My new subwoofer is
unique and kicks butt. It is a hybrid subwoofer that is the result of the marriage between two companies.
I have an old 12" passive Radio Shack subwoofer that has been sitting in the in the garage for a few years. I decided to upgrade its driver and use it in the living room. I ordered a 12" driver from Elemental Designs.
My intention was to upgrade the old sub and decide whether I wanted to use the same driver on a couple of friends’ subwoofers that have blown drivers. I have no idea how I became a subwoofer repair person. I suppose my rates are the best in the world. They don’t pay anything. Occasionally , they take me to dinner and I end up paying half the time.
Anyway, the driver I ordered and received was
e3.12 from Elemental Designs for $125 + Free Shipping. This driver is used in the ED A2-300 subwoofers.
These are the pictures of the front, side, and back of the sub driver:
As I was about to change the driver of the old Radio Shack subwoofer, I decided to send a private message to Brett from ED and ask him about the suitability of the driver for non-ED subwoofers in home theater applications. I received a message from him that the driver will work fine in HT subwoofers. OMG, he shouldn’t have said that to a crazy person like me.
I have been wondering for a while how my low cost Acoustic Audio HD-SUB12 would sound with a new driver. The AA is a great subwoofer for less than $200. The message from Brett was enough for me to put the Radio Shack subwoofer back in the garage and take the AA sub apart. These are the specifications for the original AA sub:
Power Output: 400 Watts Nominal RMS to 800 Watts Maximum
Woofer: 12 Inch Front-Firing Long Throw Driver
Complex Fiberglass Cone
Aluminum Voice Coil Former
Parabolic RFL Voice Coil
CEA Cooling Technology
Low Carbon Top and Bottom Plate
Rear Slotted Bass Port
Frequency Response: 20Hz-250Hz
Variable Low Pass Frequency Crossover: 40Hz-130Hz
Efficiency / Sensitivity: 99dB @ 1 watt/1 meter
Built-in Digital Drive High Efficiency Amplifier
Cabinet Design: Advanced RFL Bass Reflex
Dimensions (W x D x H): 14.9 x 15.5 x 17.4 Inches
3 Year Parts and Labor Warranty
Shipping Weight: 47 lbs
This is a picture of the HD-SUB12. As you can see the driver is quite attractive.
When I took the AA driver out, I realized that there were several problems:
- The wires inside the sub were soldered to the amplifier and to the driver. I couldn’t take the driver out. So I took the easy way out and cut the wires with a pair of scissors.
- As I tried to put the ED driver inside the box, I realized that it is slightly bigger and doesn’t fit. A sane and normal person would have given up, but not me. For the next hour, I tried my best to increase the diameter of the opening without doing major damage to the cabinet. I believe I succeeded.
- I was excited and happy that I could finally attach the new driver and run test tones through it and enjoy some movies and music. All of a sudden, I noticed that the original AA driver had 6 screw holes. The new ED driver and almost all other drivers have 8. I was very unhappy and reluctantly went to the garage and got my drill and drilled 8 new holes. Finally, I attached the driver to the subwoofer. The driver has dual 2-ohm voice coils. If connected in series according to the following diagram, the net impedance will be 4 ohms.
This is a picture of the sub with the new driver.
- Exhausted and emotionally drained, I carried the sub to the back of the room and connected the power and the sub cable. You think that is the end. Think again. Because of the new driver, the grille did not fit. That is not a major problem as I do like to look at sub drivers.
Finally it was time to test the new beast. The first thing I did was to turn off the other subwoofers in the room. I did not change any other settings. I ran the receiver’s test tone through the new sub and measured it with my SPL meter. It was about 2 to 3dB higher than before. Next, I played one of my favorite subwoofer test CD, Dead Can Dance: Sprit Chaser. Track 3, 4, and 7 give your subs a good workout. I noticed that the new sub sounds deeper and perhaps more detailed. The difference was not night-and-day, but noticeable.
Because the sound was a bit deeper, I automatically assumed that the new driver has better low frequency extension. I decided to run test tones through the sub. To my surprise, it hardly produced any sound at 20Hz. My SPL meter registered 68dB. At 25Hz, the sound was louder around 87dB and they were louder after that. These are the overall responses at 1 meter (3.3ft) in my room:
20Hz, 68dB
25Hz, 87dB
31.5Hz, 97dB
40Hz, 97dB
50Hz, 88dB
63Hz, 92dB
80Hz, 94dB
100Hz, 92dB
125Hz, 92dB
This is the plot of SPL versus frequency.
The original AA driver played much louder at 20Hz. I cannot explain why the new driver sounds deeper. I know that ears are not reliable and sometimes give you misleading results. I plan to run the test tones again after a few more days. Overall, I am very happy with the new driver. The total cost of the original sub (particularly if purchased from their Ebay store) and the new ED driver is still below $300 and a huge bargain.
I decided to name my subwoofer the AA/ED-SUB12.
Was it necessary to change the driver? No, not really. The old driver was fine and very satisfactory.
Why did I do it? Because the sub was there and I had to do something new and different. After all,
I could not allow Driver King to show off with his DIY subwoofer and the ED driver.
Furthermore, I had to take the title of the craziest person on Blu-ray.com away from
CrazyBlue. He is the one who bought 3 subwoofers and a receiver on the same day. A few of us, including me, belong to an institution.
