Topic: How do you make woofers vibrate or play more?

[sansui]

I noticed that one pair of speakers I owned (China made) have woofers with very low woofer cone excursions thus resulting to a bass shy sounding speakers.  I already tried hooking it to different amps (Pioneer, Sansui, Sony, Onkyo).  A friend suggested having the foam surrounds replaced.  Is he correct?  Or am I better off replacing the woofers? If so, what brand of 8" woofers do you suggest that in your experience will give a decent cone excursion level to produce louder bass.  Thanks in advance.

[qguy]

Adjust the tone controls 

[wraith]

qguy's answer is the electrical means of acheiving what you want.

If you want a mechanical solution, either:
1.  modify the enclosure (i.e., convert the sealed enclosure to ported in order to increace efficiency at the tuning frequency), or
2.  change the driver.

for either option, you would have to know the T/S parameters of the driver in use, and then use a speaker modeling program to simulate the frequency response when used in your enclosure.

also, changing the surrounds to foam guarantees a change in the driver's parameters, but does not neccessarily guaranty an increase in the bass region.  Again, if you insist on increasing bass by mechanical means, it all boils down on how the driver's parameters match the enclosure design. 

My suggestion is that instead of trying to increase the bass, just lower your mid/treble level by modifying your speaker's crossover.  adding a notch filter or a simple resistor network to tame the mids and highs will make your bass relatively stronger... of course, at the expense of overall speaker efficiency.

[sansui]

Thanks for the informative answers.  I guess I will just try replacing the woofers.  I already did replaced the crossover network.  It sounded sweeter and more defined but still remained bass shy.  Even with the bass knobs at its highest level and playing music with loud bass, the cone excursion of the said woofer remained low thus the weak bass of the said speakers.

[qguy]

Try another speaker...baka naman ang amp ang may problema
Try the speaker using another amp
Cheap alternatives are Dai-ichi drivers or car woofer available at your favorite automotive accessories shop.

note :  in the end... you might be spending more time/money than just buying a complete set of speakers...
 

Thanks for the informative answers.  I guess I will just try replacing the woofers.  I already did replaced the crossover network.  It sounded sweeter and more defined but still remained bass shy.  Even with the bass knobs at its highest level and playing music with loud bass, the cone excursion of the said woofer remained low thus the weak bass of the said speakers.