Turning an Active Sub into a Passive One

Early B.

Is there any advantage to taking an existing active sub and making it passive? I am considering removing my plate amp and building a small MDF box to house it.

The plate amps on active subs get hammered with tremendous vibrations which could affect the sound.

The cost is negligible, but I'm just wondering if it is worth doing and the potential benefit to be achieved by doing it??? Any ideas?


BTW, while my driver is in the shop, I also decided to remove the wheels and add a bottom plate similar to the SVS box subs. I've been reluctant to do this due to the weight of the sub (well over 100 lbs.) and the challenges associated with moving it.

Early B.

I doubt if it makes any audible difference at all, but I removed the plate amp from my sub and built a separate box to house it. I did it just for the helluvit. Looking forward to getting my driver back so I can test it out.

Also finished working on the bottom plate. I will uninstall the wheels on Monday and prep the sub for installation. This includes drilling holes for the 3" screws and installing tee nuts.

Early B.

Got my driver back last week. It tested OK. Popped it back into the box and fired her up. Does the passive sub sound any different? Of course not. However, one day I'd love to experiment by powering the sub with a monoblock to see if there's an advantage to using a higher quality amp.

madmax

Early B. wrote:

one day I'd love to experiment by powering the sub with a monoblock to see if there's an advantage to using a higher quality amp.

There are differences between different amps. Some are tight, some are sloppy, some seem to have a better bass quality than others.
madmax