by Jeff Harris: Photo by Jeff Harris

Your kid borrows the car, blasts too many techno tracks, and blows out the subwoofer. It used to be that you´d have two choices: Buy a new one (woofer, not kid) or put up with a hoarse bass line. But when a subwoofer pops, it´s usually only the voice coil-the part that drives the cone-that´s burned out; the rest of the assembly is just fine. Boston Acoustics´s SPG555 subwoofer is the first with a replaceable voice coil that you can install yourself. Simply undo six screws around the coil´s cap, swap the fried coil for a new one, and get back to booming. The sub is driven by powerful, hockey-puck-size neodymium magnets, making it half the size and weight of similar units using ferrite magnets, so you won´t have to choose between trunk space and heavy-hitting bass.

Boston Acoustics SPG555


Weight: 26 lbs.


Size: 11.9 x 14.3 x
8.3 in.


Frequency: 20 to 350 Hz


Power: 1,000 watts


Price: $700;
$70 for a new voice coil


Get it: bostonacoustics.com