Preventing a sagging cone?

[robertbartsch]

I have a powered 18" sub-woofer that is firing in the cabinet in a downward position. It really kicks butt.

I read somewhere that this downward position is probably not ideal and that, over time, this can lead to a sagging cone.

Is there anyway to prevent this? I think it has a foam surround, if I recall correctly. ...maybe a 2245 perhaps, I'm not sure at the moment.

[grumpy]

Assuming you just want to continue using the sub with the cone facing the floor
(and aren't interested in juvenile jokes about bras and plastic surgery),
you could (opinion follows):

1) replace the driver with one designed for such duty
2) regularly recone (or at least re-spider) when sagging became apparent or audible
3) find (if it exists) a custom asymmetric (pre-distorted) spider with similar compliance to stock
(it would have to support the weight of the cone while face down such that the
voicecoil centers back up... the resulting would not be very useable mounted to a vertical baffle)
4) find a unit that someone has left on its back for years... swap that in for yours every 10 years or so :)

[robertbartsch]

I have 2 of these same 18" drivers in boxes in storage. I'll make sure one is facing up and the other is facing down in their storage boxes. I suppose if I swapped them out once a year or so, that would keep me going for many many years...C ;

As I recall, the drivers were bought used and they were not that much $. ....I ran out of space for more sub-woofer systems, so they are just sitting in boxes now.

My wife has become very grouchy when the issue of large speaker boxes is mentioned. She keeps pushing me to sell stuff on E-Bay for some reason.

[Robh3606]

Preventing a sagging cone?

What drivers?? It depends on how stiff the suspensions/spiders are. Not all cones will sag. A 2235 will an Le14 won't.

Rob:)

[robertbartsch]

I have three of these; (1) 2241 and (2) 2245s.

The one that is mounted in the downward facing cab is a 2241(?) which has a folded surround. The two 2245s have foam surrounds.

I think I read that the 2241 is a better suited for home theater. Is this correct?