replacement woofer suggestions...

[sputnik13]

I just picked up a pair of used JBL 2600. I stupidly didn't check under the grills since they seemed to sound fine. When I brought them home and looked under the grill, I foudn the woofer on both speakers was torn. When I hooked them up, and played something with some decent amount of bass, there was obviously a lot of distortion in the sound.

So, now I have to replace the woofers, but I don't know anything about such things. Can anyone suggest a decent 6.5" woofer? I've looked at Parts Express' site, but there are so many and I don't know how any of them compare to one another.

Also, a question about power handling... I've noticed that the drivers used in the speaker kits that are said to handle up to 150W RMS don't individually handle that much, so how is this number calculated?

[pelly3s]

why not just get the exact replacement drivers from JBL or a JBL service station.

[sputnik13]

because, the replacements from JBL cost $99 each

[skeptic]

You have a difficult dilemma. Without exact replacements, you will not have the performance you expected. You will have essentially redesigned the speaker and will wind up almost certainly with an inferior product. I would get the JBL part number and any information I could about it including its impedence, sensitivity, power handling, and all other pertinent data such as resonant frequency, Qes, Qms, Qts, Vas, maximum excursion, cutout diameter and try to match it as closely as possible. Or you could just pay to have them reconed. You could argue with the person whom you bought them from but usually used equipment is sold "as is" unless you have proof that it was clearly and deliberately misrepresented. Live and learn. This was a cheap lesson. Next time it could be a car or a house.

[sputnik13]

actually, I think I just need them refoamed... the cone and everything looks ok, just the foam around the cone is all torn. Is it difficult to do this myself? I guess it was misleading to say the whole woofer was torn... sorry, like I said, I don't know too much about this stuff ^_^;;

[pelly3s]

a lot of people talk about refoaming on this board, it's not the hardest thing to do but takes some knowledge and a steady hand. some companies sell kits for doing it including the foam, glue, dust cap and shims. professionals will rarely have to replace a dust cap while doing a refoam. if you get them professionally refoamed it will be anywhere from $40 to $50. i couldn't tell you how much a kit to refoam it would cost but i would say somewhere around 25 or 30 and about an hour of your time to glue it and a good day for it all to dry. do yourself a favor and research refoaming before you do it yourself.