RT2000p, speaker driver upgrade to lsi?

dark horror · January 2003

First thing I was thinking, I could remove the top part of the RT2000p speaker( aka get a saw and chop off the top area so I could fit an LSi7 speaker on to it).
But then I started thinking what if I were to remove the front part that holds the drivers. Then checked the demensions inside to see what would be needed to be done to make the same demensions as the LSi7's.
Another idea was trying to switch out the tweeter of the RT to an LSi tweeter, but woudln't that give the crossover problems. Then what if I used two crossovers one for the lsi tweeter?
Any other ideas, how well would something like this work?
I still want the jumpers to work with the RT2000p sub, because I am using dvd-audio and sacd, and in the 2.0 tracks the sub doesn't get anything.

I really want a LSi15, but I don't want to spend that much money right now.

brettw22 · January 2003

What you're thinking sounds like a nitemare waiting to happen. If you want to go LSi's with some bass, then sell off the 2000's and get the LSi 9's and get a sub. That will save you what appears to be a chopping in progress.

If you try to do what you describe, and it doesn't work, you're out what would be 2 pairs of speakers, so I'd kill that idea before you get to cutting speakers apart..............

organ · January 2003

Why would you want to hurt your speakers:eek: ? I agree with brett. Sell the 2000 and get the LSi. If you place a pair of LSi9 on top of your 2000's subs, the finish of the speakers will not match.

Maurice

brettw22 · January 2003

Shiat.......

Screw the finish......You'd be killing everything that works about each of the speakers and then be totally screwed. What you're wanting to do is a tweek on crack. I'll reserve my "I told you so" speach for later.........hopefully I don't need to use it.

dark horror · January 2003

I am really just looking for ideas to get them to sound better.

Is there any way that I can get better sound out of the tweeter? or replace the tweeter with a different one? I have always felt that the tweeter was lacking.

Edit: a better idea than cutting up my speakers would be to put them on stands right next to the rt2000p. Now if I did that could I still use the rt2000p subs using the speakerwire input and not from the sub out. Thus I could use it with my dvd-audio player and sacd player, in 2.0.

Edit: I do know it would be very hard to get a tweeter that matches, but I was wondering what people thought.

bigsexy1 · January 2003

Dark horror, go to parts express.com. If they don't have an exact match for the LSi tweeter, you can get one made by the same company (Vifa) that is the exact same size as the trilam. tweeter you already have, and you can even get one with the exact same frequency response as the trilam. so that the existing crossover should work seamlessly. I'm very, very seriously considering doing this myself. It should be a simple "bolt on" project, and in theory anyway, should at least be close to the LSis, since just about everything else seems to be the same (such as power port technology, acoustic resonance control, dynamic balance drivers etc.).

jmasterj · January 2003

They laughed at Ben Franklin, This was not the first thought that I had when I read your post. My first thought was this guy is nuts. Let me try to reason with you. If you do what you're thinking about it just might work. Then again it might not. Now if you're not satisfied with your speakers, and the tweeters are not blown, then why not sell them while they are intact, get the most money you can from the sale, and then get some RTi 150's or some LSi 25's. You could come up with something really tweaked or just waste some time, money, and ruin a good speaker.I know money don't grow on trees, so ask yourself is it worth the price of the speakers to try to modify them not knowing if it will work. Oh yea have you ever thought that maybe your use of bass is excessive and you're overpowering the tweeters ? Just a thought. Polk spends many hours developing speakers. I'm sure they get the most of the drivers crossovers, and cabnets. Thats what they do. Thats all they do. They make and sell speakers. You might be genious in the making, I don't know. Bottom line is it's your money. The question you asked suggest to me that you're not sure about what you're doing. Now I suggest you leave the speaker making to the people who make speakers for a living. Either turn the bass down, or get a different set of speakers with the sound you're looking for. I want you to enjoy your system. I want it to take you away to another place. I would really not want to read about how you screwed up your speakers. I really feel we are here to help one another if we can, and I hope I've helped you. Good Luck

brettw22 · January 2003

Big sexy's idea is an interesting one. I didnt' realize that Vifa had a tweeter that was rated for an 8 ohm speaker, though I haven't really researched it all that much either.

Originally posted by dark horror
Edit: a better idea than cutting up my speakers would be to put them on stands right next to the rt2000p.

What would you be putting on stands exactly? If you're talking about a set of LSi's, I'd say do that, but you wouldn't have any need to have the 2000p's next to them for the bass. If you're going to use the 2000's strictly as a sub(s) (which to me seems like a waste of a set of speakers), then put them off on the side and use a Y cable to split off of your sub output to run your towers as your subs.

bigsexy1 · January 2003

Brett, you may be right. I'd found one that was 1 inch in diameter, and had a frequency response that started at 2 khz (this would match the trilam in the RT1000i for example), but I didn't even think to check about the ohm rating for it. This might complicate a plan so simple, it was beautifully brilliant. Oh well, should have known that it wouldn't be that easy! That's not to say that it still might not work though, because they just might have one that would fill the bill yet. I'll investigate later when I have more time.

bigsexy1 · January 2003

Brett, I just did a quick, brief check. The have a 1 inch, 2 khz that is 6 ohm. Does anyone know if this will work? Or a 4 ohm for that matter? What I'm asking, is that does it take all of the drivers added togrther, or averaged out (or anything like that) to contribute to the final ohm rating? Or is all the same, ie. a 8 ohm speaker will have a 8 ohm tweeter? Or does any of it matter at all in the first place, and any tweeter would work ohm-wise? Anybody? If this would work, it would be a lot cheaper than buying new LSis.

brettw22 · January 2003

I made a comment to Ken Swauger about my RT16's and that I wasn't entirely pleased with the Tri-lam and asked if I could swap it out for the Vifa Ring and the answer was a firm no (from what i remember it was the ohm issue).

I'm completely guessing, but I think that the ohm rating is based on what each component of the speaker is rated to run at, which would mean that you couldn't put a 6 ohm tweeter in a speaker that's manufacturer rated to run at 8 ohm. I think that would play havoc with the internal wiring of the speaker.......anyone else?

dark horror · January 2003

It's not that the bass is overpowering, it blends in fine with the rest of the drivers. But it just doesn't sound as good as i would like, needs some more clarity. The LSi tweeters just sound quite a bit better.( I have a LSiC )

Edit: has anyone looked at any upgrades that they could do to make the RT2000's sound better? Like internal wires, replacing some crossover parts, with the same part just higher quality? It's not that they sound bad, I just want more. Plus it's fun to tinker around with this stuff.

Edit: what is the ohm rating for the RT2000 tweeter? And would the sound match the rest of the speaker?

brettw22 · January 2003

You didn't say what you wanna stick on stands next to your 2000's........

F1nut · January 2003

dark,

You can upgrade the xover and that should improve the detail/clarity somewhat. Get the schematics from Polk and then talk the the guys at Percy Audio, http://www.percyaudio.com/, they will point you in the right direction.

joe logston · January 2003

dark horror put the rt-2000p as surounds. get 2 lsi-9, get 2 psw-808, get 2 pedestals to go on top of 808s then put the 9 on top of pedestals that makes the mains. and what great mains they will be.

brettw22 · January 2003

Originally posted by joe logston
dark horror put the rt-2000p as surounds. get 2 lsi-9, get 2 psw-808, get 2 pedestals to go on top of 808s then put the 9 on top of pedestals that makes the mains. and what great mains they will be.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph Logston........

The guy was talking about putting 7's in up front, and you suggest that he go out and spend over $3000 for his front speaks. (mental note.....no consulting Joe for ANY money issues);)

burdette · January 2003

Originally posted by brettw22
I'm completely guessing, but I think that the ohm rating is based on what each component of the speaker is rated to run at, which would mean that you couldn't put a 6 ohm tweeter in a speaker that's manufacturer rated to run at 8 ohm. I think that would play havoc with the internal wiring of the speaker.......anyone else?

I'm not sure what you mean by "play havoc with the internal wiring".. but it would certainly mess up the electrical design. Crossovers are designed with the impedance of the individual drivers taken into consideration... as well as the inductance of the voice coil, etc. You don't just swap them out and expect a flawless integration. A simple example would be setting the SPL output of the individual drivers to 'match'... you can use a resistor to tone down a driver that is more efficient than the others in the box, but that has limitations. You swap out that driver for a different one with different characteristics, and the network is no longer appropriate for the interaction of the drivers. You might be able to hit on a combination that sounds all right... maybe.

joe logston · January 2003

i was just kiding him, if i had the money i would do it my self, but not a rich man i am, oh well just dreaming. i just had to keep he dreams going to.

RuSsMaN · January 2003

Someone email Hunter.

I know he HATES my ****, but he actually did this ****. Dropped a Vifa ring-radiator in 2000p's if I'm not mistaken. He loved the results from what he said.

You can search on posts by 'Hunter', I didn't see the one regarding this topic on a quick glance, BUT the entertainment value on some of the other posts is astonishing.

Cheers,
Rooster

goingganzo · January 2003

how much are the vifa tweets we are talking about? and if some one did upgrade their speakers would they have to do all of them and how do it work with the baffel on the front of the speaker.?

brettw22 · January 2003

Originally posted by RuSsMaN
Someone email Hunter.

I know he HATES my ****, but he actually did this ****. Dropped a Vifa ring-radiator in 2000p's if I'm not mistaken. He loved the results from what he said.

I thought that he had done this with a cs1000p center..........

tony27 · January 2003

..how about spending the money and buying the LSi15.

dark horror · January 2003

I just looked at that thread were Hunter put the Vifa tweeter into the RT3000p. If I could do that to my RT2000p that is really what I would want to do. I wish he had some more info about it after it was done, and if it was a direct swap.

RT2000p, speaker driver upgrade to lsi?

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