Rockwool for RSW-15 Subwoofer

[buddyjenkins]

I have having my amp repaired in my RSW-15 Sub and noticed the foam on the inside only covered one side and the bottom.  I was look at upgrading to Rockwool on all sides while I had the sub apart.  Has anyone tried this?  I was concerned that it might take up too much of the volume in the cabinet and negatively affect the sound more than the benefit of additional insulation from the box.

[wuzzzer]

If Klipsch thought something like that would have been of benefit, they would have done it from the factory. 

[buddyjenkins]

I bought this sub used and I thought it odd that the foam only covered the bottom and one side.  I have seen some speaker repairs where they put in rockwool in place of the foam.  I have seen some upgrades to Klipsch speakers that made them sound better and was looking to see if anyone had tried the rockwool or maybe something different in place of the foam.

[wuzzzer]

The foam is there to reduce standing waves inside the cabinet.  It only needs to be on two non-parallel sides to do its job.

It is possible to overdo it with things like Rockwool and polyfill.

[Amstaff]

I opened up my RSW-15 a few years ago for an amp repair too. Amp came back, and when I reassembled it, lo and behold I left out a piece of foam. 

 

Amp repair sounded great, could not tell the difference. Couple of years later the sub stops working again. Opened it up, a loose spade connector. I replaced the foam and bought a SVS PB16 Ultra. No looking back. 

 

I still have the RSW15 - in its box, in my basement.

 

You want different bass - get a new sub. The RSW-15 did kick tail though. Not sure a piece or 2 more foam or rockwool will make a night and day difference. They are approaching 20 years old now.

[001]

On 12/18/2020 at 12:00 PM, wuzzzer said:

If Klipsch thought something like that would have been of benefit, they would have done it from the factory. 

 

i agree this is true for some things but not all.  klipsch has bean counters that probably nix quite a few things that the engineers would like to have in their speaker designs but since most models are mass produced some things are reduced quality or get left out due to cost to profit margins. 

 

couple examples are capacitors used in the crossovers, while they arent the cheapest available they are far from high quality.  same with cabinet construction, most heritage models are built pretty good but all models besides K-horns lack any real internal bracing & most could probably benefit from thicker boards or better quality/different type of foam.    

[OO1]

On 12/18/2020 at 11:29 AM, buddyjenkins said:

 I was concerned that it might take up too much of the volume in the cabinet and negatively affect the sound more than the benefit of additional insulation from the box.

nope -and by the way , regular cheap  ,fiberglass insulation will do just fine    fill her right up ------then test the sub ,  if it's affecting it in any way , just reduce the fill