Aerius i woofer replacement or upgade?

Angel L. · Mar 18, 2014

Hello everyone,

I am a VERY happy owner of a second hand pair of Aerius i in cherry and just noticed one of the woofers cracking a little bit. I would like to replace the woofers with the originals, but if there is a replacement type of woofers that have been proven to work and improve, I would be interested as well. Considering a pair on Dynamo sub woofers to replace the current. Maybe change the wiring to a higher quality and dynamiting the interior of the enclosure. I do not dare to do any electronics replacement other than change a fuse. Any feedback would be most welcome.

Angel

The attached pic was a moment of enlightenment and by no means is that the normal setup. That just goes to show how much I love my setup!

Tosh · Mar 18, 2014

What do you mean by "cracking"? Maybe it's just a loose connection inside?

Is the voice coil rubbing? If so, I would first try to just flip the woofer around, so it's upside-down from its original position.

If a woofer is 'blown' it can usually be reconed by a speaker repair shop. A suitable replacement woofer will need the following five properties: nominal impedance of 4 Ohms, sensitivity of 90-92dB, flat response beyond 1kHz, Qts above ~0.30, and the woofer basket OD needs to fit into the counterbore in the cabinet. Repair or replace in pairs...

Tosh · Mar 18, 2014

http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-8-woofers/scanspeak-22w/4534g-discovery-8-woofer-4-ohm/

The above woofer pretty much suits as a replacement IF! it fits your counterbore. Otherwise, fairly slim pickings out there....

Angel L. · Mar 18, 2014

Thank you for your prompt response.

What I mean by cracking is at moderate to high volume, I hear a crackle on woofer extension. i am going to flip it around to see if helps first and evaluate the condition of the cone. Never had a speaker re-coned before, just replaced. Is the repair process just as good as a new one?

Tosh · Mar 18, 2014

Happy to help!

If it sounds like cracking even at moderate volumes, then flipping it around prob isn't going to help. Likely what's happened is the far edge of the voice coil has smacked into the rear plate once too often and 'dented' the VC, and now it's rubbing in the gap. (A worse possibility is the VC has begun separating from too much heat, and there's no fix for that except a recone.) You might attempt to delicately cut away the dust cover to expose the coil and use plastic shims in the gap to encourage the VC to straighten out enough to stop rubbing. Some massaging of the spider might also help move the VC over enough to stop rubbing. Playing a low freq test signal through the woofer while you have it out will confirm if it's fixed or not. If that still doesn't work, then report back!

A recone can be just as good as new, if the repairman is any good. The problem these days is that the cost of shipping them back and forth plus the cost of the repair itself is likely to exceed that of buying a new half-decent woofer. Check around locally for a speaker repair shop?