MW4850 and MW4801

tugboat

Two drivers in my LS/FX surround speakers have gone bad and they no longer make replacements. I found that the LS/FX has MW4850 drivers and the CS350 center speaker has MW4851 (magnetically shielded version). So I purchased a CS350 and found that it had three MW4851s and one MW4801. Now it's my understanding that there should be four of the MW4851s, so this must have been a replacement driver or it was from factory that way. My question is... How close is the MW4801 to the MW4851? The MW4801 is from the CS250 center.

I only needed two drivers and still have one more spare from this, but was just wondering if it's worth keeping the 4801 as a true emergency back up, or if it's not close enough for even that.

Thanks

ken brydson

They're identical. The bucking magnets don't change the sound.

tugboat

ken brydson wrote: »

They're identical. The bucking magnets don't change the sound.

Figured the shielding wouldn't affect sound, just wondering about the model of the driver. So all is good. I still have two spares.

Seems the drivers went bad because they speakers were hanging upside down and someone turned the grills around so "Polk" was right side up again. This put the cross brace right over the driver instead of between the driver and tweeter. Guess all this time of it being slightly restricted in movement on one side of it took it's toll. The buzz/rattle test sure did it's job of finding the exact driver(s).

Thanks for the input.