Upgrade drivers in NHT 1.1?

[dscline]

I have a surround system comprised of 8 NHT 1.1 speakers (well, one of them is a Super One). A couple of them need new woofers, but they aren't available any more. I'd like to upgrade the entire system, but a quantity of 8 speakers that would be an upgrade over the NHTs would be cost prohibitive. I really would prefer to keep them matched. So my first choice would be to just upgrade all of them with better drivers. Any suggestions for drivers that would be an upgrade, and be a good match for the 1.1 enclosures?

Thanks!

[R-Carpenter]

Try to pull out the woofer and post pictures. I am not sure if NHT uses or use to use their own drivers.
Unfortunately, there's no such thing as upgrading without going in to crossover modification.
If nobody on this forum can't recognize the driver, then perhaps, someone local could measure one and a very similar drivers could be found.

[SY]

I'd start here:

http://home.comcast.net/~jhidley/index.html

[dscline]

Thanks for the help! Unfortunately I couldn't find any 1.1 information on that page. I'll have to pull the drivers back out and take pictures, maybe this weekend. But I did jot down some numbers off of them... they were stamped with both 1-11-016-1 and k41tnc. Unfortunately, a web search didn't bring anything up for those. If I can't upgrade the drivers, perhaps my best option is getting two superones to add to my existing superone, and use them in the front LCR, and use the two good 1.1 speakers for parts for the two bad woofers. But if anyone has any other ideas for upgrading, I'm all ears.

[SY]

The first is an NHT part number. Yeah, it will be pretty much impossible to find a replacement, but there are a lot of potential upgrade drivers with full specs; measure your cabinet volume and plug the Thiele-Small parameters into a calculator.

[R-Carpenter]

Dscline, if you know someone local with any software-hardware like Woofer Tester or Sound Easy, they could measure it and that would make finding new woofer much easier. As SY mentioned, you could back-engineer your speaker also but that would leave crossover part in question. See if you could also post a picture of a crossover.

[Jack Hidley]

The 1-11-016-1 driver is currently not available. NHT has Foster building a new production run, but there is no eta yet. The Super One woofer 2-11-006-1 will fit and work in the cabinet perfectly. It will require some changes to the crossover, which will just turn your M1.1 into a Super One.

Both ACS and NHT have the Super One woofers available.

[dscline]

Originally posted by Jack Hidley
The Super One woofer 2-11-006-1 will fit and work in the cabinet perfectly. It will require some changes to the crossover, which will just turn your M1.1 into a Super One.

That is excellent info, thanks! Perhaps the most logical step then, would be to "upgrade" all of them to Super Ones? What changes would need to be made to the crossovers?

I know the Super Ones are less efficient, but sound quality wise, I believe most would consider them to be an upgrade? The speaker that functions as my center channel was starting to distort at certain frequencies, and it was clear it was the woofer. I couldn't see any issues visually, and decided to swap it with the woofer in one of the less critical speakers until I could determine the proper repair/upgrade path. In the process, my partner accidentally poked a hole in the surround of the other woofer. He didn't touch it that hard, so I suspect that the foam surrounds may be deteriorating a bit. So perhaps a woofer replacement on all of them wouldn't be a bad decision anyway.

Thanks for the help!

[quantran]

Hi Jack

I have a pair of NHT model 1.8. The mid-woofer of the right speaker sound louder than the left one. I want to replace both. These looks the same as the 1.1 woofers. I think the superone woofer could fit.

Can you help?

Originally posted by Jack Hidley
The 1-11-016-1 driver is currently not available. NHT has Foster building a new production run, but there is no eta yet. The Super One woofer 2-11-006-1 will fit and work in the cabinet perfectly. It will require some changes to the crossover, which will just turn your M1.1 into a Super One.

Both ACS and NHT have the Super One woofers available.

[dave_gerecke]

Hello dscline, Another possibility, if you are up to it, is to replace the foam surrounds on the woofers. If you are careful, you can do this yourself.
The option Mr. Hidley mentioned is definitely the most appealing. And he should know better than anyone else here!
The benefit of refoaming is cost savings. The benefit of replacing the woofers per Jack Hidleys advice is improved sound. The choice is your based upon DIY skills and financial ability.

Peace,

Dave