Need help and history regarding these Polk's

jonwb12
jonwb12 Posts: 4
in Vintage Speakers
Hi.. I've had a pair of 2nd hand Polk Monitor 11t speakers for about 10 yrs. Currently, the left speaker fails to sound unless I jostle my Yamaha receiver's volume control. Then it plays fine.

Today I decided to open them up and was surprised to see that they're 36 yrs old! Since I'm pretty fond of them, I'm thinking about replacing the caps and possibly the tweeters.

Would these be good ideas, considering their age?
Also, could someone tell me why I see the letters "RTA" in some online data reviews and specs? Thanks

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Comments

  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,492
    The issue is not your speaker, it's the volume potentiometer in your Yamaha.

    RTA stands for Real Time Alignment.

    Upgrading the caps and resistors is a very good idea. So is replacing the nasty SL2000 tweeters with the RD0194-1.

    Adding spikes that will pierce the carpet will help clean up the mids and improve the bass response.
    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

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  • jonwb12
    jonwb12 Posts: 4
    Hey thank you... Will look to do both. So these are not a RTA design, correct?
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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 25,410
    Not a true real time alignment as all the voice coils are not on the same plane.
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,629
    When posting questions on your speakers it may make it easier to identify them as RTA11t . It can be confusing, as it does say Monitor. There is a Monitor 11 speaker as well (they look more like a Monitor 10 speaker)..
    ..
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,629
    F1nut wrote: »
    The issue is not your speaker, it's the volume potentiometer in your Yamaha.

    RTA stands for Real Time Alignment.

    Upgrading the caps and resistors is a very good idea. So is replacing the nasty SL2000 tweeters with the RD0194-1.

    Adding spikes that will pierce the carpet will help clean up the mids and improve the bass response.

    Question . Can this crossover be upgraded to the TL (if someone is upgrading caps & resistors) to be able to use the RD 0198 tweeter ?
    ..
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,492
    boston1450 wrote: »
    F1nut wrote: »
    The issue is not your speaker, it's the volume potentiometer in your Yamaha.

    RTA stands for Real Time Alignment.

    Upgrading the caps and resistors is a very good idea. So is replacing the nasty SL2000 tweeters with the RD0194-1.

    Adding spikes that will pierce the carpet will help clean up the mids and improve the bass response.

    Question . Can this crossover be upgraded to the TL (if someone is upgrading caps & resistors) to be able to use the RD 0198 tweeter ?

    Not sure, never looked into it.
    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

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  • jonwb12
    jonwb12 Posts: 4
    boston1450 wrote: »
    When posting questions on your speakers it may make it easier to identify them as RTA11t . It can be confusing, as it does say Monitor. There is a Monitor 11 speaker as well (they look more like a Monitor 10 speaker)..

    Well, it's confusing because nowhere on these speakers does it say RTA. If they're not truly "Real Time Aligned", why did Polk give them that name?
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,629
    They are RTA11t's . Got me. I thought RTA was Real Time Array lol.. I have the RTA15tl's
    ..
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  • stevep
    stevep Posts: 335
    edited November 11
    boston1450 wrote: »
    I thought RTA was Real Time Array lol..

    I think you would be correct, at least that's what Polk's doc says.
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,629
    edited November 11
    The RTA series had the 8-11-15 tower cabinet speakers. Iirc they also had the RTA12 which was kinda like a Monitor 10 or 11 with crossovers on top - with a framed cloth hat (cover for crossovers)
    EDIT. there may be more I'm not aware of
    ..
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  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,629
    edited November 11
    stevep wrote: »
    boston1450 wrote: »
    I thought RTA was Real Time Array lol..

    I think you would be correct, at least that what Polk's doc says.

    Same idea.. I haven't seen my speaker boxes in forever. Polk didn't put much info out there & same with labels on cabinets. The Monitor 11 has a L & R sticker for Left & Right cabinet placement & they were known to fall off. I taped mine on & marked them :o
    ..
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,492
    boston1450 wrote: »
    They are RTA11t's . Got me. I thought RTA was Real Time Array lol.. I have the RTA15tl's

    Yep, you are correct. I got 2 out of 3...lol
    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

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  • Gardenstater
    Gardenstater Posts: 4,454
    edited November 12
    They gave the marketing department excessive leeway on this one IMO lol. Should've called it the LSA Series maybe (Line Source Array). With the R.T.A. 12B they had the dots lol, in the instruction manual anyways.



    George / NJ

    Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
    Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
    Onkyo A-8017 integrated
    Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
    iFi nano iDSD DAC
    iPurifier3
    iDefender w/ iPower PS
    Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
    iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
    Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
    Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform
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  • skrol
    skrol Posts: 3,372
    I think these go into some of the changes made to the TL vs the T.
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    Stan

    Main 2ch:
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    HT:
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    Other stuff:
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  • Gardenstater
    Gardenstater Posts: 4,454
    boston1450 wrote: »
    F1nut wrote: »
    The issue is not your speaker, it's the volume potentiometer in your Yamaha.

    RTA stands for Real Time Alignment.

    Upgrading the caps and resistors is a very good idea. So is replacing the nasty SL2000 tweeters with the RD0194-1.

    Adding spikes that will pierce the carpet will help clean up the mids and improve the bass response.

    Question . Can this crossover be upgraded to the TL (if someone is upgrading caps & resistors) to be able to use the RD 0198 tweeter ?

    Shouldn't be a problem because the t and tl crossovers are in the archives, but you have to change one inductor (what is DCR?), one capacitor, and one resistor, along with omission of one resistor.
    George / NJ

    Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
    Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
    Onkyo A-8017 integrated
    Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
    iFi nano iDSD DAC
    iPurifier3
    iDefender w/ iPower PS
    Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
    iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
    Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
    Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform
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  • jonwb12
    jonwb12 Posts: 4
    edited 11:30AM
    Update: OK so I removed the 34uf capacitor from the crossover and it read 36.16uf using a Klein multimeter with capacitance testing... a little above its rating.
    I've decided that IF I change these out, I'm going to replace them with similar non-polar capacitors.

    Given that info, would you still recommend that I change these out due to their age? (36 yrs)
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  • nooshinjohn
    nooshinjohn Posts: 25,391
    F1nut wrote: »
    boston1450 wrote: »
    They are RTA11t's . Got me. I thought RTA was Real Time Array lol.. I have the RTA15tl's

    Yep, you are correct. I got 2 out of 3...lol

    Do Better!!!🤣🤣🤣
    The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD

    “When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson
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  • Gardenstater
    Gardenstater Posts: 4,454
    jonwb12 wrote: »
    Update: OK so I removed the 34uf capacitor from the crossover and it read 36.16uf using a Klein multimeter with capacitance testing... a little above its rating.
    I've decided that IF I change these out, I'm going to replace them with similar non-polar capacitors.

    Given that info, would you still recommend that I change these out due to their age? (36 yrs)

    I think they are tolerance K which would be +/- 10% so they would still be in tolerance but do you have the ability to measure ESR (effective series resistance) and DF (dissipation factor)? Those both tend to increase with age, especially with electrolytics.

    Nobody, and I mean nobody, at this forum will recommend either keeping those in or replacing with anything other than polypropylene film caps. Nobody knows another person's budget situation however.

    George / NJ

    Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
    Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
    Onkyo A-8017 integrated
    Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
    iFi nano iDSD DAC
    iPurifier3
    iDefender w/ iPower PS
    Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
    iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
    Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
    Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform
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