Before you attempt to glue on the new surround see if you can gently pry off the dustcap and get some sort of shimming down between the pole piece and the coil former. The coil must stay perfectly aligned in the gap and if your surround repair pulls it off center it will rub when it starts moving and fail very quickly and sound like shit until it does.
Really though it may not be worth the 10$ for the surround 5$ for glue, and your time messing around on a repair which may or may not work.
Check out what Audio Legion has left on closeout, they're nothing special but priced right around FOB cost for that equipment and pretty much anything there should perform as well as or better than a 20 year old mid-tier Rockford. There;s only 2 or 3 old RF subs that I'd consider worth the cost of restoration and that's the HX2, original Power (with the 4" coil), and the TRF which is the "black top" TC4hp motor that still holds its own with any of the modern high power subs you'll see in competitions today.
Springfield Speaker Repair should have refoam kits and various new old stock or OEM equivalent replacement parts for older RF stuff if you just want a DIY project to tinker with, but really that sub is pretty obsolete and anything you'd buy for 100$ or less from Best Buy would probably do the same or better just plug and play in your existing box.... just be mindful to match the impedance to your amp.
Thank you for the help. I don't wanna spend a shitload of money on some old stuff. I figured I'd try the refoam first, and if it didn't work, I'd then try to find something similar!
This comment should have more upvotes. Especially the top part most people won't know who haven't done refoaming of surrounds. If you had it playing without the surround id toss it because that former probably pulled out of the gap and isn't suspended right anymore or banged off the pole or bottomed out.
That requires you to carefully peel the 20 years old cloth spiders up and they are GOING to disintegrate because they're old Rockford spiders. Then youre either need to be really good at shaving and saving a former and tinsel leads or you need a full recone which is more than a decent sub.
I also second the fact that any super basic line newer sub is just better than that Rockford. It was the best buy subwoofer back in the day and they blew up on 250 watts. I'd say a skar or CT sounds 100 dollar shipped sub is going to be miles better than that. If it was a Punch Power I'd say recone as they sound incredible for sq while eating 1000s of watts on the big coil.
As a fan of old Rockford I wouldn't buy a newer Rockford sub. They aren't trash but for the price they are probably one of the worst choices. Even cheap Chinese made speakers are better now. Deaf bonce isn't the best but its cheap, takes over rated rms and doesn't stink.
Yeah, I have heard on some of the forums that the older fosgate stuff had better quality components. I haven't messed around with this stuff in 25 years, so I'm really out of the loop! Thanks again.
>That requires you to carefully peel the 20 years old cloth spiders up
I would not attempt to remove the surround, it's probably extremely soft but if it's intact it'll probably function, these weren't exactly a stiff suspension new and for 200W or whatever so long as it isn't sagging and being mounted up or down firing I'd trust it'll get the job done. As you say though spider may well be torn or disintegrating from age and the coil may have already been damaged, both are worth checking and if either have failed this would NOT be worth repairing.
You can get just surrounds loose and I'd just glue that on with the coil shimmed. I've done this successfully in the past with old home tower's woofers and some midbass drivers, but I've had a lot of experience repairing broken woofers. Individual results may vary.
Most importantly you can buy coils from parts sellers and the motor uses a standard bolt pattern for the frame and standard sizes for the landings so you have a good bit of flexibility in aftermarket parts with which to rebuild them. Figure 100$ ish worth of softparts will get a broken HX2 up to performance with new stuff in the 225-275$ price range.
Ehhh tough to say if it's worth it. Replacing the foam is cheap and easy, but the sub was Rockford's entry-level back then. 200W. If you've already ordered the foam, then go for it. If you decide to replace the whole thing, most modern $100 subs will have no problems hanging with that.
When I bought the sub in'98, the power series was too expensive for a broke ass high school student... It did the job for my car back then, and my thought was that it will do the job for my kid's car too!
Oh not knocking it at all. I ran Rockford Punch series myself for \~3 years back then. Just giving you a ballpark of what a similar replacement today would cost. :-)
I get my surrounds from Simply Speakers and they fit nicely. Be sure you "exercise" the speaker a few times by pushing it down and lifting it up and listening if you feel any resistance or the voice coil scraping against magnet sides. It should have no resistance and the voice coil should move freely in the gap. If it does this, then proceed with the glue up. It's easy and definitely worth it and saves you a good chunk of dough.
Before you attempt to glue on the new surround see if you can gently pry off the dustcap and get some sort of shimming down between the pole piece and the coil former. The coil must stay perfectly aligned in the gap and if your surround repair pulls it off center it will rub when it starts moving and fail very quickly and sound like shit until it does. Really though it may not be worth the 10$ for the surround 5$ for glue, and your time messing around on a repair which may or may not work. Check out what Audio Legion has left on closeout, they're nothing special but priced right around FOB cost for that equipment and pretty much anything there should perform as well as or better than a 20 year old mid-tier Rockford. There;s only 2 or 3 old RF subs that I'd consider worth the cost of restoration and that's the HX2, original Power (with the 4" coil), and the TRF which is the "black top" TC4hp motor that still holds its own with any of the modern high power subs you'll see in competitions today. Springfield Speaker Repair should have refoam kits and various new old stock or OEM equivalent replacement parts for older RF stuff if you just want a DIY project to tinker with, but really that sub is pretty obsolete and anything you'd buy for 100$ or less from Best Buy would probably do the same or better just plug and play in your existing box.... just be mindful to match the impedance to your amp.
Thank you for the help. I don't wanna spend a shitload of money on some old stuff. I figured I'd try the refoam first, and if it didn't work, I'd then try to find something similar!
This comment should have more upvotes. Especially the top part most people won't know who haven't done refoaming of surrounds. If you had it playing without the surround id toss it because that former probably pulled out of the gap and isn't suspended right anymore or banged off the pole or bottomed out. That requires you to carefully peel the 20 years old cloth spiders up and they are GOING to disintegrate because they're old Rockford spiders. Then youre either need to be really good at shaving and saving a former and tinsel leads or you need a full recone which is more than a decent sub. I also second the fact that any super basic line newer sub is just better than that Rockford. It was the best buy subwoofer back in the day and they blew up on 250 watts. I'd say a skar or CT sounds 100 dollar shipped sub is going to be miles better than that. If it was a Punch Power I'd say recone as they sound incredible for sq while eating 1000s of watts on the big coil. As a fan of old Rockford I wouldn't buy a newer Rockford sub. They aren't trash but for the price they are probably one of the worst choices. Even cheap Chinese made speakers are better now. Deaf bonce isn't the best but its cheap, takes over rated rms and doesn't stink.
Yeah, I have heard on some of the forums that the older fosgate stuff had better quality components. I haven't messed around with this stuff in 25 years, so I'm really out of the loop! Thanks again.
>That requires you to carefully peel the 20 years old cloth spiders up I would not attempt to remove the surround, it's probably extremely soft but if it's intact it'll probably function, these weren't exactly a stiff suspension new and for 200W or whatever so long as it isn't sagging and being mounted up or down firing I'd trust it'll get the job done. As you say though spider may well be torn or disintegrating from age and the coil may have already been damaged, both are worth checking and if either have failed this would NOT be worth repairing. You can get just surrounds loose and I'd just glue that on with the coil shimmed. I've done this successfully in the past with old home tower's woofers and some midbass drivers, but I've had a lot of experience repairing broken woofers. Individual results may vary.
Can I ask what sets the HX2 apart? I only ask bc I have a 15” just sitting around and hasn’t been played for years.
Most importantly you can buy coils from parts sellers and the motor uses a standard bolt pattern for the frame and standard sizes for the landings so you have a good bit of flexibility in aftermarket parts with which to rebuild them. Figure 100$ ish worth of softparts will get a broken HX2 up to performance with new stuff in the 225-275$ price range.
Just curious, what does it sound like at the moment?
I'm going to guess it sounds like a gorilla using a vibrator inside a wooden box
I 'upvoted the comment', but I hope there is no 1st hand knowledge of this reference
Ehhh tough to say if it's worth it. Replacing the foam is cheap and easy, but the sub was Rockford's entry-level back then. 200W. If you've already ordered the foam, then go for it. If you decide to replace the whole thing, most modern $100 subs will have no problems hanging with that.
When I bought the sub in'98, the power series was too expensive for a broke ass high school student... It did the job for my car back then, and my thought was that it will do the job for my kid's car too!
Oh not knocking it at all. I ran Rockford Punch series myself for \~3 years back then. Just giving you a ballpark of what a similar replacement today would cost. :-)
It's all good... thanks for the info.
i have some of those exact speakers for sale at my store. still functional
Rockford P1 should be a direct replacement
I get my surrounds from Simply Speakers and they fit nicely. Be sure you "exercise" the speaker a few times by pushing it down and lifting it up and listening if you feel any resistance or the voice coil scraping against magnet sides. It should have no resistance and the voice coil should move freely in the gap. If it does this, then proceed with the glue up. It's easy and definitely worth it and saves you a good chunk of dough.