Extremely frustrated

heiney9

I sure hope I never meet the Polk engineer that decided it was a good idea to put the little plastic plugs in the speaker binding posts in a dark alley, because only one of us will be coming out and it won't be him!!! I have never spent such a frustrating afternoon trying to connect my new to me RTi38's.

I bought a pair of RTi38's from forum member GZ who lives in Southern Wisconsin. We decided to meet about 1/2 way from where I live in Northern IL for the hand off. The drive was easy and the location (a DMV office parking lot right off the interstate) was easy to get to. Met Gary talked a little bit about the Polks we owned and I loaded them up and headed home. Couldn't listen to them right away since I stopped into work to catch up on some things, etc.

Get home and remove them from the original box and packing and they are literally brand spanking new! Can't find a mark on on the real wood veneer cabinets nor a snag on either of the grills. It's obvious the previous owner used bare wire with these speakers because the binding post plugs were still in place. They sit flush with the binding nuts and there in lies my frustrating afternoon.

How in the hell do you get these things out? The binding post nuts have a point where they stop as they unscrewed so you can't remove the nut entirely, well that doesn't help at all. Since the caps fit flush with the nuts, it is impossible to get even the smallest flat blade screwdriver under them to pop them out. The fit is too snug to get what little finger nail I have under them to pull them out. WTF!!!!!!

So with my smallest flat blade screw driver I start "digging" at them to get them out. One speaker I was able to finally get the corner of the screwdriver under one small part of the cap. Of course this was after marring up the plastic binding nuts pretty good, but success I get them out after about 20 minutes fiddling with them. Not at all happy about the marks I had to make on the plastic nuts with the screwdriver.

I start on the 2nd speaker and after struggling for 10 minutes the top of the plastic plug breaks off leaving the post of the cap in the binding post. ****!!!! Now what, I have banana plugs and now WTH do I do? I start on the second binding post, working more carefully, snap.........breaks the cap off on this one too leaving the post of the cap in the binding post. Double ****!!! At this point I am extremely frustrated.

I proceed to take the terminal cup out and of course the binding post is closed on the opposite end, the hole doesn't go all the through. My thought was I could get in behind the binding post and push the broken post out from the opposite side. Nope, now way, no how. I am extremely pissed at Polk now for doing such a stupid thing as putting caps in that are impossible to get out. So I unscrew the actual binding posts from the PCB and terminal cup and barely am able to use a pair of miniature needle nose pliers to grab a small part of the broken cap post sticking above the hole in the binding post.........success!!! YES!!!!

The second one didn't go that way. I ended up having to drill out the plastic post the best I could to be able to use banana plugs. Screwed the terminals back into the PCB and binding post cup, etc. Finally was able to listen to my new to me RTi38's.

I will need to order a new binding post because there are still bits of plastic in the positive post of one of the speakers.

Why did they put these in the holes to begin with? Why did they poorly design them and make them impossible to get out?

Next time I'm getting a tooth pick and putting a dab of super glue on the end and gluing it to the cap and using the tooth pick as a handle to pull them straight out.

Thanks for letting me vent.

H9

deronb1

I feel your pain! Little tedeous things piss me off as well. Pioneers wire terminals on the back of my AVR was not well thought out at all. Pain in the **** trying to put speaker wire in the little lower side mounted holes. The other terminals get in the way AAARRRRGH! Hate it.

As for the plugs in the speaker terminals? No idea. They serve no purpose, except maybe for asthetics. But who looks at the back of the speaker anyway?

Drenis

heiney9 wrote: »

The binding post nuts have a point where they stop as they unscrewed so you can't remove the nut entirely

Really?

Polk must have revised the binding posts over the years because they still insert small plastic pieces. However, when I removed them from my A9's, The caps screwed off all the way and I flipped over the cap and tapped it on a surface and out popped the small insert from inside the plastic cap of the post.

That would make me quite frustrated.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I've always just popped them out with a small screwdriver, never taken more than about 30 seconds per speaker. Alot of makers put those in, it's not a Polk thing, my PSB had the same thing. Yours must have been wedged in there pretty good, it's normally not a big deal at all.

tonyb

Have to ask the obvious here, so.......how did they sound ?

heiney9

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I've always just popped them out with a small screwdriver, never taken more than about 30 seconds per speaker. Alot of makers put those in, it's not a Polk thing, my PSB had the same thing. Yours must have been wedged in there pretty good, it's normally not a big deal at all.

Firstly these were so snug to the top of the binding post nut, there is no place to get even the smallest of screwdrivers under them. Maybe if I had an eye glass repair type screwdriver.

Second, I'm thinking these have been in there since new in the mid 90's so perhaps that's what made them so difficult to get out. But still, there was no way to get a screw driver under them without gouging up the plastic nuts. The outer edge of the caps is slightly smaller in diameter compared to the nut and it was flush tight so the screw driver had to be inserted between the inner part of the nut and the outer part of the actual post. It's not like the outer edge of caps are flush with the outer edge of the nuts. That's why I called it a stupid design. If they were flush with the outer edge of the binding nut it would have been a lot easier.

H9

heiney9

tonyb wrote: »

Have to ask the obvious here, so.......how did they sound ?

After spending so much time getting the caps out I only had time to listen for about 30 minutes before going out for the evening. My tube amp wasn't even warmed up before I had to shut things down. They sounded pretty nice. I also have a pair of RT25i's I just bought from a forum member (the model Stereophool raved about) I will be comparing them to see which I like better in the office rig and probably sell one of the pairs eventually. These will be alternates to my 5B's.

So far I used to think the RTxxi and RTixx were really bright, so far that isn't remotely true. If anything the very short session I had last night with the RTi38's I thought they didn't have enough up top, but as I said my tube amp wasn't even warmed up. It takes about an hour for the tube amp to stabilize and one of the things I notice during warm-up is muted highs before about an hour of being powered up. I'll be listening to them again shortly.

The RT25i's have vocals and midrange to DIE for...............even better than the 5B's I fear. "Hair standing up on the back of your neck" vocals/midrange. It seems the RTi38's don't quite reach that level, but it's way too early to make that call.

H9

ratster

Toothpick,Super glue,great idea.
Hope I can remember it when needed.
Thanks.

heiney9

One thing for sure, outside of the binding post cap issue, Polk Audio makes damn fine speakers. It had been a very long time since I listened to older RT series and I am extremely impressed with the build and sound of the RT25i and RTi38. I have owned some other similar bookies from Mirage and Athena and they don't come close. I had always sort of poo-poo'd the RT series as not being up to the level of original Monitors like the 5B, etc. But so far I am impressed with the pure musicality of these new to me bookies.

I look forward to listening to all of them and it givse me some nice variety to mix things up when I feel like it. I doubt overall either will dethrone my 5B's. I love my 5B's, but I'm sure these RTi and RTxxi series will find a place right beside them and be very enjoyable.

heiney9

ratster wrote: »

Toothpick,Super glue,great idea.
Hope I can remember it when needed.
Thanks.

Yeah, I came up with that idea long after all my frustration. Wish I would have thought of it sooner. Or how about Polk putting a tab perpendicular on the top of the cap that one can grab and pull out the cap. Why are they even there?

[Deleted User]

I'm sorry you had a problem, most of the time there's enough of a gap that a finger nail or small screwdriver blade can get underneath and pop them out. The Super Glue is a good idea.
The reason they are there is because in certain other countries the AC plug looks fairly similar to what would fit between the two binding posts. So, in order to be compliant and sell your products in these countries you have to have something in the binding posts that would prevent someone from putting a power cord into the back of the speakers. They have to fit snug enough to not fall out during shipping.
Regards, Ken

heiney9

Here's quick, crude photo of my Polk arsenal for the office rig.

heiney9

Kenneth Swauger wrote: »

I'm sorry you had a problem, most of the time there's enough of a gap that a finger nail or small screwdriver blade can get underneath and pop them out. The Super Glue is a good idea.
The reason they are there is because in certain other countries the AC plug looks fairly similar to what would fit between the two binding posts. So, in order to be compliant and sell your products in these countries you have to have something in the binding posts that would prevent someone from putting a power cord into the back of the speakers. They have to fit snug enough to not fall out during shipping.
Regards, Ken

Makes sense Ken about the other countries. I was just really frustrated, but it's all good now.

heiney9

While I'm discussing it.

Ken, can you get me a schematic for the RTi38's? That one isn't available on-line. While I had the terminal cup off I made note of the caps and resistors but it would be nice to confirm it with the schematic.

Thanks

H9

SDA1C

Sure you aren't related to PFB?

decal

SDA1C wrote: »

Sure you aren't related to PFB?

I was gonna ask the same thing !!!!!

inspiredsports

SDA1C wrote: »

Sure you aren't related to PFB?

Ouch!

inspiredsports

decal wrote: »

I was gonna ask the same thing !!!!!

Double Ouch!

heiney9

inspiredsports wrote: »

Double Ouch!

Yeah, but look at the source.

I think PFB is the designer of these plugs.

EDUBAG

h9,

maybe next time you could use a very small allen wrench through the hole of the speaker wire and just push the plugs. even a paper clip would do it.

good thing you have them up and running anyways and are enjoying them.

regards,

eduardo

F1nut

Polkie of the year and this! LOL

megasat16

You can suck it out with enough vacuum power.

Toolfan66

Hehe

nooshinjohn

I had a similar occurence, and used a bent paper clip that I heated up on a stove burner. Once heated, it melted it's way into the plastic cap, allowing me to get a hook tool inside to pull them out.

mdaudioguy

Pics of the problem area?

heiney9

mdaudioguy wrote: »

Pics of the problem area?

It's no longer a problem and the offending plugs are in pieces or in the garbage. So there are no pics and if I took some now there would be nothing to see.

H9

SDA1C

You should part them out.

bobsauto49

Ouch! ^HeeHee!

mdaudioguy

heiney9 wrote: »

It's no longer a problem and the offending plugs are in pieces or in the garbage. So there are no pics and if I took some now there would be nothing to see.

H9

Nothing to see here folks... move along! :biggrin:

dorokusai

Razor Blade.

nooshinjohn

dorokusai wrote: »

Razor Blade.

This could work too, just wear wrist protection, and keep them away from PFB