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R/E/P => R/E/P Archives => Brad Blackwood => Topic started by: Mrwoo on October 24, 2010, 11:59:20 AM

Title: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 24, 2010, 11:59:20 AM

I was wondering if their were any U.S. companies that carried a 10" driver replacement for PMC IB1 monitors?

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: bleen on October 24, 2010, 12:07:12 PM

Have you tried PMC in the US?
http://www.pmc-speakers.com/distribution/distribution.php?mo de=viewcountry&id=usa

They should have a record of your drivers for your specific speakers and can provide the closest match to just buying one off-the-shelf.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 24, 2010, 12:38:23 PM

I called them.I have to wait for them to order it from the U.K.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 24, 2010, 12:47:43 PM

I would really like better availability...I don't want to have to wait forever to get a driver.I had a problem previously with the mid driver..I had to jump through hoops.The replacement they sent me was defective,so it had to be shipped back.I just had a difficult time with them.I told them the downtime was costing me.I think I will soon switch to ATCs...The PMCs are good monitors, I may just be having a little bad luck.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Thomas W. Bethel on October 25, 2010, 10:20:39 AM

In an "emergency" you may want to know about these folks http://www.madisound.com/ as they have replacements for almost every driver made. You would probably have to get two of them to balance the stereo field but the cost is reasonable. FWIW

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Garrett H on October 25, 2010, 12:02:11 PM

Are you just replacing one? How do you know it will match the other one?

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 25, 2010, 04:53:07 PM

I am going to replace both of them if I have to get an off the shelf driver.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Garrett H on October 26, 2010, 02:08:58 PM

Yes, but you may need to buy several to get two that match... Do a search for the stories of how Dunlavy would order 100 to get two within "his" spec.... you might get lucky... some makers have great QA.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 27, 2010, 12:58:59 AM

I called a guy at madisound...He found scan-speak drivers,I never heard of them.I called around,and some folks gave them the thumbs up.I think I better just have a listen at those drivers....I called 3 distributors of PMC products,and never got a call back...I am just going to try these drivers,if I don't like them,on to the next set of drivers.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Thomas W. Bethel on October 27, 2010, 06:41:22 AM

Scan Speak Drivers look great. http://www.scan-speak.dk/index.htm

This place also sells them http://www.speakercity.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTG Y&Store_Code=SC&Category_Code=SS

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: burp182 on October 27, 2010, 04:37:48 PM

Just be aware that, unless you discover the OEM supplier of the drivers to PMC and can get the exact same thing, you no longer have a pair of PMC speakers and all bets are off. Rebalancing things at the crossover and perhaps rejiggering the transmission line may well be in your future to restore the sound you are familiar with. Is it worth all this to mitigate a shipping delay?
Just a thought...

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 27, 2010, 05:57:49 PM

I just got the pricing of the driver.....Its...drum roll please........$1,085.00 for that driver.I would have to say,me doing as you say,a rebalancing act, may not be as bad as you think it may be.Its not just about the shipping,its about my service.I bought 3 pairs of monitors from these guys,and figure,since I am a cool customer,I should get a call back and maybe a little bit better service.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 27, 2010, 06:02:05 PM

Oh,I forgot to tell you.vifa,and volt loudspeakers make PMCs drivers.Thats what the writing on the speaker says.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 27, 2010, 06:18:01 PM

Hey Thomas,with your knowledge of acoustics,how do you think this switch over will fair? I found a match that's almost the same,but it goes lower.I think to 18Hz.I believe this is what I am looking for.Thanks for the info.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: bblackwood on October 27, 2010, 06:23:51 PM

Darrell, you might be able to find the Vifa driver that's used in the OEM application and use that, but using any other driver than what the system was designed around will almost certainly result in lesser performance.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Thomas W. Bethel on October 27, 2010, 07:09:51 PM

Mrwoo wrote on Wed, 27 October 2010 18:18

As others have pointed out this will not be a direct replacement but it is up to you and your ears to decide if this is the same, better or worse than the original. We just had the speaker surrounds in our ALON's repaired. The company that did it was GREAT but they used a non Alon approved foam surrounds. (FWIW to get Alon, now called Nola to do the rework would have cost me $300 for each speaker. The person did the rework for all four speakers for that amount) To my ears, and I trust my ears, the newly re-annulus speakers sound BETTER than the originals. Only you will know how much better or worse these speakers sound after the replacement.

Best of Luck!

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 27, 2010, 08:31:43 PM

Thanks Thomas and Brad for your input...I found all the speakers that are from the original manufacturers.The volt loudspeaker company makes that woofer for them.I was just wondering if the sound scan woofer would really be of lesser quality?I know that only by testing it would I really know.I am hoping that the replacements that I choose surpasses the quality of the previous driver.That will help me if I end up in this situation again.Once again I thank you all for your wonderful input......Now if I could get some info from guys who build speakers professionally,that would be the icing on the cake.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Garrett H on October 28, 2010, 06:07:31 PM

I have had phenomenally good experiences with the gang at Madisound. So, if you can't get PMC to respond, those guys at Madisound are going to do their best to get you moving in the right direction.

Just another wrinkle. Sometimes companies make a driver for a speaker at one point in time, but make changes to the design over the years. You go back to purchase a replacement, and their could have been changes you didn't know about. This is why its unfortunate that PMC isn't speaking up -- they would be on top of developments.

Nonetheless, I wish you good luck as this is very important to your monitoring chain... Now you see why many of us have stockpiles of drivers hidden away.

Best,
Garrett

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on October 28, 2010, 07:52:24 PM

Thank you Garrett for your response...I am going to test and find out what the best option is.The guy at madisound was very helpful,and assured me he was going to do the best he could, to help me resolve this issue.When I find the best driver it will be stock up time.....Thanks everyone....The guys here are very helpful on this forum.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Burnett on November 02, 2010, 12:28:54 PM

I just want to add, that you very likely can't replace that woofer with something off the shelf (either vifa scan speak or volt).

The woofer for IB1 and IB2 was an design by a company called "Precision Power" (well-known for car audio) and the driver was called PPI10 (or something like that). PMC used that driver in the beginning but later on they bought the rights/patents of this design and outsourced the manufacturing to Volt (also responsible for the midrange in the IB2 and the models above that).

Madisound and all driver resellers won't be able to get you this driver. And afaik there is nothing comparable to this driver except an old one from Precision Power (but parameters could have been changed slightly over time).

Edit: you can't use a different driver unless it's paramters are nearly equivalent to the PMC one (read: normaly this doesn't happen anytime). To use eg something from Scan Speak, you would have to modify the whole crossover circuit.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on November 05, 2010, 01:40:42 AM

Thank you for the information.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Bob Olhsson on November 12, 2010, 11:22:48 AM

There can be pretty big variations from unit to unit in drivers. I can almost guarantee that the Vifa drivers are measured and carefully matched to the crossover design.

That's a lot of what you are paying for in top quality speakers and why a replacement driver isn't likely to be cheap.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on November 13, 2010, 11:17:38 PM

Well Bob,I wouldn't have thought that a single driver would cost that much...I could almost replace one of my TB2sa monitors at that price..

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: Mrwoo on November 13, 2010, 11:27:47 PM

Lynn Fuston has gotten a pair of Lipinski 505s for $1850.00.That Woofer pricing would almost cover the price of those.Hey,hey.

Title: Re: PMC driver replacement
Post by: bblackwood on November 13, 2010, 11:30:01 PM

Mrwoo wrote on Sat, 13 November 2010 22:17

Well Bob,I wouldn't have thought that a single driver would cost that much...I could almost replace one of my TB2sa monitors at that price..

Supply and demand.