R200 crossover upgrade

ALL212

I whined a bit in https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/195727/decimal-points-or-i-just-whoopsed#latest about my inability to read. As it turned out I DID order the right part. No matter.

The mission here is to be rid of the cheap resistors, the iron core inductor directly in the signal path and upgrade the capacitors directly in the signal path.

I used Mills resistors except in the 4.7 ohm 15 watt position where I put in a Mundorf M-Resist Supreme at 4.7 ohm 20 watts (one of the more expensive parts in all of this). All resistors are exact size replacements.
ClarityCap 8.2 uf is an exact replacement value but I had to parallel a 3.9 uf on a 20 uf to get close to the 24 uf needed. As it turns out the 3.9's measured right at 4uf so I ended up with 24.3 uf on one crossover and 24.11 uf on the other. I tipped each of the electrolytic capacitors with a .01 film cap from the bottom of the board. These were Dayton Audo Grade PPT's left over from prior projects.
I used Dayton Audio Perfect Layer inductors. .9 mH instead of .87 mH with a slightly higher DCR as its an air core instead of iron core. As an effort to reduce the mH slightly I pulled "exactly" 6' of wire from the coil. No math involved - I just wanted it less than .9 mH.

Total cost was $175 of which $30 was tax/shipping from three different vendors. Parts actual cost about $146. Cost could be reduced if you could find all of these parts in one place but I consider this a fairly inexpensive upgrade for speakers retailing for $750.

Since these are the R200's the crossover has plenty of room but I wanted to use the same crossover board. I also kept the same wiring. Some damping was put on the woofer frame.

Removal of components was nasty especially the resistors. The glue on these R200's is much more aggressive than the glue on the L100's. But everything came off without messing up the board.

Soldering on these boards was adequate but not very professional looking. Solder seemed "blobbed" in on many pads.

Removal of wiring is interesting as locking spade lugs are used. I used an angled needle nose plyers and was able to remove all without incident but just yanking on these will not release them. Grip close to the spade portion of the connector and squeeze hard, pull gently (to harshly) and the spade should let go. I gently recrimped all of the spades before reassembly.

There are two sheets of sound damping material in the cabinet, very similar to the L100 and of the same material.

Tweeter was not removed. It's of the "mess with me and I'll break" installation theory.

Original board - not my pic, stolen.


Nekid board.


Bottom with the parallel caps.


Completed boards but with the wrong resistor in place, 10 ohm instead of 1 ohm.


Lucky 1 ohm resistor in place.


Very much worth it. Disassembly was not difficult if you leave the tweeters alone and have the right tool to remove the wires. I think the bass is controlled better and overall a much more pleasing presentation than what I remember them being out of the box.

EDIT:
If anyone does this (and if I disassemble again) - use the removed 8.2 yellow film cap in place of the 8.2 electrolytic if you can fit it in. It's a free part at that point.

heiney9

Very clean per usual. I have a pair of new R200's, but I'm not quite ready to do it yet. But this post will be a good guide when I do.

H9

heiney9

So, A2 how do they sound? Have you broken in the new components yet?

I received my R200's before Christmas and just now got them in the office rig. I purchased a new desktop integrated and ran it a bit with the modded 5B's........wasn't getting much bass. I need to inspect the PR, but that's for another time. The R200's have a lot more bass

I am still breaking in the new integrated as well as the R200's. So far the R200's sound great. Would one recommend toeing in? Listening position is about 5.5' in an almost equilateral triangle.

H9

ALL212

Aaron Logic:

Sucked out of the box. Put em on the TV as punishment and to break em in. No critical listening done. Crossovers upgraded and they sounded WAY better than fresh from the store. Put em back on TV duty, no long term critical listening done as the L100 parts came in.
L100’s are on 2nd rig and should live there long time.

heiney9

Thanks for the rundown. My R200's are in the office rig and they sound closed in and a bit boomy. The new amp and the speakers both need some break in. It doesn't get a lot of use maybe a couple times a week, so it'll be a longer break in period than normal.

H9

VR3

At troys we had them maybe 5ft off the floor and they did an impressive job filling the space

Navy_Goat

VR3 wrote: »

At troys we had them maybe 5ft off the floor and they did an impressive job filling the space

Something Randy noticed at Troy's and we have both observed with our own pairs is that they do better with more space. I am sure there is a limit, but they seem to sound better as you more distance between you and the speakers. YMMV.

Hansvelton

heiney9 wrote: »

Very clean per usual. I have a pair of new R200's, but I'm not quite ready to do it yet. But this post will be a good guide when I do.

H9

Not sure about you sir, but just seems a bit "Wrong" to mess with a speaker that is so new, anything a few years older is fair game though!

Braddles63

Was there any follow up on this one or is it on another thread? Be interested in the findings.

treitz3

Hansvelton wrote: »

heiney9 wrote: »

Very clean per usual. I have a pair of new R200's, but I'm not quite ready to do it yet. But this post will be a good guide when I do.

H9

Not sure about you sir, but just seems a bit "Wrong" to mess with a speaker that is so new, anything a few years older is fair game though!

You obviously are not familiar with some of us. At Troy's, we all saw the insides of the speakers before we even heard them.

I'm already itching to modify a brand new pair of speakers to me....because I know first hand what that brings to the table.

Speaker manufactures use (most of the time) lower cost parts for mass production. It increases their bottom line, yet still offers a solid product. If they were to install all upgraded parts, many manufacturers would price themselves out of a demographic or category of like speakers.

So, we do what we do...

In this case, Polk offers an already upgraded speaker....but, not at the same price.

Tom

GlennDog

Last April i picked up a pair of R200 from @dromunds . . . still in the shipping box until Trey or westmass open up the assembly line to MAX out the X-overs

Until then, I'm massaging my ears with the sweet sound of the Buchardt Zebras. Excellent "bookies"