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Cab Speakers Upgrade?

mickbellinello

mickbellinello

Apr 19, 2020
189
146
40
Italy
#1
Hi to all,

In the “guitar world” changing speaker is very common but what about “bass world”?

i mean, could be an interesting thing or a totally waste of money?

i have two ampeg portaflex cab which are loud but tight..and i was thinking about changing the speaker for a beefier sounding one but..have no idea if it could be a good or a bad idea...

Any suggestion? What do you think about?
 
#4
Redbrangus said:
Axiomatic data: loudspeaker and enclosure are a system; changing the driver without considering how it works in the enclosure is a recipe for sub-optimal performance... sometimes exceptional so.

Edit: @agedhorse was saying the same thing a different way, I think.
Click to expand...
Yes, I was.
 
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#5
mickbellinello said:
i mean, could be an interesting thing or a totally waste of money?
Click to expand...
It is an interesting waste of money unless you take the time and money to learn how to do it properly and even then it is going to take more time and money to change something into what it was not. Just get what you want.

When these changes are made the cab is worth almost nothing, nobody wants an "upgraded" cab as they are usually the seller trying to recoup what they can in money for their failed attempt. The performance a cab is known for is what people want to buy, random speaker in a cab is unknown performance to a buyer.

Just get a cab that preforms as you like and/or need and be done with it.
 
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#6
Back in the day when cabs were kind of hit or miss designed, we use to switch out 15's all the time. Usually they came with a Jensen and we replaced it with a JBL. My old Sunn Sorado cab came with something called "Sunn Transducers". I switched them out for a pr of EVM's and still love and use the cab. But, these days speakers are often custom matched to the cabinet. So, just sticking in another speaker because it is the same size usually doesn't work all that great.
 
#7
S-Bigbottom said:
It is an interesting waste of money unless you take the time and money to learn how to do it properly and even then it is going to take more time and money to change something into what it was not. Just get what you want.

When these changes are made the cab is worth almost nothing, nobody wants an "upgraded" cab as they are usually the seller trying to recoup what they can in money for their failed attempt. The performance a cab is known for is what people want to buy, random speaker in a cab is unknown performance to a buyer.

Just get a cab that preforms as you like and/or need and be done with it.
Click to expand...

Correct, just ask the guy in the other thread who bought a Mesa 610 with "mis-represented" drivers how that worked out for him.
 
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#8
There’s a lot of knowledge, experience and wisdom reflected in the responses above, which one ignores at peril of wasting time and money. Ask me how I know! But it wouldn’t be Talkbass if we didn’t also discuss: your Portaflex cab, is it a single 15” speaker? Sealed or ported? By knowing more about the cab, others may be able to advise you better toward a cab that sounds closer to what you want to hear.
 
#9
The overall volume of the cabinet in liters plays a significant role in how much lowend you can get.

But if your looking for more power handling before distortion
You can upgrade the speaker.
 
#12
mickbellinello said:
Any suggestion? What do you think about?
Click to expand...

In the guitar world, the speaker is the main focus and the cabinet's main job is to make sure the speaker is oriented upright.

In the bass world the speaker is a piston that directs the airflow through the cabinet. Speaker and cabinet form a system where both are equally important, so swapping speakers is usually not recommended. At least not when you cross a certain threshold (the price range where you can expect serious engineering).
 
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#13
Thanks to all for the great replies.

I asked this because I'm a mod fanatic guy and where I can swap, change, mod I'll do.
I saw different 15 speaker (Celestion, Eminence etc...) so I was interested in knowing if that "replacement" parts could be an improvement for a "commercial cabinet".

My portaflex is rear ported cab with no tweeter. Sincerely I like it but I'd like to know if I can improve it a certain way. Ampeg site reports that the cab is loaded with Eminence Speaker and I was curious to know if those replacement high quality speaker could be an improvement or not.

If I can describe the leak of something... I was curious to know if there was some ways to have a more fat and round sound... pf cabs are loud (I use it with an ampeg svt4pro head paired with a 4x10 portaflex cab) but sometimes I feel it a little bit tight... don't know if I explain the situation In a right way.
 
#15
I swapped the original PAS drivers from an SWR Goliath Jr 610 for a full set of Deltalites I ordered from Avatar. They were neodymium based drivers that Avatar custom ordered from Eminence and voiced very differently than the original PAS, but in my opinion those Deltas woke that cab up, but that may have been due to the fact that 4 of the 6 PAS drivers were shot and I was finally getting a full clean signal from the cabinet. Best of all, that cabinet lost quite a bit of weight, over 40lbs if I recall.

Alls I'm saying is, you can try swapping out the drivers and only you will be able to decide whether you like the result or not. Just be sure to keep the speaker impedance the same.
 
#16
mickbellinello said:
Hi to all,

In the “guitar world” changing speaker is very common but what about “bass world”?

i mean, could be an interesting thing or a totally waste of money?

i have two ampeg portaflex cab which are loud but tight..and i was thinking about changing the speaker for a beefier sounding one but..have no idea if it could be a good or a bad idea...

Any suggestion? What do you think about?
Click to expand...
It won't help you. If you want it to be beefier, you need to sell those cabs and buy the ported ones. But, then you'll lose your punch, and definition.
 
#17
JeezyMcNuggles said:
It won't help you. If you want it to be beefier, you need to sell those cabs and buy the ported ones. But, then you'll lose your punch, and definition.
Click to expand...
Not all ported cabs lose punch and definition by a long shot! Eden's XST cabs have plenty of punch and definition and if you play DNA's cabs too loud you'll end up with a bloody nose from the punch. And, their definition is second to none. I have their DNS-210 and DNS-410 cabs.
 
#19
Rip Van Dan said:
Not all ported cabs lose punch and definition by a long shot! Eden's XST cabs have plenty of punch and definition and if you play DNA's cabs too loud you'll end up with a bloody nose from the punch. And, their definition is second to none. I have their DNS-210 and DNS-410 cabs.
Click to expand...
Agreed, punch and definition is part of the design goals and choosing to design a ported cabinet does not make this automatically disappear provided that was part of the design goals to begin with.

This is just another urban myth that comes up from time to time, based on a little bit of fact and historical perspective.
 
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#20
Opinion: if you don't like the sound of your cabs... sell them and buy what you do like.

Tinkering will ruin the resale value of your cabs.
Since you are asking this question in the first place, you are not (at this time) skilled enough in speaker design to consider tinkering.

This is not a put-down.
Most DIY projects fail because they are under-funded or under-informed.
 
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