RTiA7 and CSiA6 Crossover Upgrades - A Slightly Different Approach
F1nut
Posts: 50,645
I decided to finally upgrade the crossovers in my HT speakers. I purchased 3 of Trey's (VR3) beautiful aluminum binding post plate kits, but after I got them decided I wanted to do something slightly different. Instead of stacking I wanted a more modular design and decided to mount two panels horizontally on the rods, the top panel would have the tweeter/mid circuits on it and the bottom panel would have the woofer circuits. I wanted to be able to slide each panel onto the rods, so I purchased custom cut unclad FR4 black boards (PCB) to which I attached square hollow aluminum tubing with 3M VHB tape. I needed a slightly longer length than the rods that came with the kit and I wanted to use stainless steel, so new rods were purchased. At the rear end I used one of the Delrin plates that came with the kit. I mounted a Molex type connector block to it and the mating connector to the internal wires. This makes it a breeze to remove the crossovers if needed. Of course, I stuffed the boards with Sonicaps and Mills. All point to point wiring with panels installed to cover the wiring. I used stainless steel socket head bolts and Hurricane nuts to attach the new crossover plates to the cabinet for a complete custom look.
The new RTiA7 crossovers
The original RTiA7 crossovers minus the inductors
Rear view
The new RTiA6 crossover
View of the other side
They are still burining in, but right away I noticed that the soundstage width increased dramatically, the slightly edgy treble is now much smoother and there is more weight to the mids.
The new RTiA7 crossovers
The original RTiA7 crossovers minus the inductors
Rear view
The new RTiA6 crossover
View of the other side
They are still burining in, but right away I noticed that the soundstage width increased dramatically, the slightly edgy treble is now much smoother and there is more weight to the mids.
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk
Post edited by [Deleted User] on
Comments
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Wow you did an awesome job, those look great!
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Forgot one, with the cover panels installedPolitical Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I don't know anything about rebuilding crossovers nor mean any offense to Trey's design but that seems like a simpler and cleaner design as long as the caps aren't much larger.
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that seems like a simpler
It was actually very labor intensive. I had to cut the SS all thread to length, rethread the cut ends and smooth out the burrs. The tubing walls are extremely thin, so I had to rough cut them with a Dremel cut off wheel, then hand file to length. The lay out took a while to get it just right, then figuring out where to drill the holes took a while as well. I was able to use the first A7 board as a template for the second, so that went faster. I used pin/socket connectors for the wires, but had to cut them shorter, a real PITA. Then soldering them to the pins of the Molex without melting the Delrin was yet another challenge. There's a lot more, but I'm sure you get the idea.
Thanks for the compliment.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Very nice job Jesse! Seems like a "less crowded" design. Congratulations and enjoy the improved sound.
Taken from a recent Audioholics reply regarding "Club Polk" and Polk speakers:
"I'm yet to hear a Polk speaker that merits more than a sentence and 60 seconds discussion."![:\](https://forum.polkaudio.com/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\")
My response is: If you need 60 seconds to respond in one sentence, you probably should't be evaluating Polk speakers.....
"Green leaves reveal the heart spoken Khatru"- Jon Anderson
"Have A Little Faith! And Everything You'll Face, Will Jump From Out Right On Into Place! Yeah! Take A Little Time! And Everything You'll Find, Will Move From Gloom Right On Into Shine!"- Arthur Lee -
Very nice Jesse! Enjoy them.Home Theater/2 Channel:
Front: SDA-2ATL forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/143984/my-2as-finally-finished-almost/p1
Center: Custom Built forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/150760/my-center-channel-project/p1
Surrounds & Rears: Custom Built forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/151647/my-surround-project/p1
Sonicaps, Mills, RDO-194s-198s, Dynamat, Hurricane Nuts, Blackhole5
Pioneer Elite VSX-72TXV, Carver PM-600, SVS PB2-Plus Subwoofer
dhsspeakerservice.com/ -
Nice job looks like all your hard work paid off. How many hours did you have to put into the project?Home Theater
Parasound Halo A 31 OnkyoTX-NR838 Sony XBR55X850B 55" 4K RtiA9 Fronts CsiA6 Center RtiA3 Rears FxiA6 Side Surrounds Dual Psw 111's Oppo 105D Signal Ultra Speaker Cables & IC's Signal Magic Power Cable Technics SL Q300 Panamax MR4300 Audioquest Chocolate HDMI Cables Audioquest Forest USB Cable
2 Channel
Adcom 555II Vincent SA-T1 Marantz SA 15S2 Denon DR-M11 Clearaudio Bluemotion SDA 2.3tl's (Z) edition MIT Terminator II Speaker Cables & IC's Adcom 545II Adcom Gtp-450 Marantz CD5004 Technics M245X SDA 2B's, SDA CRS+
Stuff for the Head
JD LABS C5 Headphone Amplifier, Sennheiser HD 598, Polk Audio Buckle, Polk Audio Hinge, Velodyne vPulse, Bose IE2, Sennheiser CX 200 Street II, Sennheiser MX 365
Shower & Off the beaten path Rigs
Polk Audio Boom Swimmer, Polk Audio Urchin
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Beautiful work!
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Nice work Jesse!
Fyi, I've cut aluminum similar to the square hollow spacers with my compound miter saw using a carbide tip blade - fast and neat."Science is suppose to explain observations not dismiss them as impossible" - Norm on AA; 2.3TL's w/sonicaps/mills/jantzen inductors, Gimpod's boards, Lg Solen SDA inductors, RD-0198's, MW's dynamatted, Armaflex speaker gaskets, H-nuts, brass spikes, Cardas CCGR BP's, upgraded IC Cable, Black Hole Damping Sheet strips, interior of cabinets sealed with Loctite Power Grab, AI-1 interface with 1000VA A-L transformer -
Nice work!
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Too bad they are stuffed inside the speaker.
I would almost want them fully external with a see-through plexi cover to show off my work.
Its kinda like a hot rodded car..... you gotta be able to just pop the hood to show off the goodies easy
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If I ever get my LSi's modded, I would love for the new crossovers to look like that. Work of beauty Jesse!"....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963) -
I've tried to come up with some off the wall remark, but instead I find myself in agreement with all here
awesome job -
Beautiful work Jesse. Looking forward to your listening impressions of the improvement after they break in for awhile.2-ch System: Parasound P/LD 2000 pre, Parasound HCA-1000 amp, Parasound T/DQ Tuner, Phase Technology PC-100 Tower speakers, Technics SL-1600 Turntable, Denon 2910 SACD/CD player, Peachtree DAC iT and X1asynchorus USB converter, HSU VTF-3 subwoofer.
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Great job Jesse!"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche
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Awesome skills enjoy the improved sound.
Cheers
Roger -
Very clean job Jesse,but I thought you were woodworker.:razz:
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Good job!!!
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Drop Dead Sexy!Receiver: ONKYO TX-NR929 7.1 AVR 130wpc
Mains: 2x Polk RTA 8TL's
Center: Polk CS245i
Surrounds: 2x Klipsch RS-41ii (because they fit perfectly over the door and window)
Rear Surr: 2x Polk M4a '90
Subwoofer: Speakerlab DAS-SW dual-voice-coil 10" '88 30Hz-150Hz
Subwoofer Amp: ONKYO A-8019 AMP '85 100wpc
Display: Samsung 55" UNC55-8000 3D LED
Console: Xbox360
DVR: custom MythTV rig w/ 3 tuners OTA
Zone2: 2x Polk M5b '87 -
Very awesome job man!! Yeah i agree, i would want to still see them inside the speaker.
How about photo of them framed on the wall behind and above the speakers? Haha.. that would do it!
Would love to one day do mods formu lsim when i get bored.. maybe 5-10 years from now.. new 14 year old house has be busy! haha.Full 5 channel set of Polk Audio
Fronts - LSiM 705
Center - LSiM 706c
Sides - LSiM 703
Mits WD-82842 82" DLP 3DTV
Denon AVR-3313CI Receiver
Emotiva stealth DC-1
Emotiva XPA-2/Fronts XPA-3 Center-surrounds
Oppo 103
Loving the new Family! -
Definitely deserve an external mount.They are still burining in, but right away I noticed that the soundstage width increased dramatically, the slightly edgy treble is now much smoother and there is more weight to the mids.
This is awesome to hear. Some time I want to upgrade my A9's, I'd love to smooth out the treble even more than the Parasound did.Up
LSi15 LSiC - RX-V3000
Down
LSiM707 - 706c - 702f/x - Dual HSU VTF-15H Mk2
Parasound HCA-3500 - HCA-2003A - Marantz SR7005
Sim2 D60 - Dragonfly 106" Panny 500 -
Im sure everyone would like to know how much and how long did this job take?? Ok atleast how much more then the parts from the mod master himself?Full 5 channel set of Polk Audio
Fronts - LSiM 705
Center - LSiM 706c
Sides - LSiM 703
Mits WD-82842 82" DLP 3DTV
Denon AVR-3313CI Receiver
Emotiva stealth DC-1
Emotiva XPA-2/Fronts XPA-3 Center-surrounds
Oppo 103
Loving the new Family! -
Thanks guys, much appreciated.
Cost, you can price the caps and resistors at Sonic Craft. The binding post plates you can price at VR3mods. I would guess all the rest was about $150.00. Time, about 2 days (16 hours) for everything.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
wow, clean, impressive...Marantz 1152 DC- Denon DP 1200, Soundsmith Carmen MKII- ADS L980 - Blue Jeans IC's
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Wow very nice! Maybe I should of had you do mine instead of Tray...j/k :razz: Tray did a great job and the sound is so much better.Anaheim Hills CA,
HT 5.1: Anthem MRX 720 / BDP-Denon DBT1713UD / Polkaudio LSiM703 / W4S mAmp's / Polkaudio LSiM706c / Polkaudio LSiM702F/X's / SVS PC12-NSD / Panasonic TC P55VT30
2 Channel: Rogue RP-5 / WireWorld Electra power cord / Marantz TT-15S1/ Ortofon - Quintet Black MC / Marantz NA8005 DAC / W4S mAmp's / Synology DS 216+ll-4TB / Polkaudio LSiM703 -
Looks great Jesse!
Excellent take on the stack design that I had never really thought about. - Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit. -
Looks great Jesse!
Excellent take on the stack design that I had never really thought about.
Do I sense a new "version" of the mods coming "....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963) -
Jesse had called me a few days ago when he completed these and as I was telling him -
I can do my Fortress design in about 3-4 hours now from start to finish. This design being based around the tubing to have the substrate attached to slows it down tremendously due to how you have to cut it.
I have changed a lot of what I do and take in modification wise.
I love to see stuff like this though! - Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit. -
Wow! Those look very very nice.--Gary--
Onkyo Integra M504, Bottlehead Foreplay III, Denon SACD, Thiel CS2.3, NHT VT-2, VT-3 and Evolution T6, Infinity RSIIIa, SDA1C and a few dozen other speakers around the house I change in and out. -
Very nice and clean job JesseHome Theater
Onkyo PR-SC5508 Sharp LC-70LE847U
Emotiva XPA-5 Emotiva XPA-2 Emotiva UPA-2
Front RTi-A9 Wide RTi-A7 Center CSi-A6 Surround FXi-A6 Rear RTi-A3 Sub 2x PSW505
Sony BDP-S790 Dishnetwork Hopper/Joey Logitech Harmony One Apple TV
Two Channel
Oppo 105D BAT VK-500 w/BatPack SDA SRS 2.3 Dreadnought Squeezebox Touch Apple TV -
Pretty cool, Jesse!
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