Seeking a replacement driver for the Onix Rocket 450, or alternative

[Volta]

Hey guys,
I have a pair of Onix Rocket 450 speakers and one of them was damaged recently. Actually only one driver was damaged and needs to be replaced. Does anyone know where I can find a replacement driver? Original is preferred, but I realize they may be hard to find.
Would there be any viable alternatives to this driver? I think the drivers used in the 450's were custom made by AV123, so I could not just put in any mid range driver in there right?
Thanks for any advice/help you can give.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hey guys,
I have a pair of Onix Rocket 450 speakers and one of them was damaged recently. Actually only one driver was damaged and needs to be replaced. Does anyone know where I can find a replacement driver? Original is preferred, but I realize they may be hard to find.
Would there be any viable alternatives to this driver? I think the drivers used in the 450's were custom made by AV123, so I could not just put in any mid range driver in there right?
Thanks for any advice/help you can give.

You are correct, you need an exact replacement driver. Since AV 123 is wound up and the owner in the clink, you have a bad problem.

The tweeter is Vifa, but the bass mids are custom. I have no idea where old shifty sourced them from.

So you will have to see if a driver eventually comes up on eBay. That is probably a long shot.

If the cone or voice coil is damaged, I doubt there are parts about to repair the damaged driver. See if someone like Orange County speaker repair has parts. I would doubt they do.

Failing that you will have to part the speakers out.

The only other solution is a very difficult reverse engineering.

We would have to find drivers with T/S parameters that might work in that box size. Almost certainly the ports would need changing. A new crossover would have to be designed and built. All four drivers would need changing and both crossover redesigned and changed. This is a big task.

If you don't want to put a lot of time and money into the problem, I would part them out and get something else.

As I understand it, they were not the greatest speaker in the world, so you should be able to get something better.

If you want to do a redesign, then the first step is careful cabinet measurement so the internal volume can be calculated. You need to take careful port measurements.

Then you need to send one of the working drivers to someone who can measure the T/S parameters of the speakers, and measure the acoustic responses.

 

[Volta]

Wow, yeah I do not have the expertise nor the money to do a full on repair like you stated. I just want to replace one driver with another.
Ok, so the drivers are 5.25 inch, what would be the disadvantage to installing a similar spec driver of the same size?

 

[TLS Guy]

Wow, yeah I do not have the expertise nor the money to do a full on repair like you stated. I just want to replace one driver with another.
Ok, so the drivers are 5.25 inch, what would be the disadvantage to installing a similar spec driver of the same size?

Your problem is that all drivers are unique. Not only do they have different T/S parameters, which affect tuning, but also the output for a given drive voltage. All drivers require unique sized boxes and ports.

The next issue is that different drivers have very different acoustic responses.

The crossovers have to be redesigned to account for differences in the voice coil resistance and inductance as well as the acoustic response.

When you just swap drivers a speaker sounds awful and nowhere near like it sounded before.

If you click on these drivers and load the spec sheets, you will see that the T/S parameters are all over the map and acoustic responses vary widely.

If you don't want to do a redesign, then part the speakers out. That is what you will do in the end anyway.

If you want you can send me a working driver to measure, and I can see if there is a driver out there that is remotely close. Chances are that there will be nothing close.

What is the matter with your blown speaker, and is there a chance of repair?

 

[TLS Guy]

Bad news for you.

The woofers in the original Onix rockets were made by SAC (Sound Arts China). Old Shifty did not pay them, although he claimed to have an ownership stake which he didn't.

Sometime in 2007 production was quietly shifted to another Chinese manufacturer. I can not find a record of the company and some say there may have been several. Quality was apparently dreadful and failures like yours common.

I would ditch those speakers fast. Part them out and get what money you can out of them. Otherwise it will be good money after bad.

 

[Volta]

Oh man, that really sucks. I am trying to contact Hugh and Danny Richie to see if they have any ideas. I also have spoken to Kevin over at Motor City to see if he has any ideas.
I was afraid of this happening.
I damaged the woofer by accident. It was hit with a bungee cord when it slipped out of my hands. Kinda hard to explain, but my dumb a** did it and now looks like I am SOL.
Thanks for your help with this. I will have to mull over my options.

 

[TLS Guy]

Oh man, that really sucks. I am trying to contact Hugh and Danny Richie to see if they have any ideas. I also have spoken to Kevin over at Motor City to see if he has any ideas.
I was afraid of this happening.
I damaged the woofer by accident. It was hit with a bungee cord when it slipped out of my hands. Kinda hard to explain, but my dumb a** did it and now looks like I am SOL.
Thanks for your help with this. I will have to mull over my options.

Send some pictures. I might be able to salvage it as one of the lower drivers.