While walking my AmStaff, Mr. Buddy Coltrane, in the neigborhood I saw a subwoofer at the curb for trash pick-up the next day. On a whim, I carried it home to investigate.
Upon getting home I found it was an Optimus SW-12 ported, passive subwoofer.
Nothing to get too exicted about, but it was free.
Fearing if it might have a short and damage equipment I actually paid for, I took it apart to visually inspect for damage, burnt parts, etc.
I found the following:
1) Both inductor coils in the crossover/filter were loose and hanging only by their wires (probably rattling when used).
2) There were nine inhabitants inside the sub: three Scooby Doo's, two Shaggy's, one Vlema and three LEGO men (construction worker, astronaut, and dude with a baseball cap and life vest ??).
Must be from a house with boys, who else would bother to turn a sub over and drop toys inside the port?
3) The limited amount of subwoofer fill it had come loose.
4) The woofer itself looked to be in perfect condition and there were no other obvious signs of trouble.
The sub was repaired by re-installing the inductors with silicon cement , gluing the fill back in place, and taking the extra step to seal all accessible interior edges with silicon caulk. To test the sub I ran a pair of speaker wires from an extra slot on a speaker selector switch to the subs input and set it in the corner of a room with no sub.
Low and behold, it works like a champ for what it is and now has a permanent home in the corner of a family room previously with just a 4.0 system of inwall speakers. Luckily, the previous homeowner had ran a set of speaker wires to the far corner of that room to support a passive sub. I never expected to use this option since:
a) Most subs these days rarely support high inputs anymore,
b) More importantly, my wife has put the cabash on A/V spending until our daughter's wedding is paid off!
Cheers,
XEagleDriver
