Refurb/respeaker passive sub?

[blownrx7]

I have a pair of ACI Saturn subwoofers that I purchased/assembled in 1990. I initially used them with a pair of Dahlquist DQ-10's and a Audio Control Richter Scale Series III crossover/equalizer. Each sub has 2-12" drivers arranged in a push-pull arrangement at the bottom of a tall (~4 ft) column . They were great for music but recently got a little out of sorts when I pressed them into service for the HT stuff. Lo and behold I discovered that the woofer surrounds were laying at the bottom - disintegrated. :E
Right now, I am going the cheapest route possible and refoaming the surrounds. But, longer term, I was wondering if I could reuse the cabinets and replace the drivers or even make them active subs....
The cabinets are approximately 15x15x ~4 ft tall! They are extremely well-built so I feel "re-using" them is a viable option.
I was hoping some of you knowledgeable types might make a suggestion for my next step?
Stay with the refoamed woofers?
Put in new drivers? What are the popular/desired/best for low freq etc?
Stay with the push/pull configuration or go with std single driver?
Go active? Of course that opens up a whole buch of options.
My budget? Hmmm. I guess about $1000 to redo both units.
Thanks in advance for your help!

[ThomasW]

Obviously refoaming is the cheapest fix probably a little over $200 to do all 4 drivers.

If you want to reuse the same box and get better performance, look at some of the high excursions 12"s on or coming on the market. While not cheap, a pair of high excursion 12"s will provide more output as compared to a single 15".

Continuing to go isobaric would double the driver cost, with the primiary benefit being that you could use drivers with a higher Vas. I'm not sure that would fit your needs or budget

[blownrx7]

Refurb/Respeaker Passive Subs

Thanks for the advice.
Actually, refoaming is only going to cost $50 plus an hour or two of my time.
With regard to the high-excursion 12's, any suggestions?
I went and actually measured the cabinets (instead of guesstimating) and they are 13.5x14.5x35" sealed enclosure with 1" thick walls. With some work, I could block off some of the interior to reduce the volume if needed. How do I go about choosing a driver? Excuse my ignorance here. I am not a speker builder for sure...
Thanks for the help

[ThomasW]

Are those the internal dimensions or the external dimensions?

The last thing you want to do is decrease the size of the box.

[blownrx7]

Refurb/Respeaker Passive Subs

Those are external dimensions. The walls are 1" thick so internal is appx 11.5x12.5x34 giving me appx 2.7 cu ft internal volume.
I was told to use the WinISD tool and play with that to choose a driver.
I don't know what a lot of the terms means but the freq response plot it generates tells me 90% of what I want to know.
Using that, the Adire DPL12 looks like the best candidate to use in a SINGLE-DRIVER setup for my sealed enclosure.
And yes, from that, I do NOT want to reduce the volume of the box.

[ThomasW]

First delete WinISD it isn't accurate.

Second download and use Unibox it's accurate.

DPL-12" are very good drivers, but if you want high ouput from a pair of 12"s the price of admission is higher than $150ea.

Take a look at the 12" Brahma from Adire or in a couple week when Chad Kypers' new drivers are available, you'll find something similar for a lot less money.

We're discussing Chad's new drivers in this link.

https://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9361

[blownrx7]

Refurb/respeaker passive sub?

Hmmm.
I seem to get the similar answers with either. I have more trouble manipulating the data in Unibox in the 5 minutes I dedicated to it - Unibox definitely seems to be more powerful, i.e. more variables to play with, more data provided
I'm not necessarily looking for high output as much as accurate, clean output. I have them in a relatively small room so two quality subs with even less than average output will blow the room out if I wanted.
I will wait for Chad's 12" to come out and check the specs since, as I said, I already refoamed the existing woofers and can live with them for now.
Thanks for the advice!!!

[cdwitmer]

I think it is great if you can refoam four woofers in an hour or two. I have done quite a few but it always takes me much more time. Just cleaning the frame down to bare metal takes me that much time. (So far I have only re-edged Pioneer woofers, and perhaps Pioneer uses exceptionally hard-to-remove materials, I don't know.) Do you have any secrets that you don't mind sharing?

[blownrx7]

No great secrets really. Probably more like a total of 3-4 hours for all 4 woofers by the time I was done. The biggest advantage I think I may have is a ~ 5/16 wide x-acto blade - a perfect width for the glue line on both the frame and the cone. It looks like this: So the blade can be oriented perpendicular to the surface like an ice
l l scraper or putty knife except I have a super-sharp blade that can get
l l under the glue and take it right off. The cones on these particular
l l woofers were polypropylene so less chance of cutting the cone
l l accidently.
l l
l l