New Tweeters Installed, Smooooth At Last!

Stew

Installed new RD0194-1 tweeters in my SDA 2B's today. Finally as smooth as I remember the peerless tweeter from the original monitor series. Everything I've listened to sounds better. I had a couple of CD's that sounded so bright and harsh I couldn't listen to them. Now they sound great! The bass sounds much tighter and punchier too. Welcome surprise - I wasn't expecting that.

Gotta love Polk service. I ordered updated parts for 15 year old speakers on Wednesday morning, they gave me the Club Polk discount, shipped them for free, and they arrived Friday morning!

nadams

Good to hear. I can't wait until I can afford to get 4 new tweeters for my SDA 2's. The bass firming up could've been an air leak around one or both of the old tweeters. There was a thread quite a while back about going around and "snugging" all the screws holding your drivers down, since the speaker cabinet is designed to be sealed. Any kind of air leak would reduce bass response, or just make it sloppy.

I'd have to agree on Polk CS. I ordered two 6503 drivers for my SDA's on Monday, and they were delivered on Wednesday, although we are in neighboring states. And these speakers are older than I am! I just hope I can get the tweeters before they decide to stop making them...

halo

nadams - make sure you trim the rubber of the surrounds on the new drivers around the mounting holes (like the originals) before you install them. TRUST me on this & good luck. To me the replacement drivers dig a little deeper than the originals but that could be the air leak thing you mentioned.

schwarcw

Glad you got your new tweeters, the difference is amazing. I'm going to do the crossover upgrade on my SDA-2s this weekend. I'll give you some feedback.

keith allen

I have original sda 2's,is this the same tweeter I need for my upgrade?

ND13

nadams wrote:

I'd have to agree on Polk CS. I ordered two 6503 drivers for my SDA's on Monday, and they were delivered on Wednesday, although we are in neighboring states. And these speakers are older than I am! I just hope I can get the tweeters before they decide to stop making them...

Check your boxes, I'll bet they came out of Cali. I have yet to get a replacement part from anywhere but Cali.

Polk CS ROCKS!!!!!

nadams

keith allen wrote:

I have original sda 2's,is this the same tweeter I need for my upgrade?

Yes, the original SDA 2's (three 6.5" drivers per cab, two tweeters per cab) had the SL2000 tweeters, which are replaced by the RD0194-1

madmax

Stew wrote:

The bass sounds much tighter and punchier too. Welcome surprise - I wasn't expecting that.

I've heard this from a few others and noticed it myself. The proper treble will define the bass. I noticed way back in my car audio days that the bass always seemed to fall off if you lower the overall volume or quality of the highs. You could describe the sound as more muddy. The best part of bass is produced by the tweeter.

madmax

schwarcw

Nadams - I disassembled my SDA-2s this weekend to perform the crossover upgrade, my woofers were all M6600s. The wiring schematic designated these as MW6501s. The woofers were all tested and dated by Polk QA on Feb. 1984, which is the date of assembly of my speakers. So I don't think these were replacements. What woofers did you have?

nadams

My original drivers were MW6501's, not sure of the date. The replacements that polk sent me were MW6503's. ONE of the drivers I had to replace was a mw6600x, and it actually looked different than the rest of the drivers (larger dustcap). I'm not sure where that one came from, as I just bought these speakers and it was in there when I got it (but locked up, which is why I replaced it)

schwarcw

Hmmmmm. I'm going to call Ken Swauger at Polk tomorrow to see what the scoop is

F1nut

The MW6501 and the MW6600X are interchangeable drivers.

Stew

nadams wrote:

There was a thread quite a while back about going around and "snugging" all the screws holding your drivers down, since the speaker cabinet is designed to be sealed. Any kind of air leak would reduce bass response, or just make it sloppy.

I checked for air leaks by gently pushing in the passive radiator and there didn't appear to be any leaks before or after the tweeter replacement. I'm going to snug the screws on all the drivers to be sure though. Thanks!

madmax wrote:

I've heard this from a few others and noticed it myself. The proper treble will define the bass. I noticed way back in my car audio days that the bass always seemed to fall off if you lower the overall volume or quality of the highs. You could describe the sound as more muddy. The best part of bass is produced by the tweeter.

I don't pretend to understand why but there's definitely more bass. I ended up moving the speakers 3/4" further away from the back wall. (Couldn't decide between 1/2" and 1" - split the difference) The bass level is back to where it was before - but it sounds better now.

schwarcw wrote:

Glad you got your new tweeters, the difference is amazing. I'm going to do the crossover upgrade on my SDA-2s this weekend. I'll give you some feedback.

Look forward to hearing about your crossover upgrade! My crossover upgrade may be a little further delayed as I discovered a leaking toilet seal this weekend -- and a rotten floor under the seal . Plan to get the caps before too long though. Hope dinner with your big eatin' brother and the crossover upgrade both go great!

go-go

how much do these tweeters cost, and are they difficult to install? thanks.

nadams

For club polk members (make sure you mention it when you call!) they are $48 each, shipped. Installation is a matter of pulling the + and - off of the old driver, and putting them on the new driver, and **** the driver back into the cabinet. Simple! Make sure, first, that the tweeters you're replacing are the SL2000. There's a different replacement for SL1000/Sl25000...

go-go

i'm a newbie, sooo. how much do these tweeter upgrades cost, and are they difficult to install?

go-go

i'm a newbie, sooo. how much do these tweeter upgrades cost, and are they difficult to install? is the difference that much noticeable?

nadams

I plainly posted above how much they cost, and how to install. I can't speak on the difference, as I don't have the replacements yet myself, but every one who's done the upgrade has heard a difference.

schwarcw

The replacement silk dome tweeters will take the harshness out of the high end. Making it smoother, much less fatiguing. It is a very noticeable improvement and highly recommended.

Carl

cj4qts

I have a set of RTA1tl's and want to rebuild the crossovers as I popped both SL3000's and now need to upgrade to the new replacement tweeters. I am not sure if I want to tackle this myself or have someone else do it.

Is there anyone out there who knows how to properly do this who might be willing to do this for me? Any idea on a price?

Andy

heiney9

cj4qts wrote:

I have a set of RTA1tl's and want to rebuild the crossovers as I popped both SL3000's and now need to upgrade to the new replacement tweeters. I am not sure if I want to tackle this myself or have someone else do it.

Is there anyone out there who knows how to properly do this who might be willing to do this for me? Any idea on a price?

Andy

The SL-3000 tweeter uses replacement tweeter model # RD0198-1

Parts-enough for BOTH cross overs.

(2) 12 uF 400v PB Solen Caps (5%)
(2) 16 uF 400v PB Solen Caps (5%)
(2) 34 uF 400v PB Solen Caps (5%)
(2) 1.5 Ohm Mills Wire-wound Resistor (1%) 1R5-MRA5

www.partsconnexion.com

I'd also change the poly switches at this time since you have the x-overs out. If you don't have the talent to solder, I'd find someone to do it. My soldering skills are grotesque so I'm either getting together with other CP members or most likely will have a local friend do the parts swap.

Question for Jesse (F1NUT)
I have a schematic for both the 11T and 11TL. The TL has (1) less resistor across the tweeter. The (TL) has a 0.3mH inductor only, where as the (T) has a 0.4mH inductor amd 2.7 Ohm 5w resistor.

What would the difference be if I used the RD0198-1 to replace my sl2000 in my 11T's and then just used the proper parts for the TL cross-over. So in essence I'd change the (T) x-overs to (TL) and use the corresponding replacement tweeter for the sl3000. Would I gain anything? Is it worth it? What do you think Jesse?

P.s. This is assuming these schematic's I have are correct. I see on the 11TL schematic the poly switches aren't indicated so maybe there are more omissions on here .

F1nut

The only changes between models appears to be the high frequency part of the crossover, so it would be easy enough to go from the "T" to the "TL" by changing those parts in addition to the new tweeters. Is it worth it? Yeah, I think so. I would check with Ken about the schematic omissions first.

heiney9

Thanks for the advice F1. When I finally start this project I'll consullt Ken and ask some questions.

H9

halo

Great H9 - Now I'm going to have to do the t < tl thing now.

What's the difference between the RDO194's & the RD0198-1's?

heiney9

peersool wrote:

Great H9 - Now I'm going to have to do the t < tl thing now.

What's the difference between the RDO194's & the RD0198-1's?

RD0198-1 replaces the sl-3000 in the TL series
RD0194-1 replaces the sl-2000 in the T series.

As mentioned the "TL" series has a slightly different x-over config for the tweeter. The story goes that when the original "T" series with the sl-2000 was reviewed by Stereo Review or Stereophile they pretty much trashed the upper freq output. It has about 6db hump around 10-12K that makes it very annoying with most material. Polk quickly introduced the "TL" series which had a tamer tweeter (sl-3000) thus the slight difference in x-over parts. Still the sl-3000 was a improvement but still had its detractors.

As far as the diff between the current repalcements, I'm not sure how they rate against each other. But I know they are both big improvements over the older sl-2000 & sl-3000. If I'm going to refresh the x-over I might as well try upgrading to the last (most current) version of the RTA-11's. I'll check with Ken first to see what, if any, difference this will make. I have a hard copy of the "TL" schematic and if you want it I can have my brother scan it and e-mail it to you.

H9

halo

I think both the original crossovers are still available from Polk. That might make upgrading a little easier

Let me know what Ken says.

Yes please send me the tl schematic. Thanks.

heiney9

peersool wrote:

I think both the original crossovers are still available from Polk. That might make upgrading a little easier

Let me know what Ken says.

Yes please send me the tl schematic. Thanks.

That's good to know in case of a disaster on the current ones. By upgrading the components in the current x-over, w/ Jesse's parts list you sent me, you're getting a better x-over with higher quality/tighter tolerence parts. In some cases the parts might be "fresher" than the x-overs from POLK just because of age. Certainly for those of us, like you and me, who can't solder to a high degree just getting them from POLK is easier. But I think I'll swap out my current x-overs (with help) and see how that goes .

I'll get that schematic out this weekend. I won't see my brother until then and he's the one with the scanner.

H9

halo

:cool: Thanks H9.

F1nut

Hang on guys. You can NOT buy crossovers from Polk for these vintage speakers. The SL2000 was used from 1984 to 1989, a span of 5 years and had a 5dB spike at 13kHz.

heiney9

F1nut wrote:

Hang on guys. You can NOT buy crossovers from Polk for these vintage speakers. The SL2000 was used from 1984 to 1989, a span of 5 years and had a 5dB spike at 13kHz.

Well I was close about the spike (give or take 1db and 1kHz) . I had a feeling the x-over's weren't avail anymore. I'm going to redo my old ones, with help, as I don't solder very consistently. I'm just looking to freshen things up a bit and really make the new (replacement) tweets sound as good as they can. I figure if it worked for the SDA's, it should work for the RTA's.

I'm still going to check w/Ken about the "TL" x-over parts and the RD0198-1 tweet just for kicks to see if it will make any difference.

Thanks again F1 for clarifying some of the issues, and for providing Peersool with the upgraded parts list for his RTA-11t which he passed on to me.

H9

halo

F1nut wrote:

Hang on guys. You can NOT buy crossovers from Polk for these vintage speakers. The SL2000 was used from 1984 to 1989, a span of 5 years and had a 5dB spike at 13kHz.

I was referring to post #29 in this thread Jesse:LINK