How To Upgrade Speakers
Aug 31 '03
The Bottom Line The Shops: partsexpress.com US, wilmslowaudio.co.uk UK, madisound.com US, maplin.co.uk UK. The Forum: diyaudio.com
There are three stages in which you can upgrade commercial speakers. You can upgrade the cabinet, the drivers and the crossover, either separately or as a package. In all cases, the idea is to get better sound, without buying new speakers. Obviously we aren’t going to upgrade micro-system speakers by changing the drivers if they are made of plastic. And we aren’t going to build new cabinets for rubbish drivers. The point is, you need to have a good speaker to start with. Take for example, a simple bookshelf speaker, with a 17cm (7”) woofer and 25mm (1”) dome tweeter, that could do with better bass. The simplest solution would be to buy a subwoofer, but I bet you can get the same improvements in bass, by simply upgrading the cabinet. The box that drivers sit in can make a huge difference to the sound, as can crossovers and drivers. The solution isn’t always one stage, you may have to upgrade the crossover a little in this case too. And there isn’t anything stopping you from adding a larger woofer into a sub-cabinet – and would still cost less than a single subwoofer.
You don’t need to be an experienced joiner, electrician or even good at maths. The solution can be found for free on the Internet, and you can get cabinets and crossovers built professionally. You just need to use Google to find local speaker dealers who will sell you cabinets or build crossovers for you. The key point is, you can upgrade a commercial speaker into one that will sound better than something twice what you pay to have them upgraded. In some cases, custom speakers can sound as good as commercial designs costing four times the price. If you already have speakers that sound good, then you can make them sound great. There may be something you can improve which will make them sound so much better. As in the said case, upgrading a cabinet, you can find information on using a Transmission Line system that enhances bass, much better than a larger box.
The Cheap Solution
If you have ever picked up a Hi Fi magazine before, you’ll have noticed the jargon about how good cables make a difference. But your speakers’ internal wiring may be no better than bell-wire. This makes the internal cable re-wire the cheapest solution. It simply takes an hour to re-wire the speakers with some suitable Hi Fi cable. The difference in sound should be most noticeable in the bass.
Crossovers
Crossovers vary from speaker to speaker, but you will usually find the same type of components. Capacitors, Inductors, and resistors are used inside. The cheapest components are Electrolytic Capacitors, and Ferrite Core Inductors. Now these components are used mostly in the budget speakers, as they are cheap to buy. Upgrade the capacitors ones in the tweeter section to Polypropylene non-polar capacitors and the inductors in the bass section to air-core inductors and you will have a decent upgrade that is easy to notice. Note that these components are not cheap, you can expect to pay about £30/$40 for this upgrade.
In a case where you know the models of the drivers, if they are labelled so you can look up information on them. You may want to see if you can improve on their performance, by either contacting a company or working it out yourself. The simplest formula uses the drivers DC impedance and a crossover figure. You can estimate a crossover frequency by comparing the drivers’ frequency response, looking at where the best crossover point is for each unit. The best advice can be found on DIYaudio.com forums, if you need more information.
Cabinet
A good cabinet is not critical, but it is important. A weak or light built box will not be sufficient for large woofers; in some cases they can be so powerful that they rip them apart. The cabinet should be made with a wall thickness of 25mm, at least. A good cabinet will not make a very dead sound when you knock it with you hand. If you want to upgrade the cabinets, you may as well consider about the design. You don’t have to go with a rectangular box, you can be creative, copy high-end speaker designs if you want. The best part is that you can apply your own finish. Again, you can have cabinets pre-made or pre-built; some lumbar yards will cut the pieces for you.
At this stage, you can also consider adding sections for additional drivers, perhaps a subwoofer. You can also add a separate enclosure for the tweeter, or supporting a heavy woofer magnet with internal bracing, or making a removable slot for a crossover.
Drivers
This sounds a lot easier than it is. You can’t expect two drivers to sound the same, and inserting the same sized units into your speakers could make them sound worse. Unless it’s a straight replacement, then you’ll need to adjust the crossover to suite new drivers. It doesn’t matter if its only one, you have to change the whole crossover. In some cases it can be better to upgrade one rather than the other but it depends on what you feel could be better.
One of the easiest ways to find faults with your speakers is to compare them to better ones. But its even easier if the problem stands out, like harshness and distortion, which can be identified quickly. A changed crossover and tweeter for example, could reduce the harshness and also take away any distortion too. The only problem to overcome is the sizes. Most tweeters in commercial speakers come from special manufacturers like Seas, Vifa, Morel among many more, which most follow the same sizes. For example, tweeters come in circular faceplate diameters of 94, 104, 114mm, and woofers usually come in 202, 212, 222mm diameter. It’s only the unusual shaped ones that can be troublesome.
What I Did
My first upgrade was a Zobel network, £6/$8, which was noticeably better sounding.
The second was a new tweeter, and all new crossover, £80/$112, which sounds like a new speaker, and have no more distortion – at all.
My next upgrade is a subwoofer built into the lower part of the speaker, £75/$105.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you should understand now that commercial speakers can sound good at first, but have so much holding them back. In many cases the wiring is the worst aspect of budget speakers, which is probably the easiest and cheapest upgrade. The next culprit is the crossover; this caused distortion in my case. The strangest fact is that the cabinet is probably the best part of a speaker, so you can quite easily flush out the gubbins and get more from them.
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