Adire Extremis as a replacement for my Paradigm woofers???

[Mark_IDT]

One of my woofers on my Paradigm studio 100's has started to vibrate. It's hardly noticeable but at loud levels on some frequiencies it can be herd besides that you can only hear it by putting your ear right by the individual woofer. I could probably find replacement drivers from paradigm I think I even saw them on ebay for like $40 once. I'm thinking if I replaced them with some extremis I would get louder bass output. My question is how would they match the enclosure space and crossover's on the studio 100's. Making them fit into the studio 100's enclosure won't be hard by making a bracket so don't worry about me fitting them in there. Lastly I plan on getting an Adire Audio Tumult sub sometime in the future and I think the extremis would blend better with it than the paradigm woofers. So what do you all think does this Sound like a good idea?

Thanks -Mark

[SlumpBuster]

This is a bad idea.

Your talking about replacing 6 drivers on a perfectly good set of speakers because of a minor defect on one driver. After all you said you have to get your ear right to the woofer to hear the rattle. Also, keep in mind that any woofer will rattle or distort if driven to its limits. The paradigm drivers and crossover network were designed as a system. Your messing with alot of R&D when you start thinking "I can make it better then the Paradigm/Kilpsh/Polk/Boston/B&W/Dynaudio designers did." There is a much better chance that it will sound worse, not better. Also, if you start drilling holes and junk your going to kill your resale on speakers that hold their value very well.

If you want more bass, buy and EQ, turn up the bass knob, get new speakers, or add a sub.

The only time you want to start taking apart and putting together speakers is when you don't mind the prospect of destroying them altogether and when your doing it for fun. I've put together some pretty fun "Frankespeakers" over the years. But if these are relatively new good condition kilobuck speakers, I would be very hesitant to start redesigning them.

[Woochifer]

as Slump said, bad idea. The cabinet volume and port diameters are precisely matched to the driver characteristics. Changing to a different woofer with an entirely different set of Thiele-Small parameters will fundamentally change the sound of the speaker, and the end results might not sound better than before.

Also, Paradigms come with a five-year warranty. If still under warranty, have you tried contacting them or your dealer about repair? Also, just because the noise seems to emanate from the driver, there's no guarantee that the driver actually causes the noise. If something broke loose on the inside, that too can cause noises. The issue might only require some fresh soldering, glueing, or cutting, rather than a new driver.

Adire makes nice DIY drivers and come with specs that you can use to determine the proper box volume and port alignment to achieve the desired sound. However, because Paradigm makes their own drivers exclusively for their own speakers, they do not disclose the T/S specs (nor do any other speaker companies that supply their own drivers in-house). So, you would have no idea how the Adire drivers differ from the Paradigm parts.

With regard to the subwoofer, you absolutely do not have to worry about "matching" your main speakers to the sub. The subwoofer works in an entirely different part of the frequency range from the mains, so there's no issue with needing to match to the tonal characteristics of the Studio 100s. Your more pressing needs with the subwoofer are to properly place and setup the unit, and to the degree that's feasible, minimize the room-induced impacts that affect the lower frequencies far more drastically than the other parts of the frequency range.

[Mark_IDT]

I bought the 100's off ebay so no warranty and the cabinets are beat up a little having some scratches and a little splitting at one corner. I would be able to put the extremis in without making any changes to the cabinet that would make it unable to go back to the origional drivers. I guess I will just have to get replacement drivers then probably cheaper than the extremis anyway. I wasn't planing to change the built in crossover either just wondering how the extremis would match the one in there. These are v.2 so were talking about 4 woofers not 6 and it has to be the driver making the rattle it's not only happening at peak volume it's just most noticeable then. It can be herd across the room sometimes when playing at peak volume about 105 db but only on certian notes.

[Mark_IDT]

I pulled the driver it's rattling from inside the magnet structure. Almost sounds like a woofer that isn't crossed over with sounds from the highs coming through.

[Woochifer]

I pulled the driver it's rattling from inside the magnet structure. Almost sounds like a woofer that isn't crossed over with sounds from the highs coming through.

Possibly a blown voice coil. It will still output sound, but it will typically be at a lower output and sound distorted compared to an unblown driver. Time for a new driver. Might want to contact your nearest Paradigm dealer and see what they can do for you short of ordering a brand new (and potentially expensive) woofer from Paradigm. Maybe they have some spare drivers available.

If it's not distorting and does not sound audibly different from the other drivers at lower levels, then you might simply have something loose inside the driver.

[Mark_IDT]

it dosen't play quiter just has a rattle maybe something loose inside. With one like this it makes me want to replace all of them even though there seems to be nothing wrong with them. I don't understand how one of them has a problem and the rest seem fine how could just one go? Could there be problems with the rest of them and I can't tell or is it if theres something wrong you'll know it like this one.

[N. Abstentia]

The only thing that can 'come loose' inside a speaker is the voice coil, which means the speaker is useless. It's not a strange thing for just one to go, especially since you bought them used. You don't know what they went through before you got them. Somebody could have bridged an amp to just that speaker to see how loud he could make it before he saw smoke. You just never know.

And yes..it's a very bad idea to get something other than Paradigm drivers for them.

[calegrant]

I've wanted to do similar things before, and like everyone else has said it's a bad idea. Replace the bad one with an original replacement driver or redo the entire mechanics of the speaker (tweeters, woofers, crossovers)

[MikeyBC]

You should call Paradigm directly and order a replacement, I did this with PSB and had new tweeters shipped to my door in about 3-4 days without going to a dealer. Besides it will be a lot cheaper to replace 1 driver and more than likely sound the best, also the crossover points will also be affected by the different electrical characteristics of the different drivers. Good luck.

[kexodusc]

I'd try calling Paradigm directly, and your local dealers. If they have a few in stock they'll probably want to unload them. Lowest bidder gets your business.

I know they wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for a stock Vifa woofer from the older mk3 line...hopefully they're a bit more reasonable for you.

[46minaudio]

I'd try calling Paradigm directly, and your local dealers. If they have a few in stock they'll probably want to unload them. Lowest bidder gets your business.

I know they wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for a stock Vifa woofer from the older mk3 line...hopefully they're a bit more reasonable for you.
I blew the tweeter in my v2 studio CC.The dealer wants 140 dollars to replace it.This has to be the biggest ****ing ripoff of all time...And yea looking into warranty <, I cannot find the receipt.

[kexodusc]

$140 for that tweeter? I've used $30 tweeters that are a good step up. That's too bad. Problem is, they have absolute control of supply, and there's probably not that many of those out there. I don't imagine they produce many spares. Yikes...I think they wanted $70 for the $13 dollar Vifa driver. Maybe you could find a Studio speaker with a blown woofer on ebay?
The stupid dealer gave me the Vifa part number though so I just ordered it from Madisound.

[46minaudio]

$140 for that tweeter? I've used $30 tweeters that are a good step up. That's too bad. Problem is, they have absolute control of supply, and there's probably not that many of those out there. I don't imagine they produce many spares. Yikes...I think they wanted $70 for the $13 dollar Vifa driver. Maybe you could find a Studio speaker with a blown woofer on ebay?
The stupid dealer gave me the Vifa part number though so I just ordered it from Madisound.
Tell me about it.I may take the tweeter out of one of the 100s and measure it find a close match and replace it.The problem with that is .
,A it will still never sound right,B that speaker should bring 350 on ebay and replacing the tweet will render it worthless.Yep they have me by the Balls.

[MikeyBC]

My PSB stratus silver tweeters are vifa models that i probably could have bought for 50 bucks a peice or so...but i got reamed for $250 for the pair w/tax. But i wanted to keep them totally up to factory spec and condition...so what're ya gonna do? Also the model # on the old tweeters dont match exactly with any current model so a faceplate transplant didnt appeal to me.

[kexodusc]

Yeah, no wonder why manufacturers are switching to "proprietary drivers"...they make as much profit off selling them as the speakers.

[Woochifer]

I blew the tweeter in my v2 studio CC.The dealer wants 140 dollars to replace it.This has to be the biggest ****ing ripoff of all time...And yea looking into warranty <, I cannot find the receipt.

Actually, a bigger ripoff is the $100 that Bose charges for a stupid wire harness that allows you to connect the proprietary connectors that come with their Lifestyle system speakers to an amp or receiver that uses a standard speaker connection. I mean, we're basically talking about the same POS Acoustimass speakers that they sell separately and that come with connectors that will fit any normal HT receiver, except that when packaged with the Lifestyle systems, Bose fits those speakers with a proprietary connector that won't work with any other receiver or amplifier unless you add that wire harness.

Back to Paradigm, that price is steep but since they control the supply, you got nowhere else to go. However, I would think that your dealer has some sales record of your transaction, or can at least pull it up for warranty verification. Or you can check your credit card records. Indeed, the replacement driver prices can be a ripoff, but speakers also typically come with fairly long warranties (five years in Paradigm's case).