I have an Infinity HPS-1000 subwoofer which I really enjoy in my home theater, but the down-firing, active, 15" woofer just went out. This subwoofer is a beast with a pair of 15" passive radiators and a claimed 1000w plate amp in a 8 cu/ft enclosure. I'd prefer to keep this subwoofer around since it's worked great until now, and would prefer to find a replacement or upgrade for the active woofer. I contacted Infinity, but haven't heard anything back, but have also read somewhere that the original woofer was a JBL design; it's all Harman in the family!
Without too much info available online about this beast, does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations on a replacement 15" driver?
Without too much info available online about this beast, does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations on a replacement 15" driver?
I replaced mine with a Dayton Audio UM15-22 15" Ultimax DVC Subwoofer and it sounds great. I only replaced mine because my amp went out, so I decided to replace the driver to match the Dayton Audio amp that I'm using. I still have the original Infinity driver and I would be willing to sell it to you. If you have any interest in it, just shoot me an email at dsvermi@gmail.com.
I just ended up making a new bottom board for it and cut it to fit the Dayton driver. The factory driver was bottom mounted using 4 clamps. I went to home depot and bought two 3/4 inch pieces of MDF and glued them together to give me the 1 1/2 thick board, then used the original piece as a template. I couldn't find any 1 1/2 inch thick MDF anywhere, so I made my own. It was quite easy. I still have the factory driver if you'd like to buy it. My issue was the amp.
No, I am using 8 dayton subs and I really like the price and quality of them. I am running 4 subs off one external amp and in order to get a 4 ohm load, I needed four 4 ohms subs. A 6 ohm sub would not work. That and it cost more. For you, it may work just fine. I would check to make sure that the infinity amp is 6 ohm stable. The factory drivers are 8 ohms.
I decided to try this custom driver from James Louddpeaker because ot was used in a similarly sized cabinet, with a passive radiator, with similar frequency responce. I know that does not ensure success, but it seemed like a good guess on a custom driver for a good price.
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I was also able to pick up the matching plate amp to that James Loudspeaker driver, which is rated at 1500wrms. I know the amp has some tuning built in around 35hz to minimize a peak at the woofers resonent frequency, but I also believed it has some additional gain down to around 18hz to keep the response flat. Since my HPS1000 amp has developed a hum (grounding cold solder joint issue I think), I'll try putting this amp in with the new woofer and see what I get. Once again, I'm not sure it'll sound better than stock, but it may work based on the design of the two subwoofers, and it'll be a fun experiment either way.
Received the woofer in the mail today and the seller through in an additional basket. Seems to be really well made, and I'd be interested to know who made these drivers for James Loudspeaker. Very stiff carbon fiber cone and dustcap, tall foam surround, cast basket, stiff spider, and very large magnet. Driver has dual, four ohm voice coils, so wiring it as one eight ohm or two fours provides two amp friendly options. Ran the driver through some frequency tests unboxed last night and it seems to react well, so appears both mechanically and electrically sound. I'll start pulling apart my HPS1000 and see what modifications I'll need to fit this woofer in the cabinet.
Pulled apart the HPS1000 today to install the new woofer. Once I removed the feet, and pulled all the screws out of the bottom, the 1" MDF baffle was able to be pulled out. The stock JBL woofer was mounted with four screw-down clips, and the stock grill (cracked from age) was sandwiched between the baffle and the woofer basket. The stock woofer is a cast basket, and appears to be a custom build of a pro style driver; it was much heavier than I expected with a substantial magnet.
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The new woofer mounted very easily in place due to the screw-down clip; with threaded inserts even! Clearance was now problem, and I only had to extend one wire lead since the stock unit had both connections on the same side.
I ran some sweeps and don't seem to be getting much response below 30hz (although very strong to there), so I'll have to play with the placement, and probably the tuning of the PRs since they are unweighted. I know the stock amp has some tuning built into it, but so does the new James Loudspeaker one I'm getting, and I think that has some bottom end boost.
I ran some sweeps and don't seem to be getting much response below 30hz (although very strong to there), so I'll have to play with the placement, and probably the tuning of the PRs since they are unweighted. I know the stock amp has some tuning built into it, but so does the new James Loudspeaker one I'm getting, and I think that has some bottom end boost.
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Running some music tests, the new woofer sounds almost like it's distorting. Both stock and new woofer measure 7.4 nominal impedance, so the stock amp shouldn't be overworked, but they are historically problematic amps. I just did the push test on one PR and the other returned to it's position pretty quickly. I guess it possible the woofer doesn't have enough air suspension to operate well, and I know stock it operated in a smaller airspace than the current 8 cu/ft.
The James Loudspeaker woofer was originally used in a 19"h X 18.5"w X 18.5"d enclosure, but split the airspace in the cabinet in a passive radiator bandpass configuration. When I installed it in the HPS-1000 cabinet, that entire 7 cu/ft airspace may have been too much, or not provided enough acoustic suspension with open air on the front of the woofer.
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Buttoned the HPS-1000 last night with the OEM JBL woofer, and the unit sounds great. I was able to track down a hum to an input ground, and fixed that, so this subwoofer is almost as good as new.
I'll have to find another project (or sell) the James Loudspeaker woofer as it seems to want a small enclosure which won't work for my room, and the plate amp I got from ebay arrived broken.
I'm actually looking at selling this subwoofer now as I recently purchased an unfinished Exodus Audio Maelstrom-X 18" with dual 18" passive radiator build. The cabinet was roughly built and tested with drivers, but needs to be finished, hardware attached, wired, and amplification.
I'll have to find another project (or sell) the James Loudspeaker woofer as it seems to want a small enclosure which won't work for my room, and the plate amp I got from ebay arrived broken.
I'm actually looking at selling this subwoofer now as I recently purchased an unfinished Exodus Audio Maelstrom-X 18" with dual 18" passive radiator build. The cabinet was roughly built and tested with drivers, but needs to be finished, hardware attached, wired, and amplification.
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