R15 Owner and forum newb w/ a prob

afxiator154

Hello everyone@club polk!

I'm new here, but I've owned a pair of R15's for 2 months. Love their sound, but.....
I think my tweeters are dead! And it shames me to say that, because I dont feel that I ever over-OR-under-powered them. (never distorted or clipped)
I had a Pioneer VSX-D814K receiver fueling them that I've since replaced because of overload problems (w/ 8 ohm speakers? go figure.). I got a nice high current Onkyo 502 unit on sale @CC that I want to massage the once GREAT sounding R15's back into sweetness.....but <sigh> ......no twinkle.
I even tested them on an old pioneer sx-6 (my sub amp now) that has been so good to me over the years, and still no tweets at all. Should I send em back for a warranty repair or is there some sort of tweeter protection builtin that i can fix my self (say-in the x-over?) I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty

Any input on this would make my day....

Thnx!

AsSiMiLaTeD

Can you describe what you're hearing or nnot hearing? Does it sound like the tweeter is distorted, or is there nothing coming from the tweeter at all, in one speaker or both?

and welcome to the club

afxiator154

No tweeter output at all on both units. Took the grills off and put my ear right up to them while playing soft music. I've noticed in the past couple weeks that they started to sound a little dull. My ears don't lie! No level of highend tweeking will help at all. The tweeters just stopped working.

faster100

sounds like you need to send polk Cs a e-mail, or better yet call.. If you have your receipt you can get them replaced under warranty. They sound dead... for both to go out is strange at the same time, But not unheard of..

Polk will take care of you, and if you dont have a receipt, mention your a club polk member and you get a discount when you buy them new..

afxiator154

Thanx faster100 & polkmaniac for your replies!
I remember my old Cerwin Vega DX-7 Towers had tweeter protection built in, so I was hopin maybe polk took the same route with their designs. I'll give Polk a shout and see what they say.
Wish me luck.

Tour2ma

I had a Pioneer VSX-D814K receiver fueling them that I've since replaced because of overload problems (w/ 8 ohm speakers? go figure.)... I got a nice high current Onkyo 502 unit on sale @CC that I want to massage the once GREAT sounding R15's back into sweetness

This pretty much says you were underpowering the 15's and were likely clipping your old Pioneer. The fact that the tweets died during the reign of the Pioneer and were not there for the Onk to revive confirms this...

So yes, call Ken Swauger at Polk CS. The 800 number can be found via the "Service and Parts" link at the top of any Club page. More than likely he'll cover them under a waranty replacement regardless of the circumstances of their failure.... this time...

Most likely Ken will ship you two new tweets to install, and may want the failed ones returned for study...

Welcome to the Club...

afxiator154

Yeah Tour2ma I spoke with a CS rep @ Polk and he said I can ship em out and they'll replace them. As far as the 814 I had....well it's been awhile since I bought new home audio gear (car audio used to take priority :cool: ) It seems they don't make amps like they used to (at least for the workin man to afford). I'm lookin at gettin some beefier speaks for the front and putting the R15s at the rear once my tweets come back. Any recommendations for good solid fronts?

okiepolkie

What is your budget?
If you want to voice match them, then try the R30's.

You can pick up some black ones from outpost.com for pretty cheap.

If budget allows for more, then try something in the RTi series(RTi4 or RTi6).

afxiator154

Thanx okiepolkie for the link. The R30's look shweeeet......but theyre a little large for what I'm lookin for. I need bookshelf size. The RTi series is more my bag, or maybe even some R20's. I dont wanna spend more than 200 or 300 USD for a pair. I have small listening area (10X12ft) so I don't need the "in your face" soundstage that the big boys (n girls ) here require for that ultimate HT thrill. I just want something that sounds great @ low volume, but still can handle clean 75W/ch for when I wanna throw in a horror flick or crank some Deftones or Aphex Twin. Maybe I expected too much from the R15s, but they sound too good to give em up for adoption, so rears they will be eventually. My pioneer sx-6 is pumpin up a couple of 12" bazooka car subs that I got real cheap and put em in a vented box tuned to 33Hz. I was surprised how well the polks complimented the subs. I'm slowly building up a system that (I know how addictive home audio can be guys) will prolly put me back in debt again. I love music and movies, but I don't wanna break the bank. I still feel kinda fresh at this though, and I appreciate all the responses I've gotten so far. It looks like there are a lot of nice people here who know their ****. So enough blathering...R20's or RTi's look like candidates for my next purchase. Looks like I got some more research to do!
:rolleyes:

Thanx again for all the help everybody!

Tour2ma

Is Tweeter in your area? They carry the LSi and RTi lines... If not Tweeter someone is hopefully around that carries both.

The LSi 9 is Polk's penultimate bookshelf. I have not spent too much time auditioning the RTi bookshelves, but I liked the floorstanding RTi 10's.

Happy Hunting...

VR3

The reason CV had a tweeter protection unit was for parties, say you are at a party with extreme volumes and sometimes happen during the music, high dynamics, distortion, etc - the fuse in the crossover would blow instead of the tweeter...

Atleast, to my understand. The R15 is geared more torwards entry level home instead of parties...FWIW

afxiator154

Ahhhh Vr3.....sounds like you know bout the high volume deal, lol! Yeah serously, I know I was maybe a little "hard" on the 15's, but like I said its been a while since I got back into the whole home audio thing, and I always made sure I had plenty o' power for my wheels (alpine head, rockford fosgate amps). I love it loud but, I also like being able to hear details in the music I listen to when I'm relaxing at low volume. I want so BADLY to have a system that does it all, at least until I can take out that 2nd morgage for an add-on HT and all the trimmings! Those CV's belted out the volume like crazy, but I hated havin to find that sweet spot for em to sound decent, and plus their too big! The polks just sound better.
Tour2ma my nearest Tweeter is 50 miles from here but I owe it to myself to see what they got cuz its gotta be better then circuit city or best buy for listening. The local CC's sound room wasn't bad(at least isolated from the rest of the store noise ) but when I wanted to check out the polks and even a pair of Infinity's that were there they didn't even remember how they had em hooked up! They finally got the 15's hooked up, but then couldn't get one of their subs workin! But after hearin polks and infinity i liked the polks better. I hope Tweeter's set up better cuz i dont like buying stuff unless I can give it a GOOD workout, hehehe!

Tour2ma

Tweeter's a little more upscale than CC.

The new Monitor series that CC carries is worth a listen. The smaller floorstander, the 50, was pretty impressive. Normal retail is ~$400 the pair, but there may well be some holiday sales coming up.