No more SDA drivers available for SRTs

2

Comments

  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited December 2008
    Peerless used to make a similar looking driver. I can't find it now though, and without knowing the cutout hole it is like shooting at the moon. I would keep searching ebay for drivers with email notifications. Also till I can model the electro specs we are just shooting in the dark. A 4ohm driver is not just a 4ohm driver, and the same is true for the 8's.

    This is similar, but again without testing it would not be something you would want to just drop in.
    http://www.madisound.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=143&products_id=1757
    Keep us posted.
    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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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited December 2008
    Thanks for taking the time, the cut out is 5 inch's and only just inside the lip of the driver itself, a tight fit so to speak with little tolerance.

    I will let you know how I get on from this end and think the best way is to either tweak some Stereo array drivers or re do the ones I have here somehow or just keep using the ones I have until some come up somewhere.

    Cheers
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited December 2008
    From Ken.

    Hello Brody,
    It would not be a good idea to use the MW5804 driver as a substitute for the MW5805, the DC resistance is considerably different and reduce the level of the SDA information by half. We could consider the MW5556 as a replacement.

    Regards, Ken


    ________________________________________
    From: Swauger, Ken
    Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 10:11 AM
    To: Polk, Matthew; Lumsden, Stu
    Subject: FW: SRT's
    Importance: High
    Sirs,
    We are out of the MW5805, the SRT SDA driver, but we have the MW5804 the “stereo” driver. Are these fairly interchangeable?
    Thanks, Ken
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  • ViperZ
    ViperZ Posts: 2,046
    edited December 2008
    Looks like The Man himself was copied and answered your question. Cool.
    brody05 wrote: »
    From Ken.

    Hello Brody,
    It would not be a good idea to use the MW5804 driver as a substitute for the MW5805, the DC resistance is considerably different and reduce the level of the SDA information by half. We could consider the MW5556 as a replacement.

    Regards, Ken


    ________________________________________
    From: Swauger, Ken
    Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 10:11 AM
    To: Polk, Matthew; Lumsden, Stu
    Subject: FW: SRT's
    Importance: High
    Sirs,
    We are out of the MW5805, the SRT SDA driver, but we have the MW5804 the “stereo” driver. Are these fairly interchangeable?
    Thanks, Ken
    Panasonic PT-AE4000U projector for movies
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited December 2008
    ViperZ wrote: »
    Looks like The Man himself was copied and answered your question. Cool.

    Yeah, pretty awesome alright.........
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  • nadams
    nadams Posts: 5,877
    edited December 2008
    LOL, I would've liked to see their responses to Ken's email...

    "Are you thick, Ken? Look at the impedance!" :p
    Ludicrous gibs!
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited December 2008
    nadams wrote: »
    LOL, I would've liked to see their responses to Ken's email...

    "Are you thick, Ken? Look at the impedance!" :p

    I actually asked that question, both the SDA array and Stereo array are rated 8 ohm, didn't realise drivers were different considering there is four in each array
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    Found out the suggested replacement 5556 driver is from a tsi100

    http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/tsi/index.php#tsi100

    Not sure how well this one will look against all the original SRT drivers..........:confused:

    Going to look at getting some I have repaired and send back to Polk Audio.

    Hope the other SRT owners out there dont damage any SDA drivers, they s#*t out of luck if wanting Polk to sort a replacement out for them if the above is the suggested replacement.
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  • John30_30
    John30_30 Posts: 1,024
    edited January 2009
    Heyo! Just on a kick I plugged that driver into ebay search and this guy says he has 2 http://tinyurl.com/7oce6h

    Does that pic look right?

    POLK-AUDIO-RT3-5-1-4-CAST-BASKET-WOOFER-MW5805_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2em20Q2el1116QQitemZ290288108517QQptZSpeakersQ5fSubwoofersQQsalenotsupported#ebayphotohosting


    p.s. The guy looks like he has a lot of nice high-end replacement parts. Might be a good store to bookmark.
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    John30_30 wrote: »
    Heyo! Just on a kick I plugged that driver into ebay search and this guy says he has 2 http://tinyurl.com/7oce6h

    Does that pic look right?

    POLK-AUDIO-RT3-5-1-4-CAST-BASKET-WOOFER-MW5805_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2em20Q2el1116QQitemZ290288108517QQptZSpeakersQ5fSubwoofersQQsalenotsupported#ebayphotohosting


    p.s. The guy looks like he has a lot of nice high-end replacement parts. Might be a good store to bookmark.

    Thank you very much, I will see if I can get someone to buy them for me.

    Cheers
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  • John30_30
    John30_30 Posts: 1,024
    edited January 2009
    brody05 wrote: »
    Thank you very much, I will see if I can get someone to buy them for me.

    Cheers

    I'd bet if you emailed the guy with the problems you've faced getting drivers, he'd ship them direct.
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    Lasareath wrote: »
    You'll just have to do what I did, I bought whole pairs of speakers and ripped them down and kept all the parts and threw away the cabinets. Some people may be outraged that I did it but it doesn't phase me!

    Yeah, I have been keeping an eye out but NZ is a limited market and I haven't seen anything come up yet, but that is something I will be doing when the opportunity presents itself as horrific as some may find it.
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    John30_30 wrote: »
    I'd bet if you emailed the guy with the problems you've faced getting drivers, he'd ship them direct.

    I will give it a go but dont even have an ebay membership let alone trade history. Will try anything at this stage though.
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  • John30_30
    John30_30 Posts: 1,024
    edited January 2009
    brody05 wrote: »
    I will give it a go but dont even have an ebay membership let alone trade history. Will try anything at this stage though.

    Oh, well hell. Do you have a Paypal account? Set one up along while you're setting up your ebay account, and that way you aren't putting this guy out. Make some reasonably strong passwords on them, please.
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  • beemer
    beemer Posts: 155
    edited January 2009
    brody05 wrote: »
    I believe they were used in RT series such as RTi 3 ect. Considering each speaker has 8 mid woofers that totals 16000 drivers plus spares. This seems like a lot but then again, we are only used to the limited size of New Zealand and anything in the US would be a far greater scale than we are used to seeing.

    I am struggling to get my head around it, the SRT's must be the most expensive speakers Polk made and by not supplying parts anymore they are making a rather sad statement to all those that outlayed so much money to own them. Not to mention the value of them have just fallen through the floor, who wants to buy speakers that cant be repaired as required?

    I have emailed Ken, heres hoping he has something positive to add. If not I will just have try coming up with something else - or crawl into the corner and blubber like a baby.........:(

    Sorry to hear that. I have always admired the SRT's, however have never seen or heard them, as much as I would like to.

    You are not alone though with trouble sourcing drivers. Infinity made a high-end line of 3 speakers, the IRS-Delta, IRS-Gamma, and IRS-Beta. These used a large mid frequency planar driver called an L-EMIM. None of these to be had for owners of this series, and no help from Infinity. It really hasn't hurt the resale as these drivers are fairly robust, however it is a factor. I personally own a pair of IRS-Betas, that use 4 L-EMIMS.

    I hope that you are successful in your search, you may find a pro audio speaker repair house in NZ that can possibly rewind the voice coils as a last resort.

    Best,

    Paul :D
    Main system: Levinson Reference 32 Preamp/30.6 DAC/31.5 Transport/Sony SCD777ES/VPI Aries w/SDS JMW 10.5 arm/Van den Hul Frog/Levinson 33 Monoblocks/33H Monoblocks/Transparent reference XL interconnect & Speaker cable/Nearfield Acoustics Pipedream Reference 18 Line Array.
    Bedroom: Levinson 390S/380S/ML3/Sony SCD 777ES/McIntosh MC2000/Infinity IRS-Beta
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    Been looking at other options that Polk themselves didn't come up with, let me know what you guys think of the below.

    The 5808 is an SDA driver that is also 4 ohm and was in the SRT rears (and not the LsiFx ones, the ones that also had a control unit and seperate SDA and stereo array's)

    the 5802 which is a 4 ohm driver but has magnetic sheilding so not sure what they are out of.

    Both these drivers are the same 5 and quarter inch in the same housing so will fit and look right, being 4 ohms they are the same impedence as the SDA drivers needing to be replaced, does this mean they will work or is there something I am not taking into account.

    The RT3s have 5805 drivers in them and I am looking at trying to get some to gut for the drivers and the two 5805s on their own on ebay also at the moment.
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  • John30_30
    John30_30 Posts: 1,024
    edited January 2009
    I noticed that outfit on Alibaba still advertises a pair also.
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    John30_30 wrote: »
    I noticed that outfit on Alibaba still advertises a pair also.

    I am not familiar with the site but did a search there and couldn't get anything, if it's not too much trouble could you post a link please.

    Thanks
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  • John30_30
    John30_30 Posts: 1,024
    edited January 2009
    I went to that link I posted for you a month ago, although this time I see the guy would like to sell the whole lot of drivers, Polk and Jamo for $2k.

    http://www.alibaba.com/product/magnusco-10832746-10638591/productdetail.html

    Don't know if this is the same site or not:
    http://www.home-appliances.cn/trade/jamo-polk-audio-drivers-17588/
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    John30_30 wrote: »
    I went to that link I posted for you a month ago, although this time I see the guy would like to sell the whole lot of drivers, Polk and Jamo for $2k.

    http://www.alibaba.com/product/magnusco-10832746-10638591/productdetail.html

    Don't know if this is the same site or not:
    http://www.home-appliances.cn/trade/jamo-polk-audio-drivers-17588/

    ahh yes, I remember now, I did email him but got no response:(
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  • John30_30
    John30_30 Posts: 1,024
    edited January 2009
    brody05 wrote: »
    ahh yes, I remember now, I did email him but got no response:(

    well, seeing that you're also looking for RT3's to gut, the way to scan all of craigslist is type this into your google bar-

    polk RT3 site:craigslist.org

    There's a few popping up. Of course, it really kneecaps you not being in the States.
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  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited January 2009
    I refinance my car with a random homeless dude before I'd buy something from alibaba.com
    CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
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  • John30_30
    John30_30 Posts: 1,024
    edited January 2009
    dorokusai wrote: »
    I refinance my car with a random homeless dude before I'd buy something from alibaba.com

    Do tell, please.
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    John30_30 wrote: »
    well, seeing that you're also looking for RT3's to gut, the way to scan all of craigslist is type this into your google bar-

    polk RT3 site:craigslist.org

    There's a few popping up. Of course, it really kneecaps you not being in the States.

    The beauty is that there are club polk members happy to help out so I have some options, such a thing of beauty that.....
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    dorokusai wrote: »
    I refinance my car with a random homeless dude before I'd buy something from alibaba.com

    thanks for the tip.
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    I have heard back from Polk re the possible replacements for the 5805s.

    The initial suggestion is no good, the basket of the driver wouldn't even fit the SRTs. Polk are telling me the are working on a solution but rome wasn't built in a day and it is taking some time at the moment.

    I got my hands on a 5808 which is the driver from the rear SRT speakers (not the LSiFX - the SDA ones), funnily enough, it is the stereo array one and measures at 4 ohms, the SDA array ones from the rear (5807) measure at 2 ohms, makes sense in a way as the front SRTs stereo array is 8 ohm and the SDA is 4 ohms, so half basically.

    Anyway, the 5808 is the same driver as best as I can tell apart from an extra magnet on the back, I took one off one of the drivers I have here that are no good and put it on, I am no expert but if the only difference as far as I am aware is the extra magnet, I have solved the problem to some degree. Does the extra magnet change the ability of the voice coil to move in and out???

    I have been holding off on going crazy by buying RT3s (although Sal had a bid on a couple but at a fairly lowish price - thanks again for that) untill I knew how things panned out here with the above and the four I have sent back to Polk NZ for possible repair. if they fix 2 of them I end up only needing another 2 drivers which will no doubt come from the US which there are some on ebay at the moment that I think wont be selling anytime soon due to the price of $35USD each when the RT3s are going for $50ish with more parts than just 2 drivers.

    So, some info for the SRT owners out there that may be helpful one day. Will keep you posted on the final outcome.
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  • Systems
    Systems Posts: 14,873
    edited January 2009
    Extra (bucking)magnets are usually added to reduce the stray magnet field that could effect nearby CRT screens.Though I can't see why they would try to semi shield a rear speaker.

    All other things being equal the addition of the bucking magnet will increase the sensititivity and change (lower) the Q of the driver its added to.
    Testing
    Testing
    Testing
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  • BrettT1
    BrettT1 Posts: 560
    edited January 2009
    GV#27 wrote: »
    Extra (bucking)magnets are usually added to reduce the stray magnet field that could effect nearby CRT screens.Though I can't see why they would try to semi shield a rear speaker.

    All other things being equal the addition of the bucking magnet will increase the sensititivity and change (lower) the Q of the driver its added to.

    I don't understand what you mean by lower the Q? Are bucking magnets a bad thing? The 1.2s I have had bucking magnets installed on them when I got them. Should I remove them since there isn't a CRT in sight? :confused:

    Brett
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  • Systems
    Systems Posts: 14,873
    edited January 2009
    BrettT1 wrote: »
    I don't understand what you mean by lower the Q?
    The Q (damping) is one of the parameters used to define the specs of a driver.see link.http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/thiele.asp The added magnet will increase the magnetic strength thus lower the Q.:)
    Are bucking magnets a bad thing?
    I wasn't implying that, they are very useful for the purpose of reducing stray magnetic fields.
    The 1.2s I have had bucking magnets installed on them when I got them. Should I remove them since there isn't a CRT in sight? :confused:
    No.
    Testing
    Testing
    Testing
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  • brody05
    brody05 Posts: 329
    edited January 2009
    The latest from Ken is they will be making some more and are in the process of sorting now, he explained the process which typically is not straight forward so will take some time, at least they are going to make some though.

    I for one will be buying some spares when available, have spent way too much time on trying to sort replacements out.

    Thanks for all the offers of help, I may end up getting 2 2nd hand ones from the US in the interim and will keep my eye out for some reasonably priced due to costs in getting them to NZ.

    Cheers

    Brody
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