RTA 15 TL - back in the family

BSUfbfan
BSUfbfan Posts: 201
edited April 2008 in Vintage Speakers
Well guys, I saved a nice pair of 15TL's from the jowls of an estate sale today and kept them from going to a non-polkie on ebay. They are in pretty good shape (just need some cleaning), and the only issue was that the stock tweeters are blown, but I already have the RDO-198's and some ClarityCap's on order for the update.

Here are some pictures, and I will post some feedback once I get the crossover modification and tweeter upgrade completed.

Mike

RTA15TLfront.jpg

RTA15TLside.jpg
SDA SRS 2.3
Post edited by BSUfbfan on
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Comments

  • cfrizz
    cfrizz Posts: 13,415
    edited March 2008
    Wow very nice. They look to be in great shape!
    Marantz AV-7705 PrePro, Classé 5 channel 200wpc Amp, Oppo 103 BluRay, Rotel RCD-1072 CDP, Sony XBR-49X800E TV, Polk S60 Main Speakers, Polk ES30 Center Channel, Polk S15 Surround Speakers SVS SB12-NSD x2
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  • NJPOLKER
    NJPOLKER Posts: 3,474
    edited March 2008
    NICE Real Nice!!
    Just wondering why Clarity Caps? I have used Solens and Sonic Craft in the past and am thinking about trying other Caps for my next project. My next project is upgrading crossovers for RTA 11t's.
    Drew
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  • Face
    Face Posts: 14,340
    edited March 2008
    Very nice!
    "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." Friedrich Nietzsche
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,734
    edited March 2008
    Is that your garden?
    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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  • John in MA
    John in MA Posts: 1,010
    edited March 2008
    Nice. I have their little brothers, the 11T. Great speakers.
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited March 2008
    You are going to be very pleased. I have them, and love them. I am going to do a test mod, and convert mine into a
    W
    M
    T
    M
    W
    PR
    I'll post the results when done.
    Enjoy
    Ben
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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  • hearingimpared
    hearingimpared Posts: 21,136
    edited March 2008
    Wow I like them. I never saw a pair of RTA 15TLs before. How do they sound?
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  • BSUfbfan
    BSUfbfan Posts: 201
    edited March 2008
    hearingimpared - I actually don't know how they sound yet... the factory SL3000 are dead, and my RDO-198's should be here tomorrow or Saturday. I kind of took a leap of faith because I've always wanted these speakers, and I already have some SDA's (CRS+). The consensus seems to be that the RTA 11 & 15 have a similar sound quality to the SDA's without the expansive soundstage and imaging. I will be able to do an A/B test probably by Tuesday of this coming week.

    NJPOLKER - I ordered the ClarityCaps for the crossover mod because a buddy used them on his ADS-L880 upgrade and we cannot hear a sound quality difference next to my 880's with the Sonicaps. And the price of the Clarity's is closer to a Solen.

    Ben - Let us know how that mod comes out... always fun to tweek and try to obtain better results.

    F1nut - No that is not my garden, it's the backyard of the original owner... one heck of a nice pad.

    There was a crossover modification posted about a year ago for these speakers by fellow Polkster "decato". I am basing my crossover upgrade on his documented measurements, only I will wait to hear the RDO tweeters before I make a decision on changing the resistor value on the HF crossover. That thread can be found here....http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48075&highlight=RTA+15%27s
    SDA SRS 2.3
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited March 2008
    You have SL3000's in those;)
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,734
    edited March 2008
    Ok, thanks and yep, nice garden.

    Brian (Decato) knows his stuff, you'd do well to follow his mod. I think you'll also find that his description of the bass is spot on. I felt the same way about a pair that I had.
    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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  • BSUfbfan
    BSUfbfan Posts: 201
    edited March 2008
    Ben - You are correct... I ordered RDO-198's which are the replacements for the SL-3000.

    F1nut - Do you know if Polk still stocks the SW105? Brian said to try them up front, but I can't seem to track any down on the Bay, Audiogon, etc. I could pull them out of my good ol' Monitor 7's I guess....
    SDA SRS 2.3
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited March 2008
    A big thanks for the link to that thread. I played with the XO's a bit. It was better, but not quite right. Now armed with a program to integrate with my Rat Shack SPL meter. I also have an inductance meter to mod the stock inductors. Expect to see some post in few months with real in room frequency responses. The RDO mod alone did not completely address the issues of the tweeter being crossed over at such a low frequency. I was able to raise it, but now I see were the mids were not raised to play nicely with the higher tweeter XO point.
    Again thanks.
    Ben
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,734
    edited March 2008
    Polk doesn't stock any of the PR's. Damn shame, but I guess they can't stock everything.
    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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  • BSUfbfan
    BSUfbfan Posts: 201
    edited March 2008
    A big thanks for the link to that thread. I played with the XO's a bit. It was better, but not quite right. Now armed with a program to integrate with my Rat Shack SPL meter. I also have an inductance meter to mod the stock inductors. Expect to see some post in few months with real in room frequency responses. The RDO mod alone did not completely address the issues of the tweeter being crossed over at such a low frequency. I was able to raise it, but now I see were the mids were not raised to play nicely with the higher tweeter XO point.
    Again thanks.
    Ben
    Glad to help... I have high hopes that we can get these things to sound REALLY nice, and hey, there aren't a helluva lot of them out there...
    Polk doesn't stock any of the PR's. Damn shame, but I guess they can't stock everything.
    I'll try the crossover mod first and see how they sound, if the bass still needs some attention I'll pull the PR's out of the Monitor 7's and give it a try.
    Thanks F1

    Mike
    SDA SRS 2.3
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  • aud10n3wb13
    aud10n3wb13 Posts: 84
    edited March 2008
    Those are nice 15TLs. I have 11T and 11TL and I'm very happy with the performance. Hopefully someone can come to my house and listen to my setup. :p

    I'm very sure your 15TLs will sound awesome and you will love it!!! Please keep us posted when the 198s arrives and installed. :)

    Congratulations!!! ;)
    My Poor Theater
    Equipments
    HDDVD Pics
    Older Shots
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited March 2008
    aud10n3wb13 wrote: »
    Those are nice 15TLs. I have 11T and 11TL and I'm very happy with the performance. Hopefully someone can come to my house and listen to my setup. :p

    I'm very sure your 15TLs will sound awesome and you will love it!!! Please keep us posted when the 198s arrives and installed. :)

    Congratulations!!! ;)

    We can't tell where ya live:)
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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  • aud10n3wb13
    aud10n3wb13 Posts: 84
    edited March 2008
    ben62670 wrote: »
    We can't tell where ya live:)

    I am in Huntley, IL 60142.
    My Poor Theater
    Equipments
    HDDVD Pics
    Older Shots
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  • tx_polkhead
    tx_polkhead Posts: 248
    edited March 2008
    wow that's a whole lotta speaker, looks like they weigh a ton!
    Polk Audio RTA 12c's, Monitor 7c, Monitor 5JR+, SDA CRS+
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  • dcmeigs
    dcmeigs Posts: 708
    edited March 2008
    Beautiful! Don't you love estate sales. Part of the fun of vintage equipment in general, and Polks in particular, is the simple fact that they are not well appreciated outside of a very small circle of people. A seemingly endless supply of good toys for the sand box. Enjoy.
    The world is full of answers, some are right and some are wrong. - Neil Young
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  • decato
    decato Posts: 188
    edited March 2008
    Hi everyone,
    Wow, I am surprised there is so much interest in the RTA 15TL. Since my original post, I have made a few more modifications, nothing too drastic. They have been in place for at least 8 months now, and I doubt I'll make any further changes. I'll get new diagrams up on the forum at some point this weekend. I would still not recommend using the original crossover point, esp. with the RD0198-1 tweeter, too low and too harsh. Please contact me if you have any questions.

    -Brian
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  • nodeuces
    nodeuces Posts: 96
    edited April 2008
    I found a pair of these on craigslist and they are in amazing shape. I was considering adding them as fronts to my setup chronicled below. I was curious if they 1. Sound better than RTi12s and LSi15s 2. Work well as HT fronts.
    TV: Hitachi P42H401
    DVD Player: Sony Playsation 3
    XM Tuner: polkaudio XRt12 Reference Tuner *SOLD*
    Console: Nintendo Wii
    Cable: Tivo Series II DVR *SOLD*
    Receiver: Onkyo 705
    Amps: (3) Outlaw M200
    Center: polkaudio CSi5 *SOLD*
    Fronts: polkaudio RTi12s *SOLD*
    Sides: polkaudio RT8s *SOLD*
    Rears: polkaudio RT8s *SOLD*
    Sub: Invisible :(
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  • BSUfbfan
    BSUfbfan Posts: 201
    edited April 2008
    nodeuces wrote: »
    I found a pair of these on craigslist and they are in amazing shape. I was considering adding them as fronts to my setup chronicled below. I was curious if they 1. Sound better than RTi12s and LSi15s 2. Work well as HT fronts.

    Craigslist huh... nice find! It's amazing that people take care of these so well, mine are perfect on all 4 sides, so I just had to clean them up. 20 years of cigarette smoke had covered the speakers... it took me over an hour, but now they honestly look brand new.

    Make sure you complete the crossover modification before putting them into full service to avoid any issues with the tweeters. I have my capacitor/coil upgrades done, i'm just waiting on the darn mills resistors. I'll let them play all weekend and have some feedback for everyone next week.... and a picture or two.

    Wish I could help you on the RTi/LSi question, but i've never heard them...
    SDA SRS 2.3
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