Advise needed.

maxilla

I'm going back to my old town -parents home- where I have stored my old RTA 15TLs.
They have been in a room covered with a blanket for 23 years. In my old town summers are very hot and winters real cold so the speakers have been put through severe temperature fluctuations. My wife went ahead of me and after much work she was able to reach the speakers that were placed against the back wall of the room. She had to move a whole room of boxes, suitcases, furniture, electronics, household items, etc. in order to get to the speakers. She send me some pictures of them and I expected a disaster but to my surprise they look remarkably well -drivers and cabinets-.... talk to me about quality craftsmanship...
The Polks have not been touched in 23 years. My question has to do with the listening test I'm going to perform once I get there. Is there any precaution I should take before and after firing up these speakers? What's the safest way to do this?
Thank you guys.

boston1450

I would suggest LIGHTLY push all the woofers in & see if they go in/out with ease. Then i would LIGHTLY push in & hold in on the Passive on front & see if your 4 woofers come out & stay out for 2-4seconds before going back to rest position. This will show if there is air leaks. Try that & then hook em up & listen to them lightly to bring em back to life enjoy

F1nut

I would expect the caps will be completely dried out.

boston1450

I just had WMG David do mine. I just got to install them. The original caps had been changed by the owner i got them from. Outstanding speakers

pitdogg2

play them and find out. Yes caps may be a little off but I wouldn't expect them to go up in flames or anything. I had some speakers a friend had in an attic for 20+ years of EXTREME temp fluctuations they played pretty good but played a lot better after a recap. be very careful of transporting them only on the back and no hard jarring as the magnets may end up shifting. The first thing I would do if you plan on keeping is the run some loctite around all the magnets.

Schurkey

pitdogg2 wrote: »

The first thing I would do if you plan on keeping is the run some loctite around all the magnets.

There are fifty different kinds of "Loctite". It would be best to specify which one you're talking about.
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/170827/loctite-henkel-power-grab-for-speaker-magnets/p1



"I" would push-test as already said, assuming they're reasonably sealed, connect 'em to a amp/receiver system, and have at it. Yes, the caps will be in some kind of failure mode. The speakers will almost certainly still play music; and it'll sound better than plenty of brand-new Best Buy junk.

You should already be making plans to bring them back to--and beyond--spec.

pitdogg2

thanks Schurkey you are entirely correct my bad..

[Deleted User]

I'd suggest if you do end up bringing them home is to transport them laying on their backs. Standing up-right like strapped to the walls in an enclosed trailer or on their sides leaves the magnets vertical. Any decent shock going over railroad tracks, pot holes, etc could net you shifted magnets. This happened to a friend recently in his enclosed trailer transporting the speakers maybe 10 miles almost all highway. He doesn't remember going over anything sharp or jolting but still ended up a bunch of frozen mid-woofers when he got home.

motorhead43026

^^The magnets are going to shift no matter the position. The only way to avoid this is the secure the magnets before transporting.

[Deleted User]

I'm usually on the unlucky side of things but must have done something right the three trips I've taken with my Monitor 12's in the bed of my truck. Laying on a few padded moving blankets with another folded longways between them and a couple more between the cabinet tops and front wall of the bed. Straps pulling them forward against the front so they'd already be all the way forward if I had to slap on the brakes. And a couple of straps from side to side holding them down so they couldn't bounce. All drivers happy upon arrival.

But my normal fate inside the house. All drivers out, sitting magnet side down on our dining room table. Flipping them over to Epoxy and Dynamat them and drop one all of maybe three inches. Locked it up tighter than my wife's knees.

Local speaker repair shop quoted us $10 each to recenter plates and magnets, plus a buck or two per center cap if they can't re-use originals. They remove dust covers to check shimming so the voice coil is perfectly centered in the gap like DHS does for a refoam job instead of just pushing on it to see if it's rubbing. Doing the job right.

TennMan

Slapaho wrote: »

Local speaker repair shop quoted us $10 each to recenter plates and magnets, plus a buck or two per center cap if they can't re-use originals.

There is a big difference between a quote and a final bill. Did they actually repair one for you for $10?

[Deleted User]

I have zero doubt about his quote. He knows about the Polk MW magnet issue and has fixed them before. This place has been in business longer than I've been alive and everyone in D/FW that's into home or pro audio have used them one time or another. I just wish they worked on electronics too.

maxilla

Thank you gentlemen.
Thank you boston1450 for the illustrative reply. By the way, Boston is the city where I originally bought the speakers back in 1990 at the famous Tweeters store.
So for the bad news, a completely Xover rebuild is in order before trying them?

maxilla

You guys are awesome... Thank you !!!