Old subs mixed with new subs?

[reedal]

So I've had my two hds312's for two years, they've taken abuse, especially while my cousin had my explorer while I was a few thousand miles away for a year. They still work and sound great though, and I love them. But if I were to buy two more, and they all shared a common chamber, would it affect anything (Besides being more cone area moving more air)? I guess what I'm asking is has anyone else done this? Did it have mixed sounds due to old loose subs vs new tight subs yet to be broken in? just curious if there are any effects of it.

[Broke_Audio_Addict]

The suspensions on the new ones would be stiffer which would mean they probably won't move much as the others.

It may or may not matter though.

[deathcards]

can be good or bad

it works correctly

it doesn't work and one set gets overpowered by the other

[reedal]

can be good or bad

it works correctly

it doesn't work and one set gets overpowered by the other

Not sure what you mean there. Do you mean sound-wise? Or that one set could somehow cause the other over excursion or something?

[deathcards]

excursion wise, i saw a few posts years back someone had 1 new and 1 old and one of them decided to go the opposite way cause it wasn't in the same condition if i could remember the link i would post it. i think he had to play on the new one for a few weeks then it was fine with them both going.

yes everything was wired right

they had a shared chamber can't remember if it was sealed or not

[reedal]

Hmm. Interesting. Definitely makes me want to understand how. Could it be that the older one moved more air inside of the enclosure? More than the newer sub could handle, therefore causing the over excuse ion?

Too much air movement kills subs....? Is that a thing?

[Deeznutz]

I had to send my IDQ-12 V2D2 back to the Ebay seller a few days ago because the suspension was worn when I put it a new enclosure with my other 2 IDQ-12s. You could not tell by the looks of the sub because the spider with flat, but when you pressed down on it, there was the slightest bit of give to it. Hard to really tell with your hand when comparing but it was def. there. When I played the 3,....Yup, that Ebay sub would reach excursion EASILY!

So use caution. I wish I took a video of it! Sealed or ported, it did the same thing.

Good luck.

-Frank

Had to edit, Paid and played.

[Joe X]

Just run the new ones in the old box for a couple of weeks.

[reedal]

Thanks for the responses guys. That seems like the best way to go joe, short of buying all four new and keeping the old two as spares

[firebirdude]

If we want to exeggerate the problems, just so we can see them. The old subwoofers with "looser" suspension will require a bit less power to move. This slight increase in travel will have an opposing force to the new subwoofers when sharing the same box. ie when the old subwoofer exerts outward, it will create a negative pressure in the box, thereby pulling the new subwoofers inward while they're also trying to push outward from the same signal. Again, this is a grossly overestimated description just so we can understand what's going on. The power given to the new subwoofers will greatly overpower this small inward pull. I suppose there would be a slight loss in overall efficiency and cooling/power handling, but that percentage I don't know. It very well could be almost nothing. But you figure if the new subwoofer would normally exert, say, 15mm from a given signal and now moves 14.5mm from same given signal due to the opposing force, that's a loss all around. Again, I have no clue on the true amount of loss. Leave that to the engineers and rocket scientists to calculate. But it's the same reason you don't mix subwoofers of a different brand/series.

I honestly expect it to be negligible. I suspect you'll notice no difference. They're the same sub with the same exact motor. The differences between the two is probably very slight.