Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

RE: How can I find replacement drivers for a box on which I have no information?

Take measurements of the driver for mounting purposes (distance between screw holes and rough opening size). If you can't ascertain what tweeter model is used, try to get someone to do a response sweep and impedance measurement of it. Also pull out the crossover and examine the parts that are being used. You should be able to get a rough idea of where the crossover point was set using that information. Determine if the box is sealed or vented (looks sealed). If vented, measure the port diameter and length. In either case, measure the overall box volume using rough exterior dimensions. If a large internal baffle exists to isolate the tweeter, you'll need to subtract that part of the volume from the total externally calculated volume. Next, select a driver using the following criteria in rough order below:

1) suitable mounting size and hole configuration (may need to modify box if this can't be found)

2) select a 4 ohm nominal impedance driver from the available pool that has comparable sensitivity to the tweeter/crossover combination as determined by the response test mentioned above. Make sure the driver selected possesses wide enough bandwidth to accommodate the intended crossover point as determined by the above testing and examination - the smaller subwoofer type drivers will probably not integrate well in this application based on sensitivity and bandwidth issues.

3)use Winisd or a similar box calculator to help you narrow the field of drivers that qualify for the above considerations. You'll need to input the data for available drivers and the box data in order to model expected results.

I've used this process successfully in repairing speakers in the past. You're essentially reverse engineering the design. If you're careful and methodical, you can achieve results as good or better than the original design at a pretty modest cost.


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  • RE: How can I find replacement drivers for a box on which I have no information? - villastrangiato 18:48:46 07/14/12 (0)

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