Radio shack used to stock them...but that was all I knew of. Anywhere else? If none wheres the best place to get em online?

4/8/2009 8:29:40 AM

umm..what are you trying to do? Do you just want any old woofer or are you looking for something specific? Last I checked, parts-express had a good selection of basic (and not so basic) woofers that will fit your needs without breaking the bank.

[Edited on April 8, 2009 at 8:34 AM. Reason : .]

4/8/2009 8:34:09 AM

replace blown woofers in 25 year-old speakers. thx for the site, i'm thinking local is a no-go.

4/8/2009 9:02:39 AM

i don't know of any place local that you would have access to a broad range of drivers that aren't going to be marked up heavily if they even had them. Plenty of car audio places around, but most reasonable car audio woofers are overbuilt for home use. You'd be surprised at just how well a $30 woofer with a reinforced paper cone will sound and perform as long as you don't try to push it to its limits and beyond on a consistent basis.

Something like this

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=295-490

would work very well and a budget setup. Question though, do you know how much box volume you have to work with? Is it ported? If it's sealed you have a lot of play and just about anything will work if you drop it in there, though you could do the calculations and buy a specific sub to drop right in. If its ported, you have more work to do.

4/8/2009 9:22:42 AM

well these are my moms speakers...so i don't have to worry about them getting pushed, or sounding perfect. problem is shes coming in town for the weekend i need to have woofers here ready to throw in. last time this happened (5-7 years maybe) i bought some from radio shack but that doesnt appear to be an option this time.

theyre sealed boxes...closer to 30 y/o realistic speakers. i had her measure whatever she could and this is what she said:

Quote :

"The first at the top, center is a round cone, that I think is the woofer we were talking about it. It measures 8-1/2 inches in diameter, from the metal edge to edge. At the bottom center is another round circle, but it is flat ... not like a cone, more like the head of a drum, and it measures 8-1/2 inches in diameter. Then, not centered, off to the left side, but in the middle between the other two is a round circular thing, but with a square like base or mount, and the circle portion measures 2-3/4 inches in diameter of the round portion. "

so that sounds like an 8" woofer right (plus metal)? and that other 8.5" thing doesn't sound like a speaker...is baffle the right word? i didn't get an exact diagnosis, but i'm assuming the tweeter is ok. do those generally go "bad?" so i'm thinking i just need to pick out some inexpensive 8" woofers and see how bad theyre gonna ding me for 2 day.

4/8/2009 9:44:29 AM

^haha you should ask for a picture

top center = 8" driver
lower center = wtf, sounds like there are two 8" drivers. maybe she wrote 8.5" twice accidentally.
left side = tweeter?

Go to walmart and pick up 2 Roadmaster (or whatever brand) 8" subs in a box for under $50 and have a cool little box left over for yourself

[Edited on April 8, 2009 at 10:18 AM. Reason : ]

4/8/2009 10:17:35 AM

Quote :

"lower center = wtf, sounds like there are two 8" drivers. maybe she wrote 8.5" twice accidentally."

naw i kinda remember this from last time i worked on them. i don't know/doubt if baffle is the right word...but its something passive so im not worried about it.

so my options are roadmaster for $50 or daytons from part-express for $70 with 2 day shipping? i'm thinking the latter is probably the wiser choice

here are the daytons: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=295-310
and i was thinking about these since they said "heavy duty" http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=290-314

any other recommendations?

4/8/2009 10:27:10 AM

the other drawback to using car audio drivers is that they typically have lower impedance drivers. ie 4 ohms vs 8 ohms. using a different impedance woofer cages the final load the amp sees and it changes the cross-over points.

4/8/2009 11:05:00 AM

Realistic is Radio Shack. Get the model number off of them. On the back label.

Shack sells replacement parts for everything they've ever sold, but don't expect any good deals.

Most of their enclosures are of bass reflex design, meaning ported cabinets. But it should be relatively easy to find woofers of roughly equal compliance.

I would steer clear of automotive audio components, especially if you're running more than one pair of speakers, as most home receivers/amps will not tolerate a total impedance per channel of less than 4 ohms. Most home audio drivers are 8 ohm (except for tweeters, but they are isolated by the crossovers and channel a very small fraction of the total power).

And what he said ^, plus overloading the amp.

BTW...paper cone woofers are more than fine for home use; actually preferrable if you look at effectively damping out unwanted resonant freqs due to the natural frequency of the cone itself...polypropylene actually performs worse, but is more durable.

[Edited on April 8, 2009 at 2:05 PM. Reason : aye, matey]

[Edited on April 8, 2009 at 2:07 PM. Reason : blah.]

4/8/2009 2:04:21 PM

Is it safe to assume you don't intend to make sure the woofer fits the crossover circuit adequately?

4/9/2009 4:45:23 PM

that's a safe assumption. it really just needs to be able to produce musical tones instead of scratchy noises...the bar isn't that high

^ I might have went that Radio Shack route but I needed something here in two days and the part express site was a bit more accessible.

4/9/2009 5:09:06 PM