Score or not? Polk RTA8TL and Infinity RS1000 for half century...

Mystery

Seller just had a picture with grills on and the description had this:
"2 Large speakers built by Polkaudio - $$$ (Denver)
Date: 2012-05-30, 2:41PM MDT
Two large speakers built by Polkaudio. They're in very good condition. Contact me at 303 502 ####.
Thank You"

Also, she had a pair of Infinity RS1000. I pulled the grills and foams are rotted. She threw in that along with the RTA8TL.
So what you say? Score?

Pic from the ad...

nhhiep

how much did you pay for the 8TL? my friend has good condition set and asked me if I want them for $100

halo71

I am guessing he gave $50.

Mystery

nhhiep wrote: »

how much did you pay for the 8TL? my friend has good condition set and asked me if I want them for $100

As the title says and what Halo mentioned. But I also am not sure what their going price is.
I looked at them and brought them home without even testing.

Toolfan66

They are worth $50 IMO..

boston1450

nice score

Mystery

Thanks for comments.
I tested them briefly this morning and all drivers work.
I have never seen a gold colored tweeter as this one.

The mid drivers move too much even at 40 watts.
I don't see this much movement on my other Polk monitors' mids.
The brochure has 20-250 watts recommended.
I don't see how they will survive even 100 watts looking at the way those drivers are moving.
They may just jump out of the cabinet. LOL :cheesygrin:
Excellent mids but lacking on bass and imaging. Did a quick comparison with Monitor 7's (I know 7 has 10" PR but...) and these have more mids but no comparison in bass even with their tall/big/deep cabinets.
When cranked up, bass became boomy, not punchy like the 7's.
In the weekend, will do more A/B with other monitors that I have.
Looks like I need to step up to RTA 11 or higher for better bass.
Here's a picture...

agfrost

Gold tweeter? That's innaresting--8TLs shipped with the SL2500 IIRC which has a black dome. SL3000s can be gold colored (or several other colors) but it wasn't until 11TL and 15TL level that they were the stock tweeter.

Might be interesting to pull one and see what it says on the back.

Enjoy them!

Jay

PolkMaster1

I do not know much about these speakers and what their bass capability is compared to other speakers that you have.

However, check for the following:

Check your speakerwire. If you are using different quality speakerwire in these speakers to the speakers you are comparing them to, that may (or may not) be the culprit. Different quality speakerwire has a significant impact on bass and clarity.

If the speakerwire is the same, check to make sure the polyfil inside the speaker did not fall to the driver and porthole that outputs bass. If it did, reseat the polyfil away from that driver and porthole. I assume that the driver that outputs bass in this speaker is the bottom driver.

Let us know how it works out.

PolkMaster1

Oh, and congrats on your find. The RTA8TL are nice looking speakers!!!

heiney9

agfrost wrote: »

Gold tweeter? That's innaresting--8TLs shipped with the SL2500 IIRC which has a black dome. SL3000s can be gold colored (or several other colors) but it wasn't until 11TL and 15TL level that they were the stock tweeter.

Might be interesting to pull one and see what it says on the back.

Enjoy them!

Jay

Jay, the sl2500 was made with the same materials as the sl3000 so the discoloration is possible just like the sl3000. The goldish-bronzish colors for these come with age. Even the sl3000 was mostly black when it was new.

Get those bypass caps ordered!!!

H9

PolkMaster1

H9 -

Once Mystery gets his (or her) speakers sounding just-right for their age, we will have them spend their life-savings on parts to have their speakers sounding better than they ever were!!! (They probably wont have to spend their childrens inheritence compared to those who have SDA, SRS, or SRT Speakers.)

Yes folks, we Polksters are on a mission!!!

PM1

Mystery

Appreciated all the comments.

heiney9 wrote: »

Jay, the sl2500 was made with the same materials as the sl3000 so the discoloration is possible just like the sl3000. The goldish-bronzish colors for these come with age. Even the sl3000 was mostly black when it was new.

You may be correct but I find it hard to believe that the gold color is due to discoloration.
Just look at this picture below; the gold color is so smooth on and around the dome.
Looks like they were like these to begin with. Hmmm...

PolkMaster1 wrote: »

H9 -
Once Mystery gets his (or her) speakers sounding just-right for their age, ...

Last time I checked, definitely 'his'. :cheesygrin:
Will check speaker wires and polyfil soon.
Thanks

heiney9

Wish the photo was larger, looks like someone painted them gold the way it seems to be flaking off. The sl3000 and sl2500 turned a goldish hue, not a bright solid gold color.

H9

PolkMaster1

He may have to pull the tweeter to make sure it was not replaced with a substitue tweeter. If Mystery needs to replace the tweeters, can he still get the original or perhaps an RD0 tweeter version for the RTA8TL from Polk?

halo71

For the $50, I think you did VERY well. Those 1000's would probably make decent surround speakers.

heiney9

PolkMaster1 wrote: »

He may have to pull the tweeter to make sure it was not replaced with a substitue tweeter. If Mystery needs to replace the tweeters, can he still get the original or perhaps an RD0 tweeter version for the RTA8TL from Polk?

Originals are no longer available from Polk, haven't been for a long time. Yes, the RD0198-1 is the current replacement but you'd need to replace both sl2500's for timbre matching purposes. Same electrical characteristics but they sound a little different (better to my ears).

H9

Mystery

heiney9 wrote: »

Wish the photo was larger, looks like someone painted them gold the way it seems to be flaking off. The sl3000 and sl2500 turned a goldish hue, not a bright solid gold color.
H9

I'll take a close look to see if they are painted and snap few pics once I get home.
Hopefully these pics of L and R tweeters (note to self--there is nothing to identify L/R) are little better/bigger.
R:

L:

Mystery

halo71 wrote: »

For the $50, I think you did VERY well. Those 1000's would probably make decent surround speakers.

Thanks Gary.
The RS1000's have rotted foams. It's interesting to see clear plastic cones in them. Can see the orange spiders through the cone.
Not sure if the foam glue behaves same in that plastic. Those poly tweeters have some demand and I have Polk Monitors as surrounds so may part them out if I don't feel like re-foaming them.

cnh

I agree with H9, those tweeters were spray painted gold? No polk tweeter looks like that! Why? Who knows.

If you place those 8s closer to the wall boundaries that bass should get a boost. I have some old Canadian made bookies that had that Poly cell dome--not bad, can be a bit bright, but lots of detail! Also have a blown set of Infinity bookies from that era with the see through woofer and the poly tweet (need to do something about those--the problem, they were stored in a basement for years and years and the cabinets are warped at the seams!).

Have fun!

cnh

Mystery

cnh wrote: »

I agree with H9, those tweeters were spray painted gold? No polk tweeter looks like that! Why? Who knows.
...
cnh

Hmm... spray paint. I wonder how/what affect that has on the high frequency. :frown:
At least the paint job didn't spray all over. :rolleyes:

I'll take the tweeter out and see what model these are.

Edit: Just checked out the RTA brochure and the tweeter does look gold color.
Attached is a screenshot from the brochure. Man this is starting to confuse me even more.

Mystery

Sales brochure link: http://www.polksda.com/pdfs/RTA_TL_Sales_Brochure.pdf

Golden tweeter (SL 3000) is on the lower left hand corner in 2nd page.

cnh

If you look closely you will see, as H9 suggests, that the tweeters on your units are not as "lustrous","reflective" as the Polks and show evidence of extra "spray" at the edges whereas the Polk originals are clean there--they have a clean inner ring with no gobs of gold surrounding the tweeter. I suspect that if you rub your finger "gently" across that tweeter you'll probably pick up some gold on it?

cnh

Mystery

heiney9 wrote: »

Wish the photo was larger, looks like someone painted them gold the way it seems to be flaking off. The sl3000 and sl2500 turned a goldish hue, not a bright solid gold color.

H9

I checked the tweeters and we may have something unique here.
The gold is not flaking off. It looks that way due to uneven tweeter surrounds (or whatever plastic/rubber material that goes around the dome).
The tweeter is SL3000. Looks like Polk tech pasted a sticker with "30" over "25" of 2500.
Here is a picture of the back:

cnh wrote: »

If you look closely you will see, as H9 suggests, that the tweeters on your units are not as "lustrous","reflective" as the Polks and show evidence of extra "spray" at the edges whereas the Polk originals are clean there--they have a clean inner ring with no gobs of gold surrounding the tweeter. I suspect that if you rub your finger "gently" across that tweeter you'll probably pick up some gold on it?
cnh

It could be how golden SL3000 looks in real. The brochure may have lights reflecting from all over to get a better image of their new tweeter for sales reason.

I tried to rub off on few corners and nope, they are there for good.
The dome is soft and the gold layer is so thin and perfect that I don't believe it's done by anyone but the Polk.
There is no gold color scattered anywhere else but the tweeter dome piece. Even the light yellow ring around the dome doesn't have any gold color paint and even the inner sides of the surrounds that's surrounding the dome has gold when I pry little bit, so it's not sprayed on from outside.

Previous owners had these in basement for years and they never even took the grills off so I know they didn't paint it and even if they did, it won't be this perfect. They were trying to sell the RS1000 for $25 and never knew foams are gone until I took the grills off.

So looks like RTA 8TL did come with SL3000 tweeters.

Few more close ups of the tweeters; 1st and 2nd are of same tweeter:

agfrost

I win. :razz:

Enjoy 'em. I think the 3000s should be just fine in there. As Brock says above, you can go up to the RD0198-1 if you desire, but that'll cost you 2x what you paid for the speakers. Your call there.

Jay

heiney9

Did you check the other tweeter to see if it's an sl3000? These didn't come stock with sl3000's so they were either replaced by the owner or Polk ran out of sl2500's that day and sub'd sl3000's.

H9

Mystery

agfrost wrote: »

I win. :razz:
Enjoy 'em. I think the 3000s should be just fine in there. As Brock says above, you can go up to the RD0198-1 if you desire, but that'll cost you 2x what you paid for the speakers. Your call there.
Jay

Yep, you were right on the target.
I have few too many Polk speakers now that I have to sort out for keepers before upgrading.

heiney9 wrote: »

Did you check the other tweeter to see if it's an sl3000? These didn't come stock with sl3000's so they were either replaced by the owner or Polk ran out of sl2500's that day and sub'd sl3000's.
H9

Haven't pulled the other tweeter out but I think Polk ran out of SL2500's and used SL3000's instead.
Are those both same ohms?
How does that affect the crossover point and tweeter performance?
Hopefully, Polk just didn't drop SL3000 with everything else made for SL2500. :rolleyes:

Digging out old thread and found SL3000 came in many colors including metallic gold dome.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?23273-SDA-CRS-Tweeters

DarqueKnight wrote: »

egp823,
You can easily determine exactly which tweeters you have if they are original Polk tweeters. I am not aware of any SL2000 tweeters that had a gold color. All of my SL3000 tweeter domes have a gold metallic dome, but I have seen color ranges from dark bronze, to gold, to dark silver.

The wire terminals of the SL3000 will consist of a narrow metal flange and a wide metal flange. The resistance of the the SL3000 will measure approximately 5.6 ohms.
...

Edit:

cnh wrote: »

I agree with H9, those tweeters were spray painted gold? No polk tweeter looks like that! Why? Who knows.
...
Have fun!
cnh

SL3000's do come in gold plated dome.
Man, finally confusion is over. :cheesygrin:
Thanks for comments.

I'll check the other tweeter as well.

skrol

I believe that the RTA8TL, 11TL and 15TL were discontinued in '91 or '92. I got mine new on clearance in '92. Since your tweeter is stamped 1993, I would suspect that the original SL-2500 was replaced with the SL-3000.

The RTA8TL in your other post has the SL-2500. http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?132595-What-RTA-model-are-these

Stan

Mystery

skrol wrote: »

I believe that the RTA8TL, 11TL and 15TL were discontinued in '91 or '92. I got mine new on clearance in '92. Since your tweeter is stamped 1993, I would suspect that the original SL-2500 was replaced with the SL-3000.

The RTA8TL in your other post has the SL-2500. http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?132595-What-RTA-model-are-these

Stan

That could be.
What should I check for to find if it was only the tweeter or any other components replaced?
Doesn't SL3000 take different Caps and resistors?

kcoc321

I would check the PN and date on the Crossover.

If you haven't already checked them, here is the link to the schmatics
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=18705&d=1155781881

deronb1

Great buy. I wouldn't part with my 8Ts for anything less than 200 bucks. Change the caps, drop in new tweets and you will be suprised how great they will sound. BTW, they CAN handle some juice. I am running mine with a 220wpc amp. They don't strain at all.