Design Acoustics PS-10 Replacement Woofer

A

amparnell

New Member
Hey guys, Iv'e got a pair of Design Acoustics PS-10 speakers that I just picked up at the thrift store for a descent price, knowing the surrounds were shot as most of the original ones are. The question I have is what would make a good replacement driver for these speakers instead of refoaming them. There are a couple reasons that I ask. 1. I have heard that the bass response isnt very good from the original drivers, and 2. because the cones look pretty beat up too. Keep in mind the short mounting depth because of the midrange enclosure on the inside of the cabinet. So I'm looking for the 10" down firing driver.

Thanks, Alex
 

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Get the woofers refoamed, as far less hassle than trying to find a replacement that will acoustically match the design.
 
I refoamed mine since they were otherwise in fine condition. I think the bass is decent considering the size of the enclosure, but there is definitely room for improvement.

You might consider joining the Design Acoustics Yahoo Group, where PS-10 woofer replacement options are a very popular subject of discussion. For a few years, the consensus seemed to be the Goldwood GW-210/4 available from Parts Express. They're under $20 each and are said to make a decent improvement in the sound. Problem is they don't drop into the cabinets without modification. Some have added a circular spacer behind the woofer while others have cut out a section of the cardboard midrange enclosure. I have no direct experience with this modification either way.

More recently, a couple other Parts Express woofers have been discussed, as has a 10" Infinity woofer available from a place called "Apex Jr." I don't know much about these options, so again, you may want to join the Yahoo Group to do more reading and have your questions answered.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Design_Acoustics/
 
amparnell said:
2. because the cones look pretty beat up too.
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The OEM Design Acoustics woofers had a slightly odd, irregular texture to them with sort of shaggy-looking dustcaps that you might interpret as damage unless you've seen them before. You might want to post a photo of yours.
 
Thanks for the reply. I was referring to the actual cone not the dust cap, because it looks like somebody tried pulling back the cone to look behind it or something. I just don't want to refoam and then find out the voice coil is rubbing against the magnet.There are a couple drivers on PE that are direct drop in replacements for the PS-10. The mounting depth of them is same as the original so modification wouldn't be needed. I think I'm going to go ahead and order a pair of them, and for only $5 a speaker its worth a shot. Ill let you know how they sound after I'm done. Another thing I have considered is recapping the crossovers, but I'm having a hard time finding the right components. they have 2 165uf 50v and 2 10uf 50v caps. Has anyone ever done a recap on these?

Thanks again, Alex
 
I did recap mine about 5-6 years ago. I think I had to parallel a couple caps to get to the right values, but I bought everything from PE. I stuck with the non-polar electrolytics for the big values and used Solen poly caps for the smaller ones. Cut new masonite boards to mount the components on because the original circuit boards were so small.

When I bought my speakers at an estate sale, they had a blown tweeter and needed woofer surrounds, so I did the recap while I had them apart. Thus, I never had the chance to hear what they sounded like "before" for comparison, so I can't say whether the recap made a significant difference.

As for replacement woofers, I'm not much of an expert on this sort of thing, but I believe the guys at the DA Yahoo Group were running the various parameters of the available 10" drivers and were recommending certain ones over others because of their suitability for such a small enclosure, among other things. But if you happen to discover something that drops in without modification and sounds good, I'd be interested to hear about it.
 
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Ill keep you posted once I get everything together. Do you happen to have pictures of the OEM x-overs? I get this funny feeling like the ones in mine arent original, they look to new.
 
amparnell said:
Do you happen to have pictures of the OEM x-overs? I get this funny feeling like the ones in mine arent original, they look to new.
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Sorry, I don't. There were a couple different versions of the PS-10 since it was in production for quite a while. Mine looked exactly like yours on the outside with the L-pad on the front; later ones had it moved to the rear. As for the crossover, if you posted a picture I could tell you if that's what mine looked like from memory. I remember it being on a small printed circuit board, but I can't recall what type of caps it used, etc. I know they were all electrolytic.
 
Heres a picture of my crossover. Another thing that really bothers me is that they are not mirrored speakers. I thought all the PS-10s were mirrored?
 

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Those crossovers are a little different from mine. The smaller coil inductor in mine is in a horizontal configuration wound on a white plastic cylinder rather than the vertical black spool you have. Otherwise, I think mine had those same light blue electrolytic caps and a similar circuit board.

I just noticed another difference; on all the first generation PS-10s I think I've seen, the black plastic tweeter housing has a white painted circle on it with the "DA" logo located at 6 o'clock. Yours are plain black. I wonder if they have been replaced.

My understanding was that all PS-10s were mirror imaged. However just this week, two members of the DA Yahoo Group commented that they also have non-mirrored pairs. I'm wondering if this happened over the years as formerly mirrored pairs got jumbled up. Do you have consecutive serial numbers?
 
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They should be mirrored. Sounds like someone purchased a miss-matched pair.

The stock woofer works well- these use wall reinforcement to reach their claimed numbers. Even the catalogues will show them on a shelf and against the back wall in some pics.

It's a $20 gamble and a few hours to re-foam these- trying to do a swap may require the effort of cabinet mods.

worse case, if one woofer is borked, you could probably sell the good one, freshly re-foamed, and make more than your money back.

Where are you located, by the way?
 
Mine are mirrored and the bass response, IMHO, is great.

My office system:


dscn0226v.jpg





Retro
 
Retro Stereo said:
Mine are mirrored and the bass response, IMHO, is great.

My office system:


dscn0226v.jpg





Retro
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Very nice! And nice placement (re: back wall).

ps- Love the CD player. There's a cap upgrade kit (two caps total) available with excellent instructions for $10 on ebay.
 
Wow looks nice. I'm located in Minnesota. And I know some guys at Midwest speaker repair that could Probly have them mirrored for me, cause otherwise its gonna bother the heck of of me. What makes you think the tweeters have been replaced? They look original to me, or are you suggesting that only the baffle was changed? I've owned a lot of speakers in my day, but for some odd reason I get a really good vibe from these things. I think I might end up doing some rework on the cabinets cause I'm not a big fan of the cheap looking brown wood veneer. I went ahead and ordered some replacement drivers (they were cheaper than refoaming) so hopefully I'll have them in next week.
 
I guess I should mention I'm not too worried about he bass response being bad because I just recently got a vintage Panasonic integrated amp that has really tight deep bass response.
 
Midwest Speaker would be a good place to take the woofers, they are very resonable with their re-foaming rates and they do a good job.

I love the sound of my DA PS-10's and keeping the original woofers was a big part of that. I've gone through an awful lot of excellent high end speakers over the years, but I kept these for my office system, that has to tell you something. :thmbsp:



Retro
 
Retro Stereo said:
Midwest Speaker would be a good place to take the woofers, they are very resonable with their re-foaming rates and they do a good job.
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They also sell a quality refoam kit with nice shims and dustcaps, if you're of the cut-and-shim school vs. the test tone or center-it-by-feel camps. Though I think I bought my kit for the PS-10s from PE.
 
Retro Stereo said:
That CD Player and my laptop sound even better runnig through my Music Hall dac25.2 Tube DAC that is sitting on top. :thmbsp:



Retro
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I currently run my PD-65 through a Parasound D/AC-1000, PS Audio Superlink II, or Enlightened Audio Designs EAD DSP-1000 MK II.

I have the mod kit on my desk. Wondering how it's going to sound- from what I'm told, it'll be positively noticable.
 
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