Monitor 10b crossover upgrade

Jack A
Jack A Posts: 77
edited March 2012 in Vintage Speakers
Hi Polk Club members, Has any one done a Monitor 10b crossover up grade?
I have purchased the following part:
2 Mills MRA-12.2.5 ohms
2 Mills MRA-12.2.7 ohms
4 Sonicap 12uF 200VDC
2 Sonicap 34uF 200 VDC
4 Vampire BPHEX binding posts
24ft of Cardas Quad-Eutectis solder

Dose anyone have photos for this up grade or a step by step procedure?

Thanks, Clarajack
Clarajack
Post edited by Jack A on
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Comments

  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited March 2011
    Sure. I'll give you the step by step.
    Do one at a time.
    Don't cut the legs on the caps till all the parts are soldered in place.
    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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  • Jack A
    Jack A Posts: 77
    edited March 2011
    ben62670, Can you tell be the reason for not cutting the wire legs until all parts are soldered?
    Thanks Clarajack
    Clarajack
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  • seventy1
    seventy1 Posts: 15
    edited March 2011
    I'd be interested in seeing this detailed too, if it hasn't already. Are the list of components correct? Hey, Jack - make a video as you go, that would be cool:biggrin:
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  • Toolfan66
    Toolfan66 Posts: 17,243
    edited March 2011
    That way you won't cut them short, solder then snip.
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited March 2011
    Jack A wrote: »
    ben62670, Can you tell be the reason for not cutting the wire legs until all parts are soldered?
    Thanks Clarajack

    In case you need to move some of the parts for the best fit.
    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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  • Rev. Hayes
    Rev. Hayes Posts: 475
    edited March 2011
    ben62670 wrote: »
    Sure. I'll give you the step by step.
    Do one at a time.
    Don't cut the legs on the caps till all the parts are soldered in place.


    Sage advice right there. Getting all those big caps to fit where the smaller ones were will take a bit of experimenting.


    Here was my solution.
    http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=51213&d=1281899820
    Sounds good to me...
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  • seventy1
    seventy1 Posts: 15
    edited March 2011
    Here was my solution.
    http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=51213&d=1281899820[/QUOTE]

    Those are big! Curious, what differences did you hear, worth the trip?
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  • Jack A
    Jack A Posts: 77
    edited March 2011
    Yes the components are correct per Jeff @ Sonic Craft.....will be starting Monitor 10b x-overs soon with pictures.
    Clarajack
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  • DON73
    DON73 Posts: 516
    edited March 2011
    Jack A wrote: »
    Yes the components are correct per Jeff @ Sonic Craft.....will be starting Monitor 10b x-overs soon with pictures.





    I'm glad to see the interest in these "real" vintage speakers. Seems as if there are fewer and fewer posts on the older speakers which is all I have and for now the only ones I'm interested in. I'm sure you'll do well with the upgrade. There are a few experts here that are eager to help BEN and geoff are very helpful. I'll be looking forward to the photos of your project.
    TO ERR IS HUMAN. TO FORGIVE IS CANINE.
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  • TennMan
    TennMan Posts: 1,266
    edited March 2011
    DON73 wrote: »
    I'm glad to see the interest in these "real" vintage speakers. Seems as if there are fewer and fewer posts on the older speakers which is all I have and for now the only ones I'm interested in. I'm sure you'll do well with the upgrade. There are a few experts here that are eager to help BEN and geoff are very helpful. I'll be looking forward to the photos of your project.
    I feel the same way Don. I wonder if there would be much interest in a forum or website just for discussing the vintage Polk monitors?.
    • SDA 2BTL · Sonicaps · Mills resistors · RDO-198s · New gaskets · H-nuts · Erse inductors · BH5 · Dynamat
    • Crossover upgrades by westmassguy
    • Marantz 1504 AVR (front speaker pre-outs to Adcom 555)
    • Adcom GFA-555 amp · Upgrades & speaker protection added by OldmanSRS
    • Pioneer DV-610AV DVD/CD player
    • SDA CRS+ · Hidden away in the closet
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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 25,447
    edited March 2011
    TennMan wrote: »
    I feel the same way Don. I wonder if there would be much interest in a forum or website just for discussing the vintage Polk monitors?.

    Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that what we do so well here?
    I can't think of a better place than POLK forum with the depth of knowledge we have here everyday
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  • DON73
    DON73 Posts: 516
    edited March 2011
    I haven't been in CP long but I do come here almost every day and it seems to me that most of the posts in Vintage Speakers are about the newer Polk speakers. There is less interest in the older speakers the older they become but there is more information about them here than anywhere else. I would love to be able to read more about the old monitors but I don't think the CP owners would be interested in creating a separate forum.
    There used to be a store here that carried the full line of Polk speakers but now there is only Best Buy. I was in there Sun. and they had two models of floor speakers and a few subs.:frown::frown:
    TO ERR IS HUMAN. TO FORGIVE IS CANINE.
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  • TennMan
    TennMan Posts: 1,266
    edited March 2011
    DON73 wrote: »
    I haven't been in CP long but I do come here almost every day and it seems to me that most of the posts in Vintage Speakers are about the newer Polk speakers.
    That was the reason for my last post. I didn't mean to step on any toes or to suggest that the best knowledge about the vintage Polks is not available here.

    I have discovered in my short time here that the Vintage Speaker forum doesn't always focus on the older speakers like I thought it would and I was just wondering if there would be any interest in a forum that did. Sorry if that caused a disruption in this thread.
    • SDA 2BTL · Sonicaps · Mills resistors · RDO-198s · New gaskets · H-nuts · Erse inductors · BH5 · Dynamat
    • Crossover upgrades by westmassguy
    • Marantz 1504 AVR (front speaker pre-outs to Adcom 555)
    • Adcom GFA-555 amp · Upgrades & speaker protection added by OldmanSRS
    • Pioneer DV-610AV DVD/CD player
    • SDA CRS+ · Hidden away in the closet
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  • Jack A
    Jack A Posts: 77
    edited March 2011
    ben62670 wrote: »
    In case you need to move some of the parts for the best fit.

    Thanks Ben
    Clarajack
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  • Rev. Hayes
    Rev. Hayes Posts: 475
    edited March 2011
    seventy1 wrote: »

    Those are big! Curious, what differences did you hear, worth the trip?



    Sorry about the late reply been busy the last few.

    To answer your question......
    http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59619&highlight=monitor+crossover+upgrade&page=2
    Scroll down to post #43
    Sounds good to me...
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  • Jack A
    Jack A Posts: 77
    edited April 2011
    Seventy1, Do date I have replaced the terminal posts with Vampire posts and remove the fuse protection. Will be starting the xo upgrade soon.
    Clarajack
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  • transmaster
    transmaster Posts: 428
    edited March 2012
    Hello everybody. I have a pair of Polk 10B's I purchased new in 1989. One of them has problems which I suspect are centered in the crossover. Just did a once over and one the cap's is way out of spec's. The center larger cap's does not have a rating on it so I can't tell what its values should be. A recapping of both speakers is in order. I see the upgrade here with the large sized cap's does this actually improve the sound? I have always been happy with this 10B's. In recent years they have not had much use as I had a really nice Klipsch 5.1 system for the computer. This Pro-Media set died hard and it was a real struggle to keep them going finally one channel died and Klipsch stopped making parts for it so it was into the bone pile for them. I returned to the 10B's only to find the lack of use apparently had killed the capacitors in the crossover. Simple fix. :cheesygrin:
    Radio Station W7ITC
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  • transmaster
    transmaster Posts: 428
    edited March 2012
    by the way here is where I go for stuff to repair crossovers; http://www.erseaudio.com/
    Radio Station W7ITC
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  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,165
    edited March 2012
    Erse is certainly a good choice, but there are better sounding choices out there as well.

    Clarity and Sonicap being some other favorites.

    Good luck, have fun

    H9
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
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  • Jack A
    Jack A Posts: 77
    edited March 2012
    TennMan, Jack A calling how are you doing these days. Whats new with you.
    Clarajack
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  • TennMan
    TennMan Posts: 1,266
    edited March 2012
    Jack A wrote: »
    TennMan, Jack A calling how are you doing these days. Whats new with you.
    Hello Jack. I'm doing great. Not much new. I did get a pair of SDA CRS+ speakers. Love'em!
    • SDA 2BTL · Sonicaps · Mills resistors · RDO-198s · New gaskets · H-nuts · Erse inductors · BH5 · Dynamat
    • Crossover upgrades by westmassguy
    • Marantz 1504 AVR (front speaker pre-outs to Adcom 555)
    • Adcom GFA-555 amp · Upgrades & speaker protection added by OldmanSRS
    • Pioneer DV-610AV DVD/CD player
    • SDA CRS+ · Hidden away in the closet
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • transmaster
    transmaster Posts: 428
    edited March 2012
    I am been looking over the various cap's for crossovers, Sonicap, Dayton, Solen, etc. Some of them are ridiculously expensive. I am way behind the times on this, my old vacuum tube equipment is a different universe. I really doubt that my Jazz/big band musician's blasted ears would be able to tell the difference. Which one of the lower cost cap's would be the best choice I'll spend $150 dollars or so on my 10B's but I am not going to fork over $400 bucks for one cap. :cool:

    One thing of real value to me is the Mills resistors. I am rebuilding a Heathkit SB220 HF amplifier. The SB 220 has an output of 1500 watts from a pair of 3-500Z triodes. This amp has a problem with parasitic arching the non-inductive Mills resistors will be a big help in suppressing this.:smile:
    Radio Station W7ITC
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  • Oldfatdogs
    Oldfatdogs Posts: 1,874
    edited March 2012
    Sonic is having a special,20% off.http://www.soniccraft.com/specials.htm If that doesn't go with your budget you can go stolen or Dayton.
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  • transmaster
    transmaster Posts: 428
    edited March 2012
    Thank you. I really want to get these 10B's back into shape. I am going to change out the tweeters, one of them has what looks milky crease across the dome. I know from past experience this crease will break open. There are several choices but I need to get the one of the speakers, speaking again and I know the problem is in the crossover. It is going to be real interesting to hear these 10B's being fed by my Onkyo TX-NR709. The 709 is currently feeding a pair of 40 year old Wharfedale W35's, which also need to be recapped despite that boy-oh-boy do they sound good:biggrin:
    Radio Station W7ITC
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  • Conradicles
    Conradicles Posts: 6,081
    edited March 2012
    Jantzen is a good budget choice not yet mentioned. I used them in my Monitor 7A's with pleasing results...
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  • Oldfatdogs
    Oldfatdogs Posts: 1,874
    edited March 2012
    Conradicles,how many hours on your upgrade?Are the jantzens smoothing out well?
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  • transmaster
    transmaster Posts: 428
    edited March 2012
    I am going to re-cap the Wharfedales first it is much simpler job. The crossover has one each 4, 8, and 12 uF the cap's are 10% I see the closest I can come is to the 8.0 uF cap is 8.2 uF the Dayton's being 1% is 8.2 close enough? I can always install two 4 uF cap's in parallel.
    Radio Station W7ITC
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  • transmaster
    transmaster Posts: 428
    edited March 2012
    Well I have done an about face. I found out I had a bad coaxial digital cable. I changed it out with a spare and turned things back on after I recovered from being blown against the back wall of my man-cave by the W35's and James Gang Funk 49 I decided they can wait and I am going to do the 10B's first. With the bottom end the 10B's have, and the power I can feed then with the NR709 I should be able to trigger earth quakes,I can't wait. I suppose I could get the parts for both hmm :mrgreen: I haven't had this much fun in years.
    Radio Station W7ITC
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  • Conradicles
    Conradicles Posts: 6,081
    edited March 2012
    Oldfatdogs wrote: »
    Conradicles,how many hours on your upgrade?Are the jantzens smoothing out well?

    Can't remember exactly how many hours, I left them playing about a week. I have a few sets of speakers I rotate in the rig, so they are currently on the bench. But the Jantzens smoothed out very well.
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  • Oldfatdogs
    Oldfatdogs Posts: 1,874
    edited March 2012
    Conradicles, have you used other caps on different speakers if so what kind and how do the Jantzens compare?From your pictures your work suggests you have done crossovers before.
    Transmaster, I'm glad your having a good time but be warned the more you read here the more money flies out of your wallet.:cheesygrin:
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