magnet and longer excursion than the OEM speaker. The new speaker does go about 10hz lower (to about 25hz) than the original and sounds much tighter with both music and LFE such as opening scene in Star Wars Episode II.

Basically gave my sub a new lease on life without much cost.

Jermy4:

The room size is 11.5 x 15 with seven foot ceiling. Wall material is paneling. Since I live in a townhouse with neighbors on either side, I rarely play loud music or movies, but when I do the sub amp never broke a sweat. Now running as a sealed enclosure, that might change and I will poke my hand in the back of the sub to feel the heat sink to see how hard it might be working.

I do notice even at my moderate listening levels how much tighter the bass is, for both music and movies. I have a CD that has some various test tones and from my very unscientific measurements (my ears) it seems that the new speaker can reach another 10 hz lower (from 35hz to 25 hz).

I liked the front firing design of the sub woofer and figured rather than replicate the enclosure and amp I would try a new driver. So far so good.