SDA CRS+ Tweeters

westmassguy

I aquired a pair of CRS+s a few months ago, and have been very impressed with the their overall sound. I am planning to rebuild the crossovers soon. I've heard the SL2000 Silver Coils have a somewhat dodgy reputation, and do notice some harshness at times. I was considering replacing them with the new RDO units from Polk, however I was purusing eBay last week, and stumbled upon an original pair of Peerless Tweeters. I snatched them up imediately, due to their mostly stellar ruputation here and elsewhere. I received them today, and installed them in my CRS's. What a difference. Mids and Treble are smooth as silk, and as luck would have it, they match the timbre of my new Vifa Textile domes in my Center channel perfectly.
Anyone else have opinions on the Peerless vs SL2000s? To my ears, they are a vast improvement.
Thanks

heiney9

Your crossover isn't optimized to use Peerless. The RD0's are the better choice, but since you bought and installed them it's sort of a moot point, isn't it? If you like them then I guess go with it. But it's not what they were designed for specifically.

H9

Joe08867

What he said, ^^^^

Toolfan66

What they said^^^^^ but if it sounds great to you that's all that matters...

westmassguy

Thanks for the input. I know the Peerless predate the CRS+s by quite a few years. They're not permanently installed either, I would have to fill, redrill, and modify the cutouts for a proper fit. The Sl2000s were 7.3 ohms, while the Peerless are 8 ohms on the nose. The crossover frequency is most likely shifted a bit as well. They sound sweet though.
Again thanks for the input

heiney9

The peerless are physically smaller and they require quite a different x-over network. It's more than shifted "a bit". Also most anything is an improvement over the sl2000, but you aren't getting all you can get if you are using the Peerless.

H9

westmassguy

heiney9 wrote: »

The peerless are physically smaller and they require quite a different x-over network. It's more than shifted "a bit". Also most anything is an improvement over the sl2000, but you aren't getting all you can get if you are using the Peerless.

H9

Thanks. I can always use them in my very old Monitor 5s that have the Sl1000s. I find those to be very hash sometimes as well.

heiney9

Again not the right x-over specs and physically you will have the same issue.

H9

westmassguy

heiney9 wrote: »

Again not the right x-over specs and physically you will have the same issue.

H9

Point taken. The M5s will physocally fit however. The sl1000s are the same size

Joe08867

You would be a closer match using them where the SL1000 is. They are very similar electrically. Considering the SL1000 is the Polk replacement/copy of the Peerless but very harsh in comparison.

westmassguy

Joe08867 wrote: »

You would be a closer match using them where the SL1000 is. They are very similar electrically. Considering the SL1000 is the Polk replacement/copy of the Peerless but very harsh in comparison.

Thanks for the input

westmassguy

anonymouse wrote: »

If your M5s have the SL1000, yes the Peerless will be a drop in physical replacement. I tried to drop in the Peerless into a M5 which had SL2000 installed and the speaker overall sounded off. The crossover was not designed for the peerless. But I suspect that if they have the SL1000's, that it will work with peerless.

For the SDA's, consider taming the tweeters by redoing the crossovers first. If you have the CRS+, consider doing the TL mod and going with RD0198's.

My M5s don't match any of the internal wiring diagrams posted here. They appear to be very early models. The have the SL1000 tweeters, and the MW6500 woofers. There's also an external fuse above the binding posts.
The Peerless are temporarily installed. I'm not married to them by any means. I bought them because of their rarity, reputation, and the price was right. I'm in the process of recapping the crossovers on the CRS's, just waiting for the parts to get here.
I'll most likely re-install the SL2000s after the recap to see if their sound improved at all.
To my 54 yo ears, the Peerless are vastly superior to the SL2000s however.

westmassguy

One last question...
I'm going to be rebuilding the crossovers this weekend. Reading through past posts, I see that some recommend removing the 750pf silver mica cap, while other don't mention it at all. Was this used to make up for deficiencies in the original mylar caps? I'll be installing 1% metalized polypropylenes, and these don't normally require any "help".

drumminman

westmassguy wrote: »

One last question...
I'm going to be rebuilding the crossovers this weekend. Reading through past posts, I see that some recommend removing the 750pf silver mica cap, while other don't mention it at all. Was this used to make up for deficiencies in the original mylar caps? I'll be installing 1% metalized polypropylenes, and these don't normally require any "help".

If you're using high quality film caps you don't need the 750 pf ones, and the wisdom on the forum is to omit them for the rebuild. I believe you're correct, they were used to sweeten the original lower grade caps.

I left them out when I did the Xovers on both my RTA 12C's, and 2.3TL's.

westmassguy

drumminman wrote: »

If you're using high quality film caps you don't need the 750 pf ones, and the wisdom on the forum is to omit them for the rebuild. I believe you're correct, they were used to sweeten the original lower grade caps.

I left them out when I did the Xovers on both my RTA 12C's, and 2.3TL's.

Thanks, I figured that was the case. I'll be eliminating the poly switches as well, since these seem to have a bad reputation for coloring the signal. Some have suggested inserting a .5 or .22 resistor in its place if the Highs become too bright after the poly switch is removed.

drumminman

westmassguy wrote: »

Thanks, I figured that was the case. I'll be eliminating the poly switches as well, since these seem to have a bad reputation for coloring the signal. Some have suggested inserting a .5 or .22 resistor in its place if the Highs become too bright after the poly switch is removed.

I used 0.5/12 watt mills in place of my polyswitches in my 2.3TL's - I like!

westmassguy

drumminman wrote: »

I used 0.5/12 watt mills in place of my polyswitches in my 2.3TL's - I like!

I just finished the rebuild bout an hour ago. So far so good, not overly bright, but need to do a lot more listening. Too late for that now. What's the usual "burn-in" time for the poly caps? I've heard a couple days to a few weeks.

drumminman

westmassguy wrote: »

I just finished the rebuild bout an hour ago. So far so good, not overly bright, but need to do a lot more listening. Too late for that now. What's the usual "burn-in" time for the poly caps? I've heard a couple days to a few weeks.

I used Sonicaps on rebuilds on three different speakers. I heard changes at around 110 hours 200 hours and 300 hours.

What caps did you use?

westmassguy

drumminman wrote: »

I used Sonicaps on rebuilds on three different speakers. I heard changes at around 110 hours 200 hours and 300 hours.

What caps did you use?

I used Dayton 1% caps throughout, and Mundorf resistors. I've used Solen and Clarity caps when my customers requested, but for my personal projects, I've found the 1% to be equal to if not better than most of the uber expensive brands.

westmassguy

Well it's been almost two weeks, and loving the CRS+'s with the rebuilt crossovers. I ended up putting the sl2000s back in as the Peerless were too bright. I also installed the .5 ohm (mills) resistor in place of the jumper I installed when I removed the polyswitches. That toned down the sl2000s, but I've decided to do the TL mod to really make them sing.