RTA-11T Repair Advice
h4xintl
Posts: 3
One of my RTA-11T's has recently developed a great deal of distortion. The speakers have been lightly used in a small room, thus low volume. I am the original owner and I think I bought them in the late eighties. Any suggestions?
Answers
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Change speakers around to rule out if its the receiver-amp. Start there & check wires to make sure they are correctly hooked up..... If it follows that speaker. Then you may have some tired internal parts in speaker crossover that need to be refreshed
Welcome to Polk also.. -
Good point! I will try that when time permits. Thanks for your response.
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I just picked up the pair of RTA15t's earlier this summer & the owner i bought them from replaced the capacitators. Not sure if this is a item that is known to go on the RTA series as they age. Others may chime in. Those speakers are worth updating &or upgrading. This is the place to get all the info you will need once you can narrow it down. I just replaced the tweeters (Sl3000) to the RDO198's which were a drop in replacement tweeter (for RTA15's) for 100 bucks (for the pair) from Polk & boy what a wonderful cheap upgrade that i did in min's to install. I noticed a very big difference. They are here to stay & enjoy.... Good luck & please keep up updated. Randy..
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One other item to check is - are all woofers moving freely ? You can very lightly push them in a tad bit with two fingers. If you feel or hear a slight scratchiness then the driver magnet may have shifted. This can be caused by many mishaps including a slight drop if it was moved & dropped ever. Even slightly. Especially in transit..
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Vibration from just playing will also do it.
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Thanks for your comment. I don't think that is the problem because the other channel is fine. I probably won't have a chance to do anything about this until after the holidays, but I will post any results I get.
John -
Is the distortion coming from the tweeter or one of the mid-woofers. If it is the tweeter, the RTA11T may have used poly-switches to protect the tweeters. The RTA11TL did not have them. Poly-switches have a tendency to go bad. Most folks around here eliminate them.
If it is a mid-woofer, you may have a shifted magnet or air leak depending on the type of distortion.
Check that it isn't something else in the system like speaker wire connections at the speaker and the amp. Check your source cables too.
Keep us posted
StanStan
Main 2ch:
Polk LSi15 (DB840 upgrade), Parasound: P/LD-1100, HCA-1000A; Denon: DVD-2910, DRM-800A; Benchmark DAC1, Monster HTS3600-MKII, Grado SR-225i; Technics SL-J2, Parasound PPH-100.
HT:
Marantz SR7010, Polk: RTA11TL (RDO198-1, XO and Damping Upgrades), S4, CS250, PSW110 , Marantz UD5005, Pioneer PL-530, Panasonic TC-P42S60
Other stuff:
Denon: DRA-835R, AVR-888, DCD-660, DRM-700A, DRR-780; Polk: S8, Monitor 5A, 5B, TSi100, RM7, PSW10 (DXi104 upgrade); Pioneer: CT-6R; Onkyo CP-1046F; Ortofon OM5E, Marantz: PM5004, CD5004, CDR-615; Parasound C/PT-600, HCA-800ii, Sony CDP-650ESD, Technics SA 5070, B&W DM601 -
^^^^^^ easy enough to switch around tweets also to verify that too. If it was a tweeter it would definitely be a good time to go RDO upgrade..
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Sounds most likely that one of the capacitors in your crossover has dried out and needs to be relpaced. If you are not able to do the work yourself, I would recommend taking it to a reputable speaker shop. Get a quote first, as they may want to overcharge you. Typical cost is $50 - $100. It's worth it for a set that originally sold for $995.
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Ummm...the OP's post is from just over a year ago.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 -
Ummm...the OP's post is from just over a year ago.
And he hasn't been back since then, lol... -
Ed ZacheryPolitical 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 -
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I know he hasn't been around in a while, but we keep posting troubleshooting advice anyway, because someone else may come across this thread looking for help or ideas and they may find some relevant information to the problem they may be having. Besides, nothing stinks more than searching dead threads when you really need help.
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Besides, trolls usually don't know what they're talking about and you're right - they scare people with real needs off with their bogus information they pass off as "experienced" information that make the average joe think it's better to junk a $1000 pair of speakers and not simply repair them. I totally agree with you.
