Upgrading RTA15tl

Vinylnutt
Vinylnutt Posts: 9
edited March 2011 in Vintage Speakers
New to forum, came across it yesterday and joined the Club right away because of the great info offered up here. Ordered the RD0198-1 tweeters based upon recommendations. I am the original owner of these speakers but was looking to replace them. Perhaps not yet. Any suggestions for replacement caps for these speakers? Should I upgade the resistors also? Appreciate any feedback.
Post edited by Vinylnutt on
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  • cincycat13
    cincycat13 Posts: 882
    edited February 2011
    Welcome to CP Vinylnutt!!!

    The search button is your friend...

    http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48075&highlight=rta15tl

    You can read this thread for some folks that recently and not so recently upgraded these speakers. I am in the process of possibly trading for a set of these myself so I have been looking as well.

    Have fun and stick around.
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited February 2011
    Welcome to Club Polk. If you are good with a soldering iron we can help you mod your XO's. The resistors should be changed also. If you are not comfortable doing the mods I have rebuilt over 100 XO's for Polkies, and I could do them for you. Keep us posted.
    Take care.
    Ben
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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  • Vinylnutt
    Vinylnutt Posts: 9
    edited February 2011
    Appreciate the advise, very handy with a soldering iron. Ordered the resisters and caps today. Looking forward to the upgrade, was not enjoying the sound as in the past, but a couple of glasses of wine always helped that. This has got me excited about upgrading another set of speakers I have stored. Thanks again.
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  • Vinylnutt
    Vinylnutt Posts: 9
    edited February 2011
    I would like to get info on having you upgrade the XO's I did order the Mlls resistors, but not the caps yet but can do so and send you the parts. Let me know how you normally handle this. Thanks
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  • STORMINORMAN
    STORMINORMAN Posts: 9
    edited February 2011
    This is also the applicable mod for the RTA11T, I presume?

    Cheers!

    P.s. I don't assume very much any more... It always puts an ****$ in front of U & ME!
    I:ROTELpre/proADCOM5Ch,AtTechSub,Monitor7&5Jr's,B&WCenter,SamsungBRay,YamDVD(24bit for CD's) II:YamCX-1000,MX-1000,TX-1000,KX-W602,EQ-70&CDC-815 driving NS-1000M, +MitsubishiAmp driving ATRIUM4 III:YamRX-V596+Boston Ac Micro90C+(4X)Micro90SamsungBRay,VelodyneSub &42"LG LCD
    IV:another RX-V596 JBL Towers, JBL3way BS & Sub, PhillipsDVD, Pana42"Plasma V:Tandberg Receiver, NEC CD TechnicsDDCas&Turntable&,Sigma,MitsuVCR VI:BOSELifestyle 12 via hp desktop VII:Toshiba 24"&SD-H400 DVD/TiVo
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  • Vinylnutt
    Vinylnutt Posts: 9
    edited March 2011
    Decided to jump in and upgrade the XO's. Installed clarity caps and mills resistors and new tweeters as referenced in other post (Thanks for sharing and documenting) Added extra dampening material to the interior sides, top and bottom of the cabinet. Just enough to cover the wood. Initial results when listening to Al Dimeola anthology were very good. Like the new tweeters a lots, much smoother. Bass seemed to tighten up quite a bit. Going to burn them in for a few days, open a good bottle of wine and do some serious listening.
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  • cincycat13
    cincycat13 Posts: 882
    edited March 2011
    Well Done! Did you go with the stock values or the modified thread values by decato?

    I went ahead and did the trade I was debating as well. These came with jantzen foil inductors and solen cap DIY XOs. They currently have the sl2000 tweet tho. I have some 198s to try, but have been busy. Please post how the break in goes.

    my new project...
    http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116379
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  • Vinylnutt
    Vinylnutt Posts: 9
    edited March 2011
    Went with the final modified values as documented by decato. Really like the 198's, cleaner, less edgy sound. Going to play a bit with toe in get the imaging right. Very happy so far, will repost after extensive listening this weekend. Thanks for all the help, really enjoy this forum.
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  • Vinylnutt
    Vinylnutt Posts: 9
    edited March 2011
    I listened for several hours over the weekend and I am please for the most part with the mods. Bass was knocking me over until I put the spikes back on to decouple them from the room. Mid- range is the biggest improvement, clear, very detailed! Top end seems a bit more rolled of than I would like: cymbals seem distant almost muted. I will continue to listen for changes as they break in.
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  • chandler9a
    chandler9a Posts: 878
    edited March 2011
    great work! what are you using to run them?
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  • decato
    decato Posts: 186
    edited March 2011
    Vinylnutt wrote: »
    Mid- range is the biggest improvement, clear, very detailed! Top end seems a bit more rolled of than I would like: cymbals seem distant almost muted. I will continue to listen for changes as they break in.

    I'm glad to hear you are (mostly) pleased with the mods. If they are still dull-sounding to you after the break-in period, you can try removing the 0.5 ohm resistor.
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  • Vinylnutt
    Vinylnutt Posts: 9
    edited March 2011
    decato: Thanks for all your work in sharing the details of the upgrades you performed. No way would I have attemped this without the detailed documentation you provided. I am the original owner; had these for a long time, so it may takes some time for me to adjust to the sound. Will keep your suggestion in mind.
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