Polk Speakers new vs. old-how do they stack up ?

ben62670

Face wrote: »

I wouldn't mind owning a pair of LSi9's either, they really impressed me.

You ever hear RTA15TL's.
I really should get rid of them, but I just upgraded the XO's, and added the RDO's. They are just a fabulous speaker, and efficient.

Face

No I haven't, I'd like to though. There's someone selling a pair of RTA15T's or TL's for either $600 or $800 locally. That's a lot of coin to spend on a speaker I'm going to hot rod anyway.

Mike Kozak

Ok, the 10s arrived in excellent shape, but when the seller took out the mids and tweeters he just cut the wires caused they are soldered at the leads. Can I just splice the wires back togetrher or is there a better way to do this?

Thanks

nikolas812

Thats what I would do for a quick fix so I could listen to them. You might want to go back later and run a new wire from the crossover to the mid so theres no extra link in the chain.

Marty913

Mike Kozak wrote: »

Ok, the 10s arrived in excellent shape, but when the seller took out the mids and tweeters he just cut the wires caused they are soldered at the leads. Can I just splice the wires back togetrher or is there a better way to do this?

Thanks

You'll get lots of opinions & advice (yes, no, rewire everything, solder, tape) but the short answer is yes you can just splice them back together. I would probably take the opportunity to rewire eventually but first I'd probably use butt plugs, solder, or just plain tape and GET LISTENING. That will tell you whether anything else is wrong. You can do something more permanent after that. Make sure the correct wires go to the appropriate drivers (of course you knew that).

Glad they showed up in good shape.

ben62670

If you splice make sure you solder them, and insulate them well. you don't want to fry your amp.

heiney9

Splice and solder then wrap in electrical tape

or better yet

Splice and use shrink tubing.

At some point in the future replace the wiring, but I agree to get them up and running and sure there are no issues repair the wires you have now.

H9

Mike Kozak

Am I missing something? I only see wire for one of the mids on each speaker, he has taped them to the cabinet, but I only see wire for 1 mid on each speaker.
http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg5/mikekoz62/?action=view&current=10s002.jpg
http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg5/mikekoz62/?action=view&current=10s001.jpg

heiney9

Sorry, I can't tell a damn thing from those blurry pics. Maybe dig around in the insulation and see.

Mike Kozak

The mids are wired together, I called the seller and he told me that one mid had wires connecting to the other mid.

Mike Kozak

here is a pic, two mids look like this

http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg5/mikekoz62/?action=view&current=Midbiwired.jpg

Mike Kozak

sorry about the blurry pics, I tend to shake a bit...old age

nikolas812

Even though you have already jacked the hell out of this thread.:D You might want to start a new thread with questions and pictures. I have no idea how to help you. I have not been inside mine yet or any vintage Polk for that matter.

Mike Kozak

sorry nik, I apologize, I have figured it out

nikolas812

You don't have anything to apologize for. Glad you got it figured out. Now get to listening.

Edit: You do usually want to start you own threads though instead of just popping in one and start asking off the subject questions. No harm done though.;)

WilliamM2

Mike Kozak wrote: »

here is a pic, two mids look like this

http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg5/mikekoz62/?action=view&current=Midbiwired.jpg

Looks like the gaskets got destroyed when he puled the drivers. You will need to replace those as well.

Marty913

nikolas812 wrote: »

Even though you have already jacked the hell out of this thread.:D You might want to start a new thread with questions and pictures. I have no idea how to help you. I have not been inside mine yet or any vintage Polk for that matter.

I (and others) share part of the responsibility. We asked Mike a number of times about his speakers and whether they had arrived. It seemed convenient at the time. Perhaps a new thread might have been better but he was really only responding to our inquiries. I can point you to a number of recent threads that have been much more severely hijacked. Let's not get too formal.

dorokusai

The simple, vintage Polk loudspeakers are the ones that shine. The bloated, TOTL models don't.

F1nut

And the one man war continues.

dorokusai

It's not a war, it's truth.

ohskigod

there will always be "my speakers are better than your speakers" discusions, it comes with the testes..LOL

I like both the old and the new, at the risk of sounding pacifist. Its one of the things that keeps me a Polk fan.

While I liked the SDA-1B's I had (as well as them being a fan favorite amongst my friends), I liked my LSi15's a little better (when I used them for 2 channel). again, to me, its all good.

to me, the SDA line is a "you really cant go to wrong" line, as long as they are in good shape. I pretty much like the small and the big ones.

I believe the first time I heard the big boy SRS 1.2tl's were at Joe's (hearingimpared). I liked em the first time, but couldnt shake the feeling they were just a skosh bright for my taste. that changed of course the second time I heard them and Joe changed things around. that tells me that you cant even hear a speaker once (on one set up) and think you really know a speaker. it's what makes this hoby interesting.

DollarDave

markmarc wrote: »

From best down, here are my top 4 Polk series choices:
Lsi,
SDA
Monitors (original version)
RTi

No love for the LS series?

F1nut

dorokusai wrote: »

It's not a war, it's truth.

"You can't handle the truth."

Face

Feel the love!

ohskigod

DaveMuell wrote: »

No love for the LS series?

I loved, and do miss, my LS90's. it was a good combination of good fidelity and a remarkable ability to take abuse. Those mothers were loud, and served my theater well for years.

lakesailor

So I though I would update this thread. I finally got a chance to visit a few Polk dealers on recent trips and had a chance to hear the LSi 15’s. I really wanted to listen to the Lsi 25’s however none of the dealers I visited stocked them. When asked why I got answers like “we can’t sell them over the LSi 15’s” to “Save the extra money and buy a powered sub instead as all you get with the LSi 25’s is more bass”

Back to LSi 15’s….it’s bit frustrating that both dealers had them set up in an H/T setup and it took a fair bit of maneuvering to get them setup for 2 channel listening. When we did finally get them setup I must say I was really impressed. The first thing I could not help but notice was the crystal clear highs; the new Polk tweeters are very impressive. Not surprisingly as I have always thought Polk did a nice job on their tweeters.

I was also very impressed with the mids; very detailed with excellent accuracy and relative neutral presence. I think what most impressed me was that LSi 15’s still seemed to posses that “Polk” characteristic of sound quality that I have long enjoyed; albeit with vastly improved highs. I will say I was a tad disappointed with the low end; as much as it tracks down to 22hz; it seemed lacking of that nice “tight” trademark Polk “punch” that is common to my beloved old RTA’s. Hence why I believe that the LSi 25’s might have been the perfect solution for me.

On the whole I was very impressed with the LSi 15’s; they had nice presence; excellent imaging and a very smooth and detailed sound delivery. They were very impressive with the upper frequencies; although I could not help but be somewhat at a loss for the low end. What was interesting is that after the audition I commented to the salesman on how impressed I was with the mids and particularly the highs. His comment back to me was that they were on par with many of the ESL’s costing 2x or 3x more money.

That comment got me thinking about ESL’s I have always been a fan of ESL’s but had not checked any out for quite some time. Long story short the salesman was right; the new LSi 15’s do sound more in the direction of ESL’s, however ESL speakers have also come along way in development; particularly in the low end; long the Achilles heel of the ESL designs. They are also far more competitive in price as well. I ended up getting lucky and came across a best kept secret in speaker deals; the Eminent Technology LFT8 for the same kind of money as the Lsi 15 it simply cannot be beat. I do like the Lsi 15’s a fair bit but they are not in the same league as the LFT 8’s. If you get a chance check them out !

halo71

I know, old thread. Anyone know off hand about this build Ben did? I could not find a thread on the build.

ben62670 wrote: »

Back to the original question.
Polk Speakers new vs. old-how do they stack up ?
Vertically. I have my Old Polk's (RTA15rdo's)stacked one on top of the other with a T-shirt between them next to my new Polk's made out of old parts. This is my office rig so it isn't set up properly:o

Timothy Smith

Old speakers vs. new speakers?

This will not make the "newer is better" speaker guys happy.

I recently had the opportunity to try a new set of well regarded $1500 bookshelf speakers for few weeks.

Did extensive tests back and forth with an Adcom GFS-3 speaker selector switch. Used many different combinations of good tube and solid state preamps and amps, both vintage and modern. Also used CD's and vinyl.

Here is a summary of what I heard with my ears:

The New $1500 speakers beat my $50 used A/D/S L-570's

They lost to my EPI 150's

They lost to my Snell J-III's

They lost to my Energy 22 Pro's

They lost To my Vandersteen 1's

They were demolished by my ADS L-1230's

They were demolished by my Dahlquist DQ-10's

They were demolished by my Dahlquist DQ-20's

The cost ratio for the old speakers (purchased used) vs. new ranged from 1/30th to 1/3rd the price of teh new/modern highly regarded speakers.

I can't explain it. I really wanted to like the new/modern speakers and was ready to spend some money.

I just can't do it when, in my opinion, with a little effort you can find better sounding used speakers at a fraction of the price. If you buy the vintage speakers right, you can also get your money back out of them at a later date instead of taking a big hit for depreciation when you buy new.

deronb1

Timothy Smith wrote: »

Old speakers vs. new speakers?

This will not make the "newer is better" speaker guys happy.

I recently had the opportunity to try a new set of well regarded $1500 bookshelf speakers for few weeks.

Did extensive tests back and forth with an Adcom GFS-3 speaker selector switch. Used many different combinations of good tube and solid state preamps and amps, both vintage and modern. Also used CD's and vinyl.

Here is a summary of what I heard with my ears:

The New $1500 speakers beat my $50 used A/D/S L-570's

They lost to my EPI 150's

They lost to my Snell J-III's

They lost to my Energy 22 Pro's

They lost To my Vandersteen 1's

They were demolished by my ADS L-1230's

They were demolished by my Dahlquist DQ-10's

They were demolished by my Dahlquist DQ-20's

The cost ratio for the old speakers (purchased used) vs. new ranged from 1/30th to 1/3rd the price of teh new/modern highly regarded speakers.

I can't explain it. I really wanted to like the new/modern speakers and was ready to spend some money.

I just can't do it when, in my opinion, with a little effort you can find better sounding used speakers at a fraction of the price. If you buy the vintage speakers right, you can also get your money back out of them at a later date instead of taking a big hit for depreciation when you buy new.

I agree. I had a pair of Rti12s that I bought for a good price. I had to sell them though because they just didn't sound as good as my RTA8Ts for music. Even though the 8s are half the size, they are just better for music IMO.

F1nut

halo71 wrote: »

I know, old thread. Anyone know off hand about this build Ben did? I could not find a thread on the build.

By all accounts, they played loud and that seems to be the only good thing said about them. I understand those speakers, like Ben's reputation, are now in shambles.