My 1C upgrade path

Manticore

Since joining the Polk family i have learned more about speakers and HiFi in general than i have ever known. You all have been instrumental in this learning curve. I thank you all.

Back in May/June i found a pair of 7or8/10 1C's. After reading, and reading and reading so many of the past & current posts about the mods available i decided to give it a try. It is really a shame so many photos and threads were lost during the upgrade to Vanilla. Oh and photo bucket sucks too.!!!!!!!!!

I did the recommended upgrades. Everything except:
I did not rewire the internal speaker wire
I did not replace the inductors
I did not redo the end caps
I did not replace the binding post cup i used the original black plastic one
There was no need to redo the grill cloth

I feel if i would like to do any of the above it is easily accessible for a future project.

Its easy to become overwhelmed when delving into uncharted & unknown territory but, the past posts about the upgrade process are priceless!

I used Gimpods boards purchased from http://www.dhsspeakerservice.com/About-Us-1.html
I went with Sonicaps & Mills from http://www.soniccraft.com/index.php?osCsid=3174936273727b7a639edec23537a8fc
Four new RDO-194 tweeters from Polk
Larry's rings purchased from @MrBuhl (Thanks Larry & Ed)
Black hole 5, dynamat xtreem,
Cardas Audio CCGG S Binding Posts from http://www.douglasconnection.com/Cardas-Audio-CCGG-S-Binding-Posts-CACCGGS.htm
Neutrik SpeakOn sockets and cable terminals w/Supra Rondo Cable
Speaker spikes from http://www.oregondv.com/15spike.htm
There were some other things necessary for the rebuild so i used some of the recommended products & suppliers from http://www.gimpod.com/

To say the least its been a really rewarding experience. It is really straight forward doing all the mods. Just one or two areas where i felt i needed some assistance. Dave @westmassguy ,
Tony @gimpod , @F1nut , @Toolfan66 , @nspindel were very kind and responsive no matter how trivial the questions seemed. Thanks guys.

I will follow up with some photos and impressions since i now have about 96 hrs on them.

Mike Reeter

Congrats on your "New" 1C's! They are a special speaker that deserves all the attention you have given them.

Around another 100-150 hours of burn-in on the new components, and you'll be fully rewarded for all your efforts!

TNTsTunes

This site has been a wealth of knowledge to me and many others too.

I will say I was pleasantly surprised with the sound improvement new more transparent grill cloth provided.

Moose68Bash

@Manticore,

Congratulations, and I hope your 1Cs give you years of pleasurable listening.

Knowing the influence of this site, however, I suspect you will soon have an itch to dive down the rabbit hole even deeper.

To tickle that impulse a bit: How come you decided not to replace the inductors?

MrBuhl

Congratulations! Glad it worked out - I made most of the same upgrades to my 1c's, but didn't get to the Supra Rondo and Cardas level - congrats and enjoy them! The only addition for me was Dave (@Westmassguy) did make up inductors for mine. Further shove down the rabbit hole idea - dreadnought, also worth it.

Still, very similar work and very rewarding improvement in sound, while they aren't currently in the rotation since I built up my 2btl's, I also haven't been able to part with them, in fact I may just switch them out when I get home!

Put some major juice to those babies and they really sing!

westmassguy

Enjoy those puppies

[Deleted User]

No mention of spikes. Should be tied for first things to do along with securing the magnets and backing plates.

Viking64

Slapaho wrote: »

No mention of spikes.

Sorted.

FestYboy

^ Still not as cool as Spinal Tap...

Manticore

TNTsTunes wrote: »

This site has been a wealth of knowledge to me and many others too.

I will say I was pleasantly surprised with the sound improvement new more transparent grill cloth provided.

I am sure you are correct about that. Since bringing home the 1C's the grill covers went into the closet...so to speak I will only use them if i will have company that warrants them ex: grandchild, pets. The grill covers do not have any snags or rips as of yet.

Manticore

Moose68Bash wrote: »

@Manticore,

Congratulations, and I hope your 1Cs give you years of pleasurable listening.

Knowing the influence of this site, however, I suspect you will soon have an itch to dive down the rabbit hole even deeper.

To tickle that impulse a bit: How come you decided not to replace the inductors?

Thanks,
From everything that i have read it just didn't seem warranted. Folks have said there was an improvement but relatively small (if i read correctly). I may be in touch with Dave about this in the future .

Manticore

MrBuhl wrote: »

Congratulations! Glad it worked out - I made most of the same upgrades to my 1c's, but didn't get to the Supra Rondo and Cardas level - congrats and enjoy them! The only addition for me was Dave (@Westmassguy) did make up inductors for mine. Further shove down the rabbit hole idea - dreadnought, also worth it.

Put some major juice to those babies and they really sing!

Thanks Ed,
I honestly didnt know what,if anything the Quad Supra Rondo cable would bring. The SDA drivers have developed a larger projected sound field since all the upgrades. Not sure if its due to the cable or cumulative of all the upgrades but, i think it has something to do with it. Since having four wires to work with i had to splice or make a jumper from +1,+2 & for -1&-2. Pretty simple stuff.


Hmmm the dreadnought does sound interesting

Manticore

Slapaho wrote: »

No mention of spikes. Should be tied for first things to do along with securing the magnets and backing plates.

Oh yes, i did do spikes.
Speaker spikes from http://www.oregondv.com/15spike.htm

Manticore

I have read on previous upgrade posts that some folks believed there speakers were made on a late Friday evening. I also believe i have one of those.


This is one place i was not sure what to do. I missed reading the posts about using a dremel on the rings to get them to fit. One speakers center brace was just fractionally off center so i used a sharp wood chisel to remove the blockage. Barely 1/16" or so but the second one i decided to cut the rings with a pair of straight tin snips instead of the dremel. It worked just fine.


New black marker lines were made and the snips worked great. Easy peasy. Rings fit & function as intended.

Manticore

Howdy all,
Been under the weather as of late but feeling a bit better now. I have well over 400 hours on the upgraded 1C's and all i can say is Wow. If you have been debating the upgrades listen to the fine folks here and jump on in.

I did not do a piece at a time i went full in as i described above so i can not say that one thing added and one didn't. It does seem to be cumulative. I am saying that i am ecstatic beyond words about the sound these speakers are capable of playing after the upgrades. They most certainly did not sound bad before but after is well, for me bliss.

I can not write a review as eloquently as say ( @DarqueKnight ) does... So i will not even try. I so enjoy his reviews. I will say i am very, very pleased and it was money and (enjoyable) time well spent.
To those thinking of undertaking the upgrades the one bit of advice i can say is, "if your not sure just ask someone". I can see there could be mistakes done that could be costly to fix or render your speakers unplayable. I asked a few folks for input and no one steered me in the wrong direction. Thanks to you all.

verb

Thanks for the inspiration @Manticore !!! I got bit by the flu bug new years eve and am still not 100% !!! But I do have enough strength to install H-Nuts !!!
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/179960/another-1c-upgrade-path#latest