Trouble with ARC (Acoustic Resonance Control) Port

rebuy

I received my 2nd pair of RTI 4's yesterday. While unpacking, I turned one of the speakers upside down and heard a rattling noise inside the cabinet..:eek:
So I turned the second over too and had the same noise. Since the speakers looked perfect on the outside, I knew right away it had to be a port tube. I put my finger inside the ARC port opening and found the tube was not attached to the port plate. They were attached at some point during assembly as you can see as the tube does have glue on it.

I called Polk customer service and they gave me permission to fix this myself as I did not want to ship my speakers back to have the port tubes reattached. Thanks customer service. I think the port tubes came loose from rough shipping and handling. Here is the first set of pics

rebuy

So I took both port plates out of the 2 speakers and retrieved the tubes. both had been glued but I found they had not been seated very well. I marked the tubes at the glue point, that's where they were seated. When properly seated, the tubes are quite snug as the plate and tube are made for each other. If they are not fully seated, not so much. You can see where the factory set the tubes in the port opening and in the other photo you can see where it really should be set. When you insert the tube it where it should be set into the port plate, it is really snug. If the tube is not inserted fully in the port plate then you get a gap in between the port plate and the tube. I assembled the port tube and plate the way they were factory assembled and you could easily feel the gap with your finger when you put you finger into the port opening. You can see from the markings that the tube was poorly placed into the port opening.

RuSsMaN

So it's all good to go now?

rebuy

I had a tube of super glue and decided that would work for me. To remove the plates you need a 9/64 hex key. Both tubes were not seated very well. I might not have ever know about this problem if I had not been able to turn the speakers over. You can clearly see the difference in the depth of the markings of how the tube should have been set and where it was set. One of the gaskets was a little messed up but it still worked, it was not cut as good as the other and had a extra hole. It never hurts to have an extra hole, if ya know what I mean.

rebuy

These are the tubes seated the right way and very secure. Curing time for the glue was 10 minutes but I let them set for 1 hour.

Everything is fine now and my RTI's are a heck of a speaker. I thought that others who have had their speakers sent to them might want to double check their ports also and make sure they are alright or you lose the benefits of having a ARC port.

Thank you Polk for letting me fix my problem without voiding the warranty..:biggrin: