What can i do with a 15W subwoofer speaker i removed from broken home subwoofer?

Question

Hello there.

I had this Goodmans subwoofer until it wouldnt turn on anymore. The red light was on, but the power on button on the front would not turn it on. It was a MAINBOARD problem in the subwoofer. So, i decided to strip it.

This is the first time ive worked with subwoofers, so it will be interesting.

Im aware that subwoofers require amps, this one did.

So, ive taken the subwoofer out. Heres what i can get from it:

15W

WSI

Its almost 4 inchs in diameter. 4" Sub.

Im wondering, what can i do with this working subwoofer? Can i use the little amp that came with it to do something. Although, the amp was wired up to the fried mainboard, so what can i do?

Im new to subwoofers as i said, so detial please!!

Thanks!

David Rapley

Answer 1

A 4" diameter, 15 watt driver is what Goodmans class as a 'subwoofer'?  No wonder their products are regarded as a joke!

A 4" driver is fine for the midrange, but not a sub - it simply cannot reproduce low frequencies.  15 watts is OK for a small PC speaker system, but useless anywhere else.

Seriously, it's worth nothing to you or anyone - bin it.  You're far better off checking out somewhere like Maplins and building a subwoofer from a kit.

As a comparison, my home cinema sub has a 15" driver and a 400 watt RMS amplifier.

Answer 2

There are a few things you can do.

1) Toss it... this isn't worth it for a 4" 15W sub.  Go buy a new one for $30.

2) In this case you don't need an amplifier, you just need something that is going to put 15 watts of power into it or less.  What you saw as an amp, was probably a surge protector.  Keeping the wattage to a minimum so as not to blow the woofer.  If you have a receiver that has a speaker channel that is 15W or less, then go ahead and use some thin speaker wire to connect it correctly to the receivers outputs.  That is, if the receiver you have has an open subwoofer port you'd like to use.  I probably wouldn't do this with the receiver you were using before, because it will likely blow the woofer without the surge protector.  

3) Scrap the thing apart and use the magnet on the base for hanging pictures on your fridge or doing magic tricks.