Can I Put New Drivers in an Old Cabinet?

[bcass]

I have some Verit Heritage speakers I bought around 1978 or so. The drivers no longer work (except one tweeter still tweets weakly ;-). The cabinets are still OK and are pretty solid. I'm wondering if I can just put in some new 8" woofers and 1" tweeters and be able to use them again. I assume I'd have to buy a matching set of drivers and crossovers, but I'm wondering about how to know whether the drivers will work with the existing box size, how much fill to add, and how long the 2" port should be. I think this approach is sort of backwards from the norm, where you select drivers first and then design a box for them. But can this be done?

Thanks!
Bryan

[phatbass]

it could be done, would it sound good? probably not.

Enclosures are designed for specific speakers. There are many many more variables to a speaker than cone size. Every speaker has its own unique sound and frequency response, it would be very hard to tell what speakers would do well in that enclosure, and even harder to find ones that would also work well with that crossover. If you must go this route, try and find the thiel small parameters of the old drivers and try to get new drivers with similar numbers. Although there will be no garuntee it will sound good.

Can you get replacement drivers? Or maybe have your drivers reconditioned? Do you still have the crossovers? I think that this would be much better, putting working versions of the originals back in.

[kexodusc]

Actually this sort of thing is done all the time. You're right in that it is a bit backwards, but many speakers are designed from the ground up starting with cabinets, especially when decor is a priority.

Most woofers really have a rather wide range of suitable cabinet sizes, and the tweeter really isn't as affected as the woofer. You will however need a new crossover. This is usually the toughest part of the speaker to design/tweak. Although depending on your needs you could get buy with a simple xo design. Will it sound good? Sure. Will it sound as good as it did before or as good as Speaker X? Who knows.

If your goal is to make the nicest sounding speaker possible for your budget, this probably isnt' the way to do it. But if it's just to salvage the cabinets and have a bit of fun, go for it.

[bcass]

Yeah well, that's what I thought too. And I don't have the original drivers or the specs. Oh well. Maybe I could just slap some random new drivers in there and use the existing crossover and give them to my 14 year old. He'd never know. ;-)

That reminds me -- I was in Circuit City last night looking at receivers and DVD players, and there was this teen or twenty-something listening to some boom box or smaller stereo package. And it had, you know, the massive-looking woofers with the metal-looking grill on the front, with the big, impressive horn-looking tweeters and the huge plastic speaker cabinets. And he's got it cranked up apparently with the bass control all the way up, and it sounded God-awful! Boomy and thumping and distorted. And he's just standing there in front of it and grooving. Shows you what the general public thinks about "good" music reproduction. ;-)

Bryan

[Mudcat]

If you know in internal dimensions of the cabinet, then why don't you just email a driver manufacturer with those dimension and let them recommend drivers? I'm sure that between Dayton, Morel, Goldwood, and others shown at places like Parts Express, one will provide the needed info (including a recommended crossover).

[BRANDONH]

I have some Verit Heritage speakers I bought around 1978 or so. The drivers no longer work (except one tweeter still tweets weakly ;-). The cabinets are still OK and are pretty solid. I'm wondering if I can just put in some new 8" woofers and 1" tweeters and be able to use them again. I assume I'd have to buy a matching set of drivers and crossovers, but I'm wondering about how to know whether the drivers will work with the existing box size, how much fill to add, and how long the 2" port should be. I think this approach is sort of backwards from the norm, where you select drivers first and then design a box for them. But can this be done?

Thanks!
Bryan

Parts express has replacement speakers.
They even have people who can help you with a crossover selection.
http://www.partsexpress.com

[bcass]

Parts express has replacement speakers.
They even have people who can help you with a crossover selection.
http://www.partsexpress.com

Thank you, Brandon and Mudcat. That's good to know. :-)

Bryan

[Kaboom]

too true, sadly. To most people, anything that has enough bass to make the walls shake qualifies as "good equipment"...
either that, or sth rated as 1200 watts. even tho they dont know what a watt actually is.