MCM Audio Select15" Woofer with Paper Cone and Cloth Surround - 200W Rms at 8 Ohm - 55-2953

I have a pair of 30 year old 15 inch ESS HD1500 speakers that needed their woofers replaced. I had re-foamed them once, but the woofers' diaphragms are starting to deteriorate so I realized that it was time to either replace the woofers or replace the entire speakers.I considered buying new speakers but I have had these ESS's for a long time and was attached to them and I hated the possibility of having to let them go. At the time I bought them they were considered very good speakers. In fact the shop that I bought them from was using a pair of them to demonstrate their other components. So realizing that replacing woofers in a speaker enclosure can be problematic, I decided to try it anyway. But I wanted to spend as little as possible in case it didn't work out and I had to buy new speakers after all.So while searching the Net for economical 15" woofers I found these MCM Audio Select 55-2953's. They were ridiculously cheap and at first glance I wanted to pass them up for something better. But I thought what the heck and decided to check their reviews. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most reviewers really liked these woofers. There was one glowing review after another of these woofers at the MCM Audio website. So I checked their specs and found that they were quite efficient which is a must for me since my amp is relatively low powered. So I decided to take a chance on them and I ordered them.Well, the woofers arrived in good shape and it was quite easy to place them in my speaker enclosures. They fit perfectly. All I had to do was match the positive and negative terminals on the woofers with the red and black internal wiring in my speakers. So then I held my breath and fired them up.The first thing I noticed was that I didn't have to turn my amp up as much to get room filling sound. But then 97 db sensitivity can do that for you. I tested my speakers with a wide variety of sources and I was just blown away at how good they sounded. My ESS speakers hadn't sounded that good in years. I guess I was lucky that these woofers got along well with my speakers' crossovers and its horn tweeters and mid range drivers. The bass was tight and not boomy or overpowering. And the speakers were very punchy. Their dynamic range was very good.Then I popped in a bluray disk and I was impressed with how the speakers handled a video soundtrack. Again there was great dynamic range and I got some very good deep bass notes.So I am delighted with these woofers especially since I got both woofers shipped for less then eighty dollars. I am giving them five stars.I will check back in a few months and update this review after I have had a chance to break the woofers in and see how they do after some amount of use. Since I just got these woofers I can only give first impressions so far.

Installed into heavy Cerwin-Vega D type cabinets which have large rear-facing ports.Had to bevel the cutouts slightly using a 3/8 diamond cutter and finished the bevels with a half-round wood rasp, about 5 minutes per cabinet, providing a snug fit and re-using the original screw holes. Removed the old clips from the cabinet's wires and soldered the wires directly following the MCM polarity markings. Placed the cabinets in a large room wide open to the outdoors.Was expecting a boomy, johnny-one-note bass and was delighted the bass was remarkably tight and crisp. Cone excursion was minimal at normal listening levels.For the high level tests I set the EQ 30Hz band to +10dB because the Cerwin-Vegas have a massive horn midrange providing searing highs, I wanted to exercise the MCM drivers and get some good excursion. Somewhere around 100 watts, a drum beat caused one of the MCM voice coil bobbins to pop against its magnet rear steel shunt plate, concluding the test. So I'm very pleased there is a good 10dB of headroom on the drivers at the highest tolerable listening level of these cabinets.Best of all, good tonal balance with the factory crossover requires no additional equalization.I couldn't be happier with these MCM 15 inch drivers. Price was reasonable, cone is very heavy paper of good construction, massive magnet, large voice coil, high efficiency and fit perfectly in the cutout once adjusted. They offer more than my ears can handle indoors, can't wait to take them outside where they can do their stuff!

Good replacement speaker for price and good sounds

Someone gave me a late 90's 1st gen. KB-100. It used to shut down because of an over sensitive Thermistor (broken ?). Could not get Peavey to sell me one... perhaps they didn't know what they used. So I moved it out of the heat sink area & no more shut off issues. Then the cheap transistors got replaced with same spec but better ones (original less than a buck to $1.50 NEC's). Now sounds better & louder. Then the Peavey crap speaker started to buzz & got this MCM 55-2953. Wow !. Still, since the amp came with a Motorola round Piezo tweeter & no x-over, for bass use it was too high & "mid rangie". So I got an "ACEIRMC 400W Adjustable Multi Speaker Treble/Bass 2 Unit Audio Frequency Divider 2 Way Crossover" & a "PRV AUDIO 3MR50 3 Inch Midrange Speaker" (actually goes up to 19kHz), bought right here at Amazon. Wow, wow, wow !!. Also took out the spring reverb from the cab & left that circuit unused/open, since it sounded crappy & just added a horrible sound effect. The amp weights a ton, so wheels have been a back saver. For less than 75 bucks, this 25 years old hand me down dinosaur now sounds closer to say a Trace-Elliot (one of the higher end Peavey brands... like QSC). I highly recommend this & other MCM Select speakers. I used them before on other speaker/amp projects and even as my preferred raw speaker brand is Eminence, the MCM Select have never failed to the job... at a very affordable value.