Updates gone bad...

Saftgeek

How about some mod horror stories. It's getting closer to Halloween and I need more posts to take me to the magic 100 so that I can read the classifieds on CP. post up your monumental screw-ups... If you dare! Can't wait to read some of the upbeat follow-up posts from some of the happy members on here. My fingers are crossed this thread sees some life...

-Saftgeek.

Mystery

So what else has changed?
I didn't notice anything strange. :rolleyes:

Saftgeek

I once tried to replace a driver and needed a little larger hole. I cut it too big and had to upgrade the driver. It sounded horrible but there was nothing I could do about it. The hole i cut was too big and i was stuck with the larger driver. A very classic case of not taking time to think before doing. I've stuck a few screwdrivers through cones back in my car stereo days... Young, dumb and a car full of speakers layered in duct tape! Duct tape is the perfect fix for so many things...

Saftgeek

Phasewolf

Many years ago I recapped a power amp wile drunk and on painkillers. Let's just say it sounded great as the power supply blew up from all the caps being installed wrong.

Mystery

Disregard my previous reply.
I thought I was replying to rules changed thread. :redface:

brgman

Saftgeek wrote: »

How about some mod horror stories. It's getting closer to Halloween and I need more posts to take me to the magic 100 so that I can read the classifieds on CP. post up your monumental screw-ups... If you dare! Can't wait to read some of the upbeat follow-up posts from some of the happy members on here. My fingers are crossed this thread sees some life...

-Saftgeek.

Not a mod horror but a horror just the same.I watched some guy post and post on the forum to get to 100 so he could sell something and when he got to 99 the mods banned him!

kidglove13

Lets start a poll on when this guy will get the boot

brgman

kidglove13 wrote: »

Lets start a poll on when this guy will get the boot

And you need 100 posts to view it.

Polkersince85

.........You've been E-vased.

Saftgeek

Say it ain't so! I haven't even posted my tweeter update yet! What a fickle crowd... I wanted to hear some war stories from the veterans... I should have known nobody would want to confess their sins, only brag of victory. I liked the drunk painkiller amp story. Surely somebody soldered something incorrectly and cost themselves a lot of money???

Saftgeek-

Saftgeek

I just read the other topic about needing 100 posts... I have nothing for sale. I buy stuff. I would post leads on stuff in my area I'm not interested in... I just would like the ability to read the classifieds and I never saw a thread like this posted before. I thought it would stimulate conversation and allow ALL of us the opportunity to increase post counts. Some of you don't need it, but folks who try to finance their obsession sure do. I can't buy anything from the classifieds to update my SDA's because I can't even open the threads...

Just saying, nothing to sell.

Saftgeek-

halo71

While you are complaining about the 100 post rule. Don't forget to complain about your edit button not working!:rolleyes:

11tsteve

you know, saftgeek had a very active thread about his SDA purchase, and a very active thread about the topic of rebuilding a frozen bent driver. it is obvious he is interested and here to stay, plus is the the proud owner of a life long dream of a speaker, and only wants to make them better. his threads have been interesting and informative.
... i really just don't see the need of just trashing his character....

while i am at it, after installing the new gaskets on my 11Ts, on the last driver... ahhhh... the screwdriver slip though the rubber surround. i now know the new replacement drivers for the MW6510 sounds just fine.

Saftgeek

Thank you Mr 11. I have intentionally put off installing my tweeters or doing any further modifications to my 1c's. The father of one of my daughter's friends writes for various stereo review mags and he is interested in either doing an article or blog about resurrecting my SDA's. He has the equipment and knowledge to give a seasoned opinion of what mods were worth the money and what order makes sense. Some folks know everything there is to know about this stuff. Others, like myself, don't and rely on other CP members for tidbits of info. Just the other day I commented about wanting to watch a video of how speakers were made and wala, someone linked one up for me. I am in for the long haul. I was fooling around before I learned this is a serious effort to increase participation on CP. if that is truly the case then some of the veteran posters need to take a more subtle tone when posting. On my threads there were several posts geared to get folks riled up... The folks who do it are very good at it. I hate that crap. If someone misspeaks or has a different opinion, sobe it. Don't start saying things about them you don't really know. I've been accused of posting only to sell stuff by folks wh don't know me from Adam. Sorry to rant. It is a Monday. First my AC goes bad, knuckleheads at work, then I can't read CP ads! I'm going to bed before anything else goes wrong..

-Saftgeek

11tsteve

i get it.
i can't really afford the high end gear and must get the most out of what i can afford. I haven't had a nice 2 channel set-up for a couple of decades, so through this place i have been learning how to make my rig the best it can be for what it is. it was so enjoyable bringing my polks up to date, and listening seems just that much more enjoyable knowing i had a hand in it.
and i enjoy reading the Sale ads just for knowledge and what things are going for. and what good they are, as many of the threads involve discussion and opinions.
i meant no disrespect in saying what i said to any members here... but i just don't understand how things can go south so quickly with things that get said sometimes.

sorry for your day... i am re-roofing an ancient barn and had that kind of typical monday as well...

newrival

Yeah, even if he's racing to 100, he's earning it. God forbid someone come to the thread with a little enthusiasm. I for one will try to enjoy his exuberance before it gets beaten out of him by the skeptical.

Back to the point of the thread:
When I installed my first car stereo, I was trying to keep everything all tight and neat on the head unit install. I purchased a new wiring harness and cut down the wires so they were perfect. I also had eq, and 2 monitor control boxes that ran through the same space so I was trying to keep it all professional. Anyways after I got it all put together and crimped and shrinkwrapped I realized the I had mixed up two of the wires on the harness, and before I thought about it, I picked up the wire cutters and snipped it free to re do it. Then I realized I no longer hade enough wire coming out of the HU to connect it.... I kicked myself good for that one.

Fun thread

PolkieMan

Polk sent me a MM6510 instead of a Mw6510 for my 2.3tls and I installed it for 10 years 1995-2005 and didn't know any better cause I thought that was just the number of the new replacement. In 05 I decided to get the right one off ebay boy what a difference.

11tsteve

PolkieMan wrote: »

Polk sent me a MM6510 instead of a Mw6510 for my 2.3tls and I installed it for 10 years 1995-2005 and didn't know any better cause I thought that was just the number of the new replacement. In 05 I decided to get the right one off ebay boy what a difference.

there are 6(?) MW6510 in one 2.3TL, correct? curious as to what the major difference was... did it affect all frequency range, or was there a detail/soundstage issue as well?
was the MM6510 a full range speaker.... car speaker, correct?

brgman

Some folks need to lighten up.Sarcasm and joking around gets lost on some of you guys here.
Everybody is looking for a fight.
Yankin' the new guys chain,oy vey.

Saftgeek

Brg - have you ever seen the movie with Adam Sandler where he is trying to make amends with folks from his past... I can't think of the name of it but in one scene he calls some guy he used to pick on in high school. The camera goes back and forth between the two talking... Sandler apologizes and the camera switches back to the guy sitting in his basement... It slowly pans out and the guy takes a marker and walks over to a big list pinned on the wall. In big letters it says "people to kill". He takes the marker and puts a line through Sandlers name. That was meant to be funny but I thought about all the grief I caused folks when I was younger. Nothing too crazy in my opinion, but who knows what bothers people. From that moment on I decided to chill out and not go out of my way to be an arse to others. I have had to bite my tongue on here more than once. I want to learn. I want to share. If I get my own arse kicked every time I start up a thread then I'll just stop all together. I said it once or twice already. I've never posted on a board where the majority of folks are so eager to help. It is nice here. I plan to hang out for awhile.

Tonight I will put together the post that sparked this thread, complete with pictures. At that time I will no doubt be called out for being a novice and foolish. My SDA purchase was directly related to my colossal f-up of my vintage Infinity SM's I'd had since I was 20 years old. It was like a death in the family and all my fault. Stay tuned... Your going to love it.

-Saftgeek

Mr. Bubbles

Maybe not a horror story to most but a major fail anyway.....

Way back in the car stereo days we were building our SPL vehicle and I studied rule books from all sanctioning organizations to be sure we followed all rules as printed in the manuals. We spent many months designing and building the car. Once done, and while at the IASCA finals the head judge for DB Drags was making rounds and checking out competitors vehicles. He told us that trying to compete in DB Drags would be a waste of our time because even though we technically passed all rules in the rule book he would hear too much crap over our car and he would disqualify us to prevent himself from having to do that.

TitaniumMan

I once tried to mod some Boston Acoustics bookshelf speakers. I just couldn't get them to sound good anywhere in my room. I tried to pad down the tweeter, but that didn't do much.

Eventually, many mods later, I managed an acceptable level of performance. Then I took them to my friend's house. What a messed-up sound! Over to my sister's house. Horrible. Luckily, everything was reversible, and I sold them.

RickTfromAZ

Not quite a horror story either, but one of frustration. I ordered 8 RDO-198 tweeters for my 1.2tl's. Keep in mind that these speakers and the boxes are not labeled in any way as to identify them as RDO-198's. What showed up was 6 tweeters with same size connectors and 2 tweeters with the small and large connectors, just like the SL-3000's that I was replacing. I called Polk and explained the problem. I told them that I was pretty sure that they had sent me 6 RDO-194's by mistake and that these 6 tweeters were even ohming out incorrectly for being an SL-3000 replacement. I was told the 6 tweeters with the same size connectors were indeed the RDO-198's and that they would send out 2 more of the correct tweeters. A week goes by and my 2 replacement tweeters show up. Guess what, they also have the small and large connectors like the supposedly wrong new tweeters and the SL-3000's. I call Polk again. This time I am asked to email pictures of the tweeters because they don't understand what I am referring to when I say, "connectors". Later that day the reply comes back from Polk that the 6 supposedly correct tweeters that I have are actually RDO-194's, and the tweeters that they thought were the wrong ones were actually the RDO-198's that I had ordered in the first place (like I didn't already know this). They ended up sending out 4 more RDO-198's and I returned the 6 RDO-194's to Polk. All this because of no labeling.

PolkieMan

It's been so long now, yes all speakers are Mw6510, the right speaker with the MM6510 did not sound as loud and the Sda effect was very weak.The speaker cone itself is very stiff compared to the MW6510, I guess being a car speaker that was done for longevity.

11tsteve wrote: »

there are 6(?) MW6510 in one 2.3TL, correct? curious as to what the major difference was... did it affect all frequency range, or was there a detail/soundstage issue as well?
was the MM6510 a full range speaker.... car speaker, correct?

Saftgeek

As promised...
I have had these Infinity speakers since my Navy days.

They have outlasted all but one of my girlfriends, 5 different moves, and hours upon hours of hard listening. They weren't expensive speakers or anything super fantastic sounding... they were just mine. About a year or so ago I noticed they were viberating when played during movies on my home theater system. It was a strange sound and it annoyed me. Nothing too loud, just there. I took the speaker cover off and seen my first hardcore case of woofer rot. I had no idea what to do. I talked to some buddies who'd had the same type of speaker and they all confirmed their woofers had too rotted away. I asked what they did to fix them and was quickly told the woofers weren't made anymore and repairs cost more than another set of aftermarket woofers. I looked online and found a killer set of Infinity 12" woofers. They weren't less than the cost of repairing the speaker, but I thought the difference in price would be worth it because they would sound awesome, right??? I ordered them and waited. When they arrived it was quickly obvious the woofers were a smidge too big to fit into the old hole. I made a template and removed a fraction of the cabinet. I put the woofer in and fired it up... It sounded aweful. I mean horrible. I had absolutely no low end. I took the woofer out and went to put the old one back in, only to find out it didn't fit anymore. I'd removed too much wood. Fearing the worst I asked a friend of mine what subwoofer he'd replaced his with and he told me JL. I had a set of them in my coffee table (hidden subwoofer table) so I removed them and tried it.

It actually didn't sound that bad. It wasn't as good as the original, but tolerable. Since I had the Infinity subs I thought I'd try them in my coffee table.

i fired up the home stereo and was simply amazed. The table had never, ever sounded so good. It hit hard, really hard. After about 2 minutes though one speaker stopped playing. I forgot the subwoofers were a lower impedence and managed to fry a channel in my amp. I re-wired the subs in series and hooked the amp up to the other channel. All has been well since then. About a month or so ago I decided to divorce my old Infinities and find some brand new speakers. I'd had the Infinities for about 23 years. It didn't take long to realize that speakers aren't made the same way they were in the 80's. Everything is tiny and technical. I decided to look for what I liked and found the SDA 1C's I've been working on. I also found CP and it seems all is moving the right direction.

Anyway... that is my horror story and the reason I posted this thread...

-Saftgeek

Moose68Bash

Saftgeek wrote: »

I once tried to replace a driver and needed a little larger hole. I cut it too big and had to upgrade the driver. It sounded horrible but there was nothing I could do about it. The hole i cut was too big and i was stuck with the larger driver. A very classic case of not taking time to think before doing. I've stuck a few screwdrivers through cones back in my car stereo days... Young, dumb and a car full of speakers layered in duct tape! Duct tape is the perfect fix for so many things...

Saftgeek

"Measure twice, cut once."

PS: As one Polkie in the midst of mods, this thread makes me nervous!:eek:

Saftgeek

My lesson learned was to slow down and think it through before doing anything. All of my mistakes were so obvious after the fact. The silver lining is the awesome SDA's I have now though. I just wish chasing the kids would slow down enough where I'd have quality time to listen and work on them...

-Saftgeek

cwsmith68

Saftgeek wrote: »

I took the speaker cover off and seen my first hardcore case of woofer rot. I had no idea what to do. I talked to some buddies who'd had the same type of speaker and they all confirmed their woofers had too rotted away. I asked what they did to fix them and was quickly told the woofers weren't made anymore and repairs cost more than another set of aftermarket woofers. I looked online and found a killer set of Infinity 12" woofers. They weren't less than the cost of repairing the speaker, but I thought the difference in price would be worth it because they would sound awesome, right??? I ordered them and waited. When they arrived it was quickly obvious the woofers were a smidge too big to fit into the old hole. I made a template and removed a fraction of the cabinet. I put the woofer in and fired it up... It sounded aweful. I mean horrible. I had absolutely no low end. I took the woofer out and went to put the old one back in, only to find out it didn't fit anymore. I'd removed too much wood.




Anyway... that is my horror story and the reason I posted this thread...

-Saftgeek

I did the very same thing with a pair of Infinity SM 122's. I looked and looked for a replacement woofer. After I butchered my cabs and replaced with an Infinity car sub I came across info on refoaming the woofer. I had no idea this was possible! I have since refoamed several sets for friends and myself and actually made some money buying rotted speakers from thrift stores, refoaming and sometimes re capping and selling for a small profit. But it all started with destrying my beloved Infinity's!

Saftgeek

CW -I would love to learn how to re-foam speakers. Resurrect the dead and save them from the dump! Hallaluya! He'll yes!!!

Sorry, too much caffeine today.

-Saftgeek

pitdogg2

Saftgeek wrote: »

CW -I would love to learn how to re-foam speakers. Resurrect the dead and save them from the dump! Hallaluya! He'll yes!!!

Re-foaming woofers is very easy. It take 2 things the first one is patients and the second one is lots of patients.
1. razor blades
2. sharp chisel

most woofer surrounds will rub right off. the chisel is to help take off the rest of the surround that does not come off with the rub. take your time and scrape off the existing on the woofer with the chisel. it's easy to just glide it along once you get it started. take your time
the razor will help loosen the gasket on the frame IF you have one. it is better to reused the existing gasket rather than the one sent with the new surrounds IMHO.

3. glue the new foam on to the woofer and woofer only. Do not try and do both on the same day you'll set yourself up for failure. You will need to use small water color type paint brush or say a plumbers flux brush I've used both. brush glue on woofer and then brush glue on foam let sit for a minute or two then set in place. you will need to keep eye on this as it will want to pull off, just keep rubbing with finger around the woofer to keep pushing it down. TAKE YOUR TIME....once down start on the other woofer.

the next day do the same to the basket. brush on glue to both pieces let set a few then push onto the basket. KEEP IN MIND that on 99% of woofers I have done (25) I NEVER NEEDED TO REMOVE DUST CAP. Keep testing by pushing in on middle of woofer to see if it is scraping. if it is you'll need to adjust. once you get it to stick good and it is aligned(no scraping) brush on glue to the top of foam and old gasket and place where it needs to go. Turn woofer upside down so to apply weight to gasket from speaker weight.

I have always used Orange county speakers. They carry the most name brands of surrounds and do this stuff daily and with one phone call will help you.
dude i did it blind my first time on all 10" and 12" speakers it's really easy, on smaller drivers 6.5" and 8" it gets very hard as you do not have room to maneuver beneath the basket as well.

the words of the day are TAKE YOUR TIME DO NOT RUSH after removal of old surround you need to clean very well and for gods sake do not get anything into the VC area.

http://www.speakerrepair.com/ orange county

SDA1C

Saftgeek wrote: »

Say it ain't so! I haven't even posted my tweeter update yet! What a fickle crowd... I wanted to hear some war stories from the veterans... I should have known nobody would want to confess their sins, only brag of victory. I liked the drunk painkiller amp story. Surely somebody soldered something incorrectly and cost themselves a lot of money???

Saftgeek-

Don't you know. They have never blown up or wrecked anything. That's how they are so knowledgeable, by never learning anything. ....red plugs for example. I was learning the remote on my TGP3 and hit the PL2 button and cooked my center channel tweet. Like sparks and everything lol. iI happens. I wonder where that smoking driver pic is? That was a good one.