My RTA-12C's from Orange County CL

Boywonder

Hi everyone, another newbie here-I just snagged these RTA-12C's from the Orange County Craigslist a few days ago. They are fully functional, although they need a little comsetic makeover. I am also thinking about the upgraded tweeters to replace the SL-2000's. I need to replace the top-hat grill pins (I have some spares altready), vacuum the grills and tops, and deal with the veneer. The Oak veneer is in quite good shape, although one side of one speaker has some slightly raised grain and some staining. I will probably refinish these before the project is over.....

These speakers image like nothing I have ever experienced before, when they are toed-in (actually pointing at your head per the manual which I downloaded thanks to this forum). I am now considering finding a pair of SDA's; there is a pair of SDA 2's (not A's or B's) currently in the OC CL for $200. The guy does not have the IC cable, though. I think I will hold out for a pair of 1C's or newer.

I've noticed the dust caps on the Mid-woofers are different, as can be seen in the pic. Both speakers have one MW of each dust cap type installed in a mirrored image fashion. Any experts out there have any info on this? I will pop them out and get the #'s off the back today.

As I get into these, I'm sure that there will be more questions.....

shadowofnight

Cabinets and grills look great...just widex those drivers and PR's and you are set. Welcome to the forum

BottomFeeder

Whoa nellie!

You've got a really rare set there! I've got a pair of 12C's as well and I've only seen or heard of 1 other pair that was made w/real wood veneer! I've asked everyone here and even called the company, and no one's even heard of reel wood veneer 12C's!

All the others are made w/a vinyl veneer. So you've got an extremely rare bird indeedy!

NICE score!

cfrizz

Very nice, welcome to Club Polk.

danger boy

nice grab.. congrats! hang on to those.. they look to be in pretty good shape. as Bottomfeeder mentioned. real wood veneer RTA12's appear to be rare indeed.

enjoy them.. and yes the updated tweeter available is worth every penny.

Boywonder

OK, dust cap mystery solved....One driver in each cabinet is original 6501 p/n dated 1985 and the other is a replacement 6503 dated 1991...Is a 6503 the correct replacement for a 6501?

I just answered my own question above after a brief search...the 6503 is the modern replacement for the 6501...

One more question...Are mid woofer gaskets available from Polk?

ben62670

Nice score on the speakers. Hopefully someone will chime in on the compatibility. I am not sure if they are close enough for that application.
Welcome to Club Polk
Ben

tx_polkhead

congrats, I am also new to the world of Polk by way of my own 12c's also from CL. Here is a link to a few pictures of my 12c's take a look and see how they differ, mine have a base at the bottom, I would love to see pictures of the insides did you take any while removing the mid-drivers?
Thanks
Abel

link to gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/aas.sanchez/PolkAudioRTA12C

Boywonder

tx_polkhead, great pics. Yours also appear to have updated drivers on the outboard sides of each cabinet based on the look of the dust caps (6503's in place of 6501's.) Is your tweeter with the yellow label an SL2000 or an SL1000? (hard to make out in the pics) Your white labeled tweeter appears to be an SL2000 of 1991 vintage, Are yours vinyl or walnut veneer? I will post some pics of the cabinet interior once I get my card reader functional, it appears to have died suddenly. I'm sure the experts here will recommend a tweeter upgrade for yours as well.

tx_polkhead

Boywonder: upon closer inspection both tweeters say SL2000, but one is newer. the Left tweeter has a yellow sticker with a date of 12/6/85 (I was 14 when that tweeter was built!) the right tweeter has a white label with a date of May 16 1991. The RTA ISO Phase Crossover have sequential numbers 22 21729 and 22 21730. The mid/woofers are all marked SR 142/17 but they look different from each other, the outside M/W has a fuzzy dust cap while the inside M/W dust caps have a linen like surface. The passive radiator is marked SR 278/6. One last thing the cabinets are real wood veneer. I think I'll wait till I upgrade my amp before I look into upgrading the Tweeters.

tx_polkhead

one more thing, I forgot to sas you regarding the hackey sac in the picture...was it there for size relation? Let me be the first to say it no playing hackey sac near the speakers my brother!

danger boy

Ewww! your SL2000 tweeter is green where it should not be. mold perhaps?

Boywonder

The hackey sack is a softball sized fluffy toy for our dog Annie. Green tweeter?? I'll have to take a look....We don't have much mold out here in So. Cal. I spritzered the top of my tweeter top hats (they were faded) with RIT black fabric dye in a 409 bottle with excellent results, they look new now! Worked Great.

Boywonder

I ordered the RD0194 tweeters from Polk today, they will ship next week since they are doing inventory this week. Mid woofer gaskets are only available if you buy a mid woofer I also asked for new polyswitches (which they are sending out no charge) after becoming educated on this forum.

The "green tweeter" look is a camera artifact, my SL2000's are completely healthy. I noticed another interesting tidbit; the superfangled round plastic inductor support-tweeter stands on the RTA-12 are actually rear terminal cups without binding post holes put in. Seems like the 80's Polk factory learned a few things from Leo Fender....

BottomFeeder

Wow! You boys finding the real wood veneers are really scoring some beautiful speakers!

You may have found out by now, but the 80's version of the RTA12's were often a hog pog of parts a bit thrown together. But they all sound great!

Let us know how you like the upgraded tweeters. I haven't yet replaced mine & I'll be curious to know what you think!

congrats again, boys!