New/Old Sub

[likeitloud]

:idea: I have a in-law (a broke in-law) who has managed to scrape togather some A/V gear
(nothing fancy) and cannot afford a sub. I have 1 old technics loud speaker I used in
the early 80's. Technics was a upper mid level speaker back then(it's true). Anyway
I was thinking of trying it as a sub, it has a blown tweeter in it. What about disconnecting
everything but the woofer? Also is there such a thing as an adaptor from bare speaker wire
to a rca plug(for the sub connect) As always thanks for any help in trying to get someone
into our hobbie.



Pioneer VSX1015TX
JBL Northridge E150 Powered Sub
JBL 4410A Studio Monitors(Front)
JBL Northridge E30(Surrounds)
JBL Cinema Vison CVCEN50 Center
JBL Northridge Satellites(Back Channel)
Pioneer Elite DV45A DVDA/SACD
Panasonic DVD F86K
Sony RCD W500C CD PLAYER/REC
AR Interconnects
Cobalt 14G Wire
Sanus Stands

As long as my brain and fingers work...I'm Cool..Edward Van Halen.:5: :idea:

[MikeyBC]

The crossover point on the woofer is probably too high for it to be used as a sub unless you feed it a signal from somthing with an active crossover. and even then it probably wont perform the same as a real subwoofer because its likely not what the designer had inteded for that woofer-box combination.

[likeitloud]

Thanks bc, I thought about your points, I've doing some ebay looking for him.

[audio_dude]

hey, you can transform a speaker into a sub, i did it myself!!!

if interested, just leave me a post!

(or PM me)

[likeitloud]

Thanks, any info would be great, this guy is willing to try anything.

[audio_dude]

well, first you have to take out the tweeter and all the other crap not needed (the crossover, all other components but the woofer) so one way to do it would be to buy a small sub plate amp and use a router to cut a hole for it. (here is a cheap one from parts express: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-782 ) what I did was take out all the junk, and all that was left was a connection straight to the woofer and bi-wired it with the L and R connecting for speaker set B, the problem with this is that you can't have individual tone controls so the sound can muddy up the rest of the sound.

[likeitloud]

That is pretty clever, I'm gonna try it if for no other reason, to see how it sounds.
This speaker has a 18" woofer, and the drivers surrounds etc are mint, I'll let you know
how it works. On the same subject do you know of any decent subs for under $150,
used is the way to go for this guy, on ebay we've seen some jbl, advent, ar, sony,
boston etc. Any ideas.


Pioneer VSX1015
JBL Northridege E150 Powered Sub
JBL 4410A Studio Monitors(Front)
JBL Northridge E30(Surrounds)
JBL Cinema Vison CVCEN50 Center
JBL Northridge Satellites(Back Channel)
Pioneer Elite DV45A DVDA/SACD
Panasonic DVD F86K
Sony RCD W500C CD PLAYER/REC
AR Interconnects
Cobalt 14G Wire
Sanus Stands


As Long As My Brain And Fingers Work I'm Cool...Edward Van Halen

[audio_dude]

first, are you sure that an 18 incher? cause if it is, you'll need at lease a 100w amp to drive that...

you will need at least $300 to buy a rudimentary sub for your system, anything under that is CrAp (well, most stuff, lmao)

[likeitloud]

Yeah, were gonna go with your plan, and see how it goes, nothing to lose. Can you
post a part list needed (or email) for conversion. Tks. FYI ,I use jbl's also, l100, and
4410's as fronts in my rig. People are always slamming jbl, but they have always
backed there stuff. I've had the 4410's over 15years, one time they needed driver work,
they handled it no questions asked, the last time 6 years ago I called and asked if
they could basically rebuild both speakers (the cabs needed work, surrounds, update
tweeters etc) They begged me to ship them for a training class they hold twice a
year, I only paid for the wood work, they even handled shipping!! The point is old school
jbl's rock, literally, and still to this day sound better the louder there driven, I mean
LOUD, put on some VH, crank it, it's all good. In stereo, there's still, after 20 years
nothing that can touch these in upper volumes, I've tried $2000-3500 systems. It's
not the same. Thanks for your help and this experiment.

Pioneer VSX1015TX
JBL Northridege E150 Powered Sub
JBL 4410A Studio Monitors(Front)
JBL Northridge E30(Surrounds)
JBL Cinema Vison CVCEN50 Center
JBL Northridge Satellites(Back Channel)
Pioneer Elite DV45A DVDA/SACD
Panasonic DVD F86K
Sony RCD W500C CD PLAYER/REC
AR Interconnects
Cobalt 14G Wire
Sanus Stands


As Long As My Brain And Fingers Work I'm Cool...Edward Van Halen

[audio_dude]

Parts list:

Subwoofer Plate Amp, preferably about 100w to drive that 18" woofer
soldering iron: to make all the connections nice and...um...sturdy
Router (or jigsaw): to cut out the hole for the plate amp
screwdrivers and wire cutters to remove all the excess components (tweeter, resistors, extra wireing, crossover)

there will be some pretty big holes left from the tweeter and other components, I left it open on mine to use as a psudo port. it works very well, and with your 18" driver, it's would probably be a good idea too...well, you can always experiment with the sound to see what you like: too much port gives a boomier sound, too little and you might not get enough bass for movies and stuff. But you want the boom for movies right? so ya, jusst experiment a bit, thats what I did.

post some pics when you finish, i'll try to find a few of mine!

[likeitloud]

Got it, tks man...will do on the pics

[audio_dude]

cool :)

[audio_dude]

likeitloud, hows the project coming?

[likeitloud]

What's up man, well so, so. The theory worked,(by the way, the plan is well thought
out), your good man. When we put power to it, there was a hum, a loud hum. I re-
checked the connections, and the original speaker wire was touching the amp
body. I bought a dayton sa100(100w) and it has a gain control. After double checking
everything, and adjusting the gain, it settled down, and works pretty well. I played
around with vent holes, with the old driver openings, it sounded kind of boomy, so
I shrunk them down with cardboard circles. Also flipping it to face down helped. I put
some old speaker stand legs on, about 4" of the floor. My brother in law is happy,
and has used it for about a week now, I think if you start with a new cab and 15"
woofer, a very good high end sub can be built, I'm talking something that would be
in the $1000 range brand new. It took longer to rip out all the old stuff, than it did to
wire up the amp. I'm gonna go online and look for a unfinished cab, and get to work.
I saw plate amps up to 500W under $250 and a 15" driver could be had for around
$200. The whole thing could be done under $600. I'll put up pics asap. Tks

[audio_dude]

very nice! i'm glad it worked out good!

ya, upsidedown is probably best for this beast.

can't wait for the pics :)

[audio_dude]

wheres my pics!!! lol