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Acoustic Audio PS-12 Driver Replacement

post #1 of 5
1/4/09 at 8:20am
Thread Starter 
I bought a new Acoustic Audio PSW-12 12 inch 250 watt RMS and 500 watt Max ported home theatre subwoofer. I have noticed that the driver hasnt been moving alot of air and even has statred to bottom out because it isnt a high excursion driver. It also has been making a noise which i think is the voice coil scratching against something. This Driver really sucks, in my opinion. I'm thinking of taking the weak driver out and replacing it with a Visonik V120S4 12 inch 4 ohm high excursion driver which has an Xmax of 16 mm. The sub is rated for 300 Watts RMS and 600 Watts Max, a little bit higher than the rating on my plate amp which is a 500 watt amp. Is replacing this crappy driver a good idea?
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post #2 of 5
1/4/09 at 2:38pm

Re: Acoustic Audio PS-12 Driver Replacement

It's not a great idea to replace the driver but if you do you don't want to use another crappy driver like the Visonik.

First, you should ignore the RMS rating on the subs. It is worthless unless you are going to install it in your car and enter an SPL competition. In home theater you will run out of xmax before reaching the thermal limits of a sub. Second, you should measure the enclosure and determine the proper replacement sub based on Theile/Small parameters.

-Robert
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post #3 of 5
1/4/09 at 6:53pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Acoustic Audio PS-12 Driver Replacement

Hello,

Could you please elaborate why replacing the driver is not a good idea? I am trying to explain this to my nephew who is the one thinking of doing this. Thank you very much for the information.

Llappin
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post #4 of 5
1/4/09 at 8:44pm

Re: Acoustic Audio PS-12 Driver Replacement

It's not a bad idea if you know what you are doing. Like I said earlier you have to find a driver that will work in your existing enclosure. You do that based on the published Theile/Small parameters of the hundreds of different drivers available. If a driver does not list those parameters then it isn't worth considering.

Once you have a suitable list of drivers in your budget, you can use software like WinISD and Unibox to model the drivers in your existing enclosure. Pick the one that has the best frequency response curve. It's not much different that building your own sub but having an enclosure size constaint.

If it is a small enclosure, then you need to look for drivers with a powerful motor structure. I've used a few of these and you are looking at subs with 30 to 60 pound magnets.

And the Visonik sub that was mentioned earlier. To elaborate a little more - it is flea market, pawn shop crap. I suggest Dayton, Tangband and Audiopulse drivers from Parts Express. Fi Car Audio, Exodus Audio, Creative Sound of Canada are just a few companies that can supply a very high quality driver.

-Robert
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post #5 of 5
1/5/09 at 8:08pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Acoustic Audio PS-12 Driver Replacement

Hello Robert,

Thank you very much for taking the time to further elaborate on this. I don’t think my nephew knows all the details you have listed. I know I don’t know any of it. But now I can show him this information. Thank you again.
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