Upgradeable sub/speakers? (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Bogie]

You know, just had an idea - they're generally bad, but what the heck...

Would it be possible to produce a sub or speakers where one could, over time, add either drivers, wattage, etc.? Such as something on the order of a half-filled line array - you decide to upgrade, you pull off a panel, plug in the stuff?

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

SVS has upgraded from their original drivers and amplifiers in the PC and CS series. It would be hard to do this with speakers because crossovers would have to be redesigned. Also, from a business standpoint, why support an upgradable format when you can make more money selling people a brand new product every few years? Having the newest and the best drives consumerism in this country.

 

[Mark Seaton]

Hmmm... Anything is possible.

This would be something best suited for an online company, but I could see it as workable. If you consider that the enclosure is a significant cost of the speakers, I could see someone offering a 2 way which could then be upgraded by using the small 2 way as a "head". I probably shouldn't give away the idea, but the ideal would be to start with a 3 way, floor standing HT speaker with the bass section forming a stand for the mid and tweet, much like a WATT/PUPPY. Create a killer 3 way unit using separate enclosures, then take just the head and make it work as a 2 way monitor by padding down the tweeter and swaping out the midrange. This way, to upgrade you would buy the bass stands, the new midranges, and the new crossover for the head. Could easily make an ~86dB 2 way jump to a 92-94dB monster 3 way. There are a few companies who have offered similar, but the gains when adding the bass section is usually just low end extension while relieving the mid of some work, I'm thinking making it a significant jump in performance.

Hmmm...

 

[Chuck Bogie]

Another thought, building on that - Wouldn't it be cool if you could buy speaks as separates, in separate boxes? Start out with a mediocre set, and one month upgrade your tweeters, a few months after that, do the midranges, etc.?

It'd be interesting to see what happens to the room characteristics too - Move the mids closer to the wall, while pointing the tweets in a little... Hmm...

 

[Mark Seaton]

Chuck,

You can, it's called DIY. In a well designed speaker, any re-location of a drive unit would require re-optomization of the crossover.