And so it begins SRS2 TL upgrade/rebuild

helipilotdoug

Today the postman brought a box from Ben containing the crossovers he rebuilt for me. I now have everything together to do the project, and will be working on them over the next week or so. I'll try to post photos of everything I'm doing as progress is made.

gdb

Lots of goodies ya got there ! Are your "2s" b/b or p/b IC ?

avguytx

Those SRS 2's are well worth all those upgrades for sure! Which versions are yours? Do yours have the (8) MW6509 drivers or the latter versions with the two different models? Mine are the earlier ones and I ended up putting all new Polk replacement woofers in them after I sent them one of my 6509's for them to evaluate against the new supplier at that time. (I since heard they don't have those replacements anymore??) I also put (4) RD0 tweeters in, replaced the binding posts, installed all Solen caps and Mills resistors. They sound absolutely amazing. The problem is, I haven't gotten to listen to them in over a year as I was forced to sell my house in TX last summer and moved back home to go back to college after the company I was with went under. So, sadly, they sit idle wrapped up and in a closet. Sigh. One day they'll be out again!

Oh, and mine were blade/blade before changing over to an XLR connection with 12ga wire between the two. I can't honestly hear a major difference in sound but the connection is rock solid.

helipilotdoug

gdb wrote: »

Lots of goodies ya got there ! Are your "2s" b/b or p/b IC ?

Mine are b/b

helipilotdoug

avguytx wrote: »

Those SRS 2's are well worth all those upgrades for sure! Which versions are yours? Do yours have the (8) MW6509 drivers or the latter versions with the two different models? Mine are the earlier ones and I ended up putting all new Polk replacement woofers in them after I sent them one of my 6509's for them to evaluate against the new supplier at that time. (I since heard they don't have those replacements anymore??) I also put (4) RD0 tweeters in, replaced the binding posts, installed all Solen caps and Mills resistors. They sound absolutely amazing. The problem is, I haven't gotten to listen to them in over a year as I was forced to sell my house in TX last summer and moved back home to go back to college after the company I was with went under. So, sadly, they sit idle wrapped up and in a closet. Sigh. One day they'll be out again!

Oh, and mine were blade/blade before changing over to an XLR connection with 12ga wire between the two. I can't honestly hear a major difference in sound but the connection is rock solid.

All 8 drivers should be 6509's in mine. They are the b/b interconnect. I bought a set of SDA 1B speakers from a member here on CP acdds. They have the same drivers and crossovers as the SRS 2's. Those crossovers are what Ben rebuilt for me. That way I could keep on listening to my speakers and have less down time. Sorry yours are in the closet. Hope you will be able to get them out soon, and enjoy them again.

Toolfan66

Congrats!!!!Enjoy!!!!

Lots of fun for sure..

geoff727

I have subscribed to this thread. Interested to watch your progress.
Geoff

headrott

I look forward to your impressions once the upgrade is complete. I think you will find the RDO-198 to be a nice tweeter and worth the upgrade. The rings from Larry are phenominal and a must do upgrade. You will not be disappointed. Congratulations!

Greg

avguytx

helipilotdoug wrote: »

All 8 drivers should be 6509's in mine. They are the b/b interconnect. I bought a set of SDA 1B speakers from a member here on CP acdds. They have the same drivers and crossovers as the SRS 2's. Those crossovers are what Ben rebuilt for me. That way I could keep on listening to my speakers and have less down time. Sorry yours are in the closet. Hope you will be able to get them out soon, and enjoy them again.

Yes, one day soon they will be back out again in all their glory. Here's the thread were I did the crossovers in mine a few years back. Wow....it's been that long?? Did yours have a 185uf cap in there too? I may have went a little overboard on those but hey, you only really want to do them once!

FTGV

Should prove a nice upgrade for you,enjoy.

helipilotdoug

avguytx wrote: »

Yes, one day soon they will be back out again in all their glory. Here's the thread were I did the crossovers in mine a few years back. Wow....it's been that long?? Did yours have a 185uf cap in there too? I may have went a little overboard on those but hey, you only really want to do them once!

Thanks for the link. Yes mine had the 185uf caps too. Ben replaced them with 2 90's each.

stubby

You will truly enjoy listening after doing these mods. I did the TL mod to my SRS2s and it made all the difference in the world. The stage is still wide but with better focus and location of instruments. Bass is punchier and quick. And those god-awful SL2000's are GONE! The 198 is SO much smoother. And more detail.

Over all, a much nicer speaker to listen to. No fatigue, but they do still like to be turned up a bit to sound balanced. Some material can sound a bit flat at lower levels.

stubby

helipilotdoug

This project had to be put on the back burner for awhile. :frown: Had some more important things come up, that had to be done, but should be able to get started by the end of Jan.

Big Dawg

I'll be watchi9ng this thread with interest once you get back to it, since I have the same speakers and have assembled everything but the RDO198s to begin the upgrade.

One question: I wasn't planing on upgrading the interconnect. I'd be interested in hearing the consensus on if that upgrade offers any benefits.

helipilotdoug

I will be upgrading the interconnect cable and connectors. I thought long and hard about what kind of connectors to use for this. I do not want anyone in the future to be able to hook up a regular speaker cable to the interconnect connection, so I decided to go with RCA connectors. These are blade/blade connectors on these early SRS 2's, so require 2 leads. I have some Vampire Wire C9X/CB male connectors left over from another project, and will use them for the interconnect cable ends. The female connectors were ordered from Sonic Craft, and are Vampire Wire CM1FCB. I plan to mount them on the plastic cup that the regular binding posts will be mounted to. I'll use 2 connectors on each speaker, combining both the pin and the outer portion into one so both carry the same signal on each connector. I'll solder the pin connection, and use compression for the outer connection. Figure that gives the best of both worlds. Inside the cabinets, I'll run a jumper from the stock blade/blade connector, which I decided to leave in place, to the back of each female connector, and hooked it up to both the middle and outer parts. For the cable I'll use Vampire Wire SC-1108, which I already have in stock.

dcoil

Big Dawg wrote: »

One question: I wasn't planing on upgrading the interconnect. I'd be interested in hearing the consensus on if that upgrade offers any benefits.

Big Dawg, Yes, some people have had a large audio improvement when upgrading interconnects.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30467&highlight=crossover+cable
Of course as DK states, ymmv, depending upon cable, equipment, etc. etc. But this is one of the upgrades on my list.

Big Dawg

dcoil wrote: »

Big Dawg, Yes, some people have had a large audio improvement when upgrading interconnects.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30467&highlight=crossover+cable
Of course as DK states, ymmv, depending upon cable, equipment, etc. etc. But this is one of the upgrades on my list.

Sigh.....yes, I've read that writeup a few times......

Okay, note to self....buy some XLR connectors and good quality cable.....

helipilotdoug

Well, I finally got around to upgrading the SRS II speakers to SRS 2.1tl's. It took me a week, working on and off to complete. Here is what I did. Sorry, no photos.
Disassembled the SRS II's removing all drivers, PR, wiring and crossovers.
Drilled the holes for Larry's rings and tweeter brackets.
Due to internal structure of the cabinets, had to cut rings for 4 MW's and both PR's so they could fit. Had to modify all 4 tweeter brackets. This took some time, but with the help of a cutting wheel on the dremmel, it went smoothly. Installed the modified rings and brackets.
Installed new Vampire Wire BPHEX CB binding posts, and installed binding posts for the speaker interconnect cable in the cup. Connected the new binding posts with new wire using cardas solder on both ends. Left the original interconnect connector in place, and spliced new wire from binding posts to the existing wires, so either the binding posts or the original could be used. Labeled the interconnect binding posts "speaker interconnect only".
Put Dynamat extreme on all MW and PR's.
Installed the rebuilt crossovers Ben made for me.
Installed 4 new RDO 198 tweeters.
Installed the MW's and PR's. Used the original gaskets. Took the advice of F1Nut and did not use mortite.
Hooked the speakers up to my system, and they worked perfectly!
Have been listening to them for a full week now, and the sound is outstanding. I'm very happy with the way this turned out. The speakers are nearing 100 hours now, and as was Inspiredsports, have been comparing them to my SDA 2B's. These SRS 2.1tl's have everything the 2B's have, and then some. They'll need a little more break in time, but right now they sound great. Soundstage is wide, with great fantom center channel. Bass is tight and even when listening at lower volume is right there as it should be. Balance between tweeters and MW's seems to be as good as it gets to my ears. Ben installed a 2.7 ohm resistor where the 3.5 was, and this seems very good to me. After they are fully broken in I'll re-evaluate this subject, but so far so good. My thanks to Inspiredsports for his hard work, and thread documenting what he did. Without his exploration into this unknown territory, I'd never have done this. Thank you Inspiredsports! :biggrin: