Need an 8 inch paradigm woofer and have questions.

[chopper72]

I bought an older pair of Paradigm Studio Monitor speakers. This was the first in their monitor series from circa 1992. One of the 8 inch woofers is dead. Can that be replaced by any Paradigm 8 inch woofer? Do Ohms have to be matched. Is reconing hard? Do you know where I could get kit? I see some 8 inch woofers on ebay but they are not from the same model and year of speaker.

 

[j_garcia]

Paradigm makes their own drivers, so they'd be the best ones to contact. Yes, you want the exact same driver that is in there for the speaker to work correctly. The x-over and box are designed specifically to suit that driver.

 

[chopper72]

The speakers sound good without it. So I am not going to be too much of a stickler for matching. I just want to get something that will work. I contacted paradigm but m interested in all opinions.

 

[Eppie]

Reconing is more difficult than just replacing the foam surround since you need to be able to solder the voice coil connections without damaging the cone. You can get foam surrounds from simplyspeakers.com but a cone with voice coil will likely have to come from the manufacturer (a new cone should include the surround). The crossover and cabinet were designed for that specific speaker, so an exact replacement is always preferred. If you drop in a different speaker, even if the impedance rating is the same, the result will be a roll of the dice, as speaker impedance varies by frequency and is different for each model. All depends on what your target result is and how much you want to spend. If you're doing this on the cheap, maybe email PartsExpress and see if they can recommend a driver.

 

[TLS Guy]

The speakers sound good without it. So I am not going to be too much of a stickler for matching. I just want to get something that will work. I contacted paradigm but m interested in all opinions.

How can the speakers possibly sound good with one woofer not working?

I would ask Paradigm if they have any recone kits still available for that woofer.

If you put in any 12" woofer you find, it will either be too loud or two quiet, and there will be a frequency response error at crossover. If the impedance is not correct, then the speakers will cross at the wrong frequency. So you really need to get the woofer you have rebuilt, or find a used one from that speaker on eBay.

What speakers are we talking about?