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.