New SDA 2.3TL grill cloth

gmcman · April 6

When I bought these speakers, the previous owner said he replaced the cloth but I have no idea who makes it. Doesn't have a light texture like other Polks have I've seen, very dense and silky.

Thank you @nooshinjohn for recommending the Magnepan fabric from the 20.7, this stuff is super nice. Has a very light texture, and feels of very high quality. The pics don't do it justice, it is jet black but the camera is exposing highlights that appear twice as bright.

This fabric lets twice as much light in without being "nude", the fabric is just more transparent.

The pics of the Magnepan fabric looks like it has more texture that it does but it's quite smooth but not silk-like.....it's just right.

More pics as I get it finished.

nooshinjohn · April 6

Just take your time with it and it will look fantastic when you are done. The Polk’s will sound better as well, with no need to remove the grills.

Toolfan66 · April 6

Where did you purchase it from?

nooshinjohn · April 6

Toolfan66 wrote: »

Where did you purchase it from?

It comes directly from Magnepan. I liked working with that material because it completely modernizes the look of the big boxes.

Toolfan66 · April 9

gmcman wrote: »

When I bought these speakers, the previous owner said he replaced the cloth but I have no idea who makes it. Doesn't have a light texture like other Polks have I've seen, very dense and silky.

Thank you @nooshinjohn for recommending the Magnepan fabric from the 20.7, this stuff is super nice. Has a very light texture, and feels of very high quality. The pics don't do it justice, it is jet black but the camera is exposing highlights that appear twice as bright.

This fabric lets twice as much light in without being "nude", the fabric is just more transparent.

The pics of the Magnepan fabric looks like it has more texture that it does but it's quite smooth but not silk-like.....it's just right.

More pics as I get it finished.

Do you have a link to what you ordered, or part number? Also how much did you purchase?

Thanks!!

gmcman · April 10

Toolfan66 wrote: »

Do you have a link to what you ordered, or part number? Also how much did you purchase?

Thanks!!

I called Magnepan directly and they were very helpful. I ordered 4 yards of the Classic Black, part # P00749. $25/sq.yd.

I didn't use their site to order, meaning placing item in cart then checkout to ensure I had the correct fabric, once we started talking he sent me the info and I gave him the payment info.

Each grill will need right about 1 yard including the extra to fold over and staple. I went with 4 yards as I figured I may need to use a second layer on the grills, if not I can use it for the side panels. I probably should have went with 4.5 yards as I may not have enough for everything with one layer....will be close.

Emlyn · April 10

Magnepan = good people!

gmcman · April 16

I was able to finish the grills this weekend, but need a better pair of fabric scissors or shears to trim the excess on the backside. Not really in the way but I want to clean it up.

This leads me to a tip for anyone using this fabric, a good, sharp scissor makes it much easier, I thought mine was sufficient, maybe for paper..lol...and they are relatively sharp and tight. A razor blade would work, just hard to keep the fabric tight with one person but scissors are better.

Thanks John for recommending to paint the grills, 3 coats of satin did the trick, painted grill on right, back of other on left.

I used one layer of fabric which ended up being enough, with light shining onto the speakers you can make out the silhouette of the drivers but doesn't take away from the aesthetics.

With more direct light.

My thoughts on the new fabric after listening to many familiar tracks.

First of all, the Magnepan fabric looks and feels amazing, I would definitely do it again. I can hear a difference from the old fabric to this much more "transparent" fabric. I can however still hear more clarity with the grills off so let me ramble a bit.

I was coming from a more dense covering, which I could easily tell when the grills were removed for critical listening, that was before I had recently soldered my upgraded Cardas Litz internal wiring to the pcb. I was using the molex connections on the board with the Cardas Litz which still translated into a much improved sound quality with the new wire.

Once I removed the bronze molex connections, eliminating 2 connection points, and straight soldered the harness to the board, the difference was noticeably better. I want to add my McCormack preamp is roughly 20 years old, could be my bottleneck in terms of clarity, but it performs admirably. This soldering of the harness felt like I upgraded a component, maybe some modern gear would have netted me the same clarity so YMMV with soldering the leads.

The seperation and clariry of vocals to instruments, the darkness of the background, clariry of the higher frequencies, top hat, cymbals, decay all stood out. Because I had just recently discovered these upgrades in SQ, when I installed the new grill coverings, I could tell the higher frequencies have a (I'm treading carefully here and being slightly over-critical) very slight.."smearing" of the highs. I could still hear the improved cymbal clarity and detail in the decay, but with an ever so slight "fuzz" and I may be describing that incorrectly.

The old grills would more or less attenuate the sound and remove some air on the highs which still had less detail with the molex connections, this Magnepan fabric barely attenuates the sound, not really noticeable but with the recent change to the pcb, I can hear that very slight change with the grills on.

Had I not removed the molex connections, these grills would have only barely attenuated the music, also allowing the highs to breathe better not requiring to remove them for critical listening. Any of the above mentioned upgrades would not be there anyway.

Don't get me wrong, this fabric is a big upgrade, but for critical listening on my setup, the new fabric only barely gets in the way but slightly noticeable.

Now this also brings the topic on the speakers being voiced to having the grills on. I don't have my original fabric, but can only assume the Magnapan fabric is more acoustically transparent. Coming from the OE design of SL-3000's and their factory wiring, components, how does the factory SL-3000 compare to the RDO-198?

I have all stock value inductors, caps, & resistors, but being the Clarity CMR and Path resistors, that may lean very slightly on the warm side, I wonder how or if Polk would have modified any crossover values with modern components.

I won't argue these speakers were voiced with the grills on, but with the circa late-80's materials. Just thinking outloud, fell free to add any insight on my thoughts.

All in all, thank you @nooshinjohn for the recommendation.

gmcman · April 16

After some thought, I wanted to add I feel this 2ch rig is right on the cusp of benefitting from a new DAC and preamp. I believe soldering those connections let it begin to cross that gap.

I love my SA-8005 which doubles as a DAC, but with my aging preamp, I have been eyeballing either a Hegel P20 or the Belles Aria preamp but this can be another topic. I don't want to take anything away from this new, excellent grill cloth, I feel if my system had a DAC and preamp upgrade, there would be enough of an upgrade in clarity I wouldn't know the grills were on.

Oh the rabbit hole.

nooshinjohn · April 16

A new DAC/Pre combo took my rig to levels I never believed I could reach at my level. Since the McIntosh C2300 showed up, I have been content to spend other people's money and have not looked for anything else. A good place to look might be at the Mac C2500, as it is tubes, great DAC, Phono Pre, and good looking on top of it.

Also so happy to see another set of SDA fitted with the Maggie cloth. They look fantastic, and after the material has had a chance to break in for a couple hundred hours, you will really hear the difference.

Relax people... the last part of my comments were a JOKE!!!!

F1nut · April 16

after the material has had a chance to break in for a couple hundred hours, you will really hear the difference.

LMAO

nooshinjohn · April 16

Glad you got the joke Jesse...

treitz3 · April 16

It isn't very often I am left speechless but this one?

Tom

gmcman · April 21

nooshinjohn wrote: »

A new DAC/Pre combo took my rig to levels I never believed I could reach at my level.

I believe this is where I need to focus. Hard to tell what areas would improve more over others, what I have now does sound really good for most material, very lifelike, but the woes of the beginning of diminishing returns, but stil worth it.

treitz3 wrote: »

It isn't very often I am left speechless but this one?

Tom

You might have to clarify that for me, must have went over my head..;)

treitz3 · April 21

John's comment on material break in. For some reason, my post was submitted but didn't show up until much later that day. In other words, the posts are out of order.

Tom

gmcman · April 21

treitz3 wrote: »

John's comment on material break in. For some reason, my post was submitted but didn't show up until much later that day. In other words, the posts are out of order.

Tom

Yeah, I was confused also....should have been 500 hours but I guess west coast air allows this to happen sooner?

New SDA 2.3TL grill cloth

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