11T questions??

rallyshark

Hello everyone! I'm a newbie here, obviously:D I recently aquired a set of
11t towers and I have some questions. I was very lucky finding these as they are in great shape as far a drivers go. I really like their sound, well almost. The tweeters are prettly sharp. I was told polk has some replacement tweeters for these? Where or how could purchase these? Also just for the sake of knowing, does polk sell replacements for all the drivers? I was also told it may be a good idea to replace/upgrade the caps in the crossovers. I'm basically trying to figure out all I can about these speakers so I can make them "new" again. I think they have alot of potential. So anyone with tips, tricks, common problems, etc. about the 11t please help. I hope I put this in the right forum:) Thanks again guys, I'm all ears!

NJPOLKER

Welcome to Club Polk
The search function is going to be one of your best friend here. Polk sell alot of replacements and if you tell them your a Polk Member you'll get a discount. After searching and reading you should come back with more questions. That being said cross over upgrade and new/upgraded tweeters will be the way to go with out question.
Again, Welcome
Drew

inspiredsports

Welcome aboard! There are numerous members who have perfomed upgrades and will share their experiences, and will also do it for you if you wish. Polk CS at the 866 number above can help you with tweeters if they are available (mention you are a Club Polk member), and the "Sticky" posts at the top of each category archive the most helpful information.

skrol

Congrats on the RTA11T's. I've had a pair of 11TL's, which are very similar, for many years now and recently upgraded the tweeters and x-overs, plus some cabinet treatments.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73017&highlight=RTA11TL

If you do a search on RTA11 and you will find some good info.

Welcome
Stan

rallyshark

Well guys, I happy to announce that have officially began my first Polk(or anything home audio for that matter) project with the Monitor 11t towers! I ordered the RD0194 tweeters today! I guess my next step would be to upgrade/replace the caps in the crossover next then? I remember seeing the sticky on the origional xover design I think. Any help or reccommendations on what kind and values on the capacitors? I may not be reading the origional designs correctly. I've never really be told how to. Any help explained in a way a newbie can understand would be great:D Should I add additional bracing or leave that alone? I hope I can make this turn out well Also, I found that the PRs cannot be purchased anymore. Does anyone have any reccommendations on a good replacement(Dayton, Peerless, Seas, etc.) One of the lower PRs had a crack in the rubber surround, but I repaired it from the back with black silicon and it no longer leaks air and sounds better. Will this last? I did this before I found this forum. Please remember I'm a noob, so I hope I didn't do something stupid:D:D Any other suggestions would be great to. Thanks again:)

Face

Since there was more than one crossover design for your speakers, I would pull the crossover to double check the values.

Here are the two possible schematics:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=18706&d=1155781929

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=18707&d=1155781929

For resistors I would use either Mundorf or Mills. For capacitors, depending on your budget, I would either use Dayton all around or Sonic Caps in the HF circuit and Dayton on the lows.

John30_30

rallyshark wrote: »

I ordered the RD0194 tweeters today! I guess my next step would be to upgrade/replace the caps in the crossover next then? I remember seeing the sticky on the origional xover design I think. Any help or reccommendations on what kind and values on the capacitors? I may not be reading the origional designs correctly. I've never really be told how to. Any help explained in a way a newbie can understand would be great:D Should I add additional bracing or leave that alone? I hope I can make this turn out well Also, I found that the PRs cannot be purchased anymore. Does anyone have any reccommendations on a good replacement(Dayton, Peerless, Seas, etc.) One of the lower PRs had a crack in the rubber surround, but I repaired it from the back with black silicon and it no longer leaks air and sounds better. Will this last? I did this before I found this forum.

You probably won't go to hell for using soft silicone on the rubber as long as the rest of the surround is still flexible. The bracing in the cabinet should be sufficient.
The surrounds on both my lower PR's were either brittle or totally breaking apart and I ended up redoing them with foam. There may be some pencil-neck somewhere who'll tell you that's a sin, and they can go straight to hell. Mine sound so freaking good, I shudder to imagine how good SDA's must be.

Since you've already ordered the tweeter replacements, you can't very well do the caps prior to deciding whether to order them. Replacing the caps made a dramatic improvement to my set, and I've never gotten around to ordering the enhanced tweets- the shrillness went away.

If you pull and disconnect the drivers from one, you can then remove the crossover and wires from the back- having labeled the wires as you detach them from the drivers. (Be careful of a screwdriver slip going through a surround.)
The caps values should be readable. A solder gun or iron, a little desoldering ribbon, some solder, sharp knife, a hot glue gun, you're ready.

rallyshark

Awesome! Sounds like I'm on the right track then. I looked at caps and resistors for a minute. Damn! I had no idea they could be sooo exspensive. Looks like I will probably go with the Mills and Dayton parts. I guess I need to pull the crossovers and figure out which parts I need. Any other dos and don'ts I should know about? Wish me luck! Thanks alot guys!

John30_30

rallyshark wrote: »

Awesome! Sounds like I'm on the right track then. I looked at caps and resistors for a minute. Damn! I had no idea they could be sooo exspensive. Looks like I will probably go with the Mills and Dayton parts. I guess I need to pull the crossovers and figure out which parts I need. Any other dos and don'ts I should know about? Wish me luck! Thanks alot guys!

Nothing wrong with Daytons. There's some other acoustic tweaks you can check out that DarqueKnight does for his SDA's- actually, it wouldn't hurt you to read most everything else of what he's posted.

MillerLiteScott

Going from memory I think you need

4 12uF Caps
2 34uF caps
2 2.7 resisters 5 watt (12 watt is fine but larger)
2 2.0 resisters 5 watt (12 watt is fine but larger)

This quantity for the pair of 11T's

I will check and correct this post if it is incorrect.

Scott

John30_30

Do you recommend he should have to do the resistors also? I've been told that as long as they're visibly okay that they don't deteriorate like the caps will.

NJPOLKER

Resistors cost less than $4.00 each so you'll be best served doing them. And it will make a SQ difference.

NJPOLKER

oooops $4.35 each for Mills from Sonic Craft

Face

I find Mundorf's MOX resistors more pleasing to the ear than Mills, and they're cheaper too.

NJPOLKER

The point is, do the resistors while your at it!!

dcmeigs

Rallyshark, Welcome.

You can't go wrong with sonicaps and nobody ever went to hell for going cheap on the larger low pass caps so long as an equal amount of money is spent elsewhere (for example on cables). It all depends on how critical you and your ears happen to be . I've done it both ways.

There is really nothing to upgrading the crossovers if you are handy with a soldering iron and have a spare afternoon to burn. Having said that, I just happen to have a pair of 11Ts setting around and I'd be willing to upgrade the crossovers to your specs and then swap you for your existing ones.

Good luck.

skrol

The original components are not real tight on tolerances. I believe 10% for the resistors and 20% for the caps. When I referb's / upgraded my X-overs, I measured the values of the original components. One resistor was nearly out of spec and one cap was out of spec. The new caps and resistors are much tighter, measuring within 1.5%.

I upgraded my tweeters before touching the x-overs. The tweeters alone make a nice improvement in that they took care of the harshness. The x-over upgrade took it to the next level smoothness and detail and really opened up the sound stage.
Stan

dcmeigs

Well said.

BTW, if you want to "upgrade" to the TL, you will want to use the RD0198s rather than the RD0194s. I recall that it involves an extra cap on the crossover board too. I have used RD0194s in SDAs with pleasing results but I have not listened to the the 194 critically (with the same sourse and amplification) so I can't comment on a comparison between the two.

It is my assumption that Polk created the TL model so as to use an improved tweeter, replacing the SL2000. The reason I put upgrade in quotations is that the current production tweeters, the RD0194s and RD0198s may be so similar in sonic charisterics as to make the TL design moot; I don't know.

Has anyone an opinion?

skrol

You can compare the posted schematics for the original RTA11T, revised and the RTA11TL. http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38755. There were some other changes with the TL vs the T that are highlighted in a Polk Tech Information Issue #5 that describes the changes made to the TL's. I have a hard copy and a scan but it is too large to post. Maybe I'll rescan and post it.
Stan

rallyshark

Wow! You guys are really helpful! I just pulled my xovers and it looks like I have the revised 11t parts. Oh, and thanks "dcmeigs", but since this is my first project I want to do the parts myself. I figure I can definitely use the experience:). I am going to order my parts tonight! Scott is right about the values. I guess I will get them from PE or Madisound. I would kind of like to order everthing from one place so I pay less shipping. I will probably go PE since I've dealt with them before. I will keep you guys posted and let you know how it goes. Thank you so much for your infinite wisdom:D

rallyshark

One more quick question. The are alot of different dayton and other caps at PE. Which particular ones should I use I am trying to find the happy medium between sound and money. I understand that the 12uf are more important than the 34, but not sure which kind(film, etc.)

skrol

I would go with a film type for both. I swapped out the electrolytic capacitors for Metallized polypropylene film capacitors MKP (Clarity Cap PX for the tweeter and Jantzen Cross Cap for the mid-woofers). The caps on the mid-woofers aren't as critical to the overall sound. This will save a few $$.

I also swapped the resistors for non-inductive wire wound (Mundorf MR10).

Face

I would avoid Jantzen and Solen, in that price range I would use Dayton. If you want to spend a little more, check out Sonic Caps for the HF circuit, they're available at Sonic Craft.

dcmeigs

+1 on the sonicaps for the 12uf high pass.

You can see the hierarchy in the originals: electrolytics for the low pass and mylar for the high pass. Any metalized film polyproplyene will be a major improvement over the electrolytic and Sonicaps will be a similar improvement over the mylar.

I removed the crossovers from my 11ts today and the fit will be a challange. Remember, you will need to mount everything on that board and then get it back through the hole, so plan accordingly. Hot glue is your friend.

skrol

Correct, the film caps are much larger and the board can be difficult to fit through the hole in the back of the speaker. For getting the XO re-installed, I had to leave the XO board detached from the terminal cup (wires still attached), then pass the XO board through the hole, attach the cup to the cabinet, then attach the XO board to the cup.

Dang! I heard negative opinions of the Solen caps but I thought the general opinion of the Jantzen caps was that they were good for the mid-woofers. What is the issue?:(

rallyshark

I placed my order today:D:D:D I got the 12uf Sonicaps and mills resistors from Sonic Craft and the other Dayton precision caps from PE. I should have everything before the week is out. I will update as soon as I get it all done. I hope it all works as well as I think it will:) THANK YOU for the help, who know what kind of mess I would have made if I hadn't posted here first:o

dcmeigs

Lest one get the impression that SonicCaps are the only game in town, this article will help to illustrate just how big the universe really is.

CLICK HERE for humblehomemadehifi review

Face

This quote pretty much sums it up for me: "I can advise them if you are looking for a “high-end” cap but are on a “tight” budget.".

I'm not going to recommend Mundorf S/O or Clarity MR's since they're more expensive than his speakers themselves.

rallyshark

I got the xovers done tonight! You guys weren't kidding about hot glue being your friend:eek: I was just barely able to manuever everything to where is should fit. The upgraded caps are huge compared to what was on there:eek: I would post pics, but I don't need another reason for people laugh at me:D I'm sure this seems pitiful and trivial to many on here, but gimme a break, this is my first project:D Hopefully my tweeters will be here tomorrow and I can finish up.

rallyshark

I'M FINALLY DONE!!!:D:D:D I finally finished with my 11Ts! Thank you all soooo much for your help and guidance on this! This is the first good set of speakers I have owned and is also my first project in the home audio realm, and I could not be happier right now! I am very pleased with the outcome to say the least. I upgraded/rebuilt the xovers with sonicap/dayton/mills components. I installed the RD0194 tweeters. I also resealed and cleaneed all the drivers. I managed all of this for about $325 and that includes purchasing the origional speakers a few weeks ago! I'm not sure how these speakers would rate compared to the other Polks, and other speakers for that matter. I can say(even though I'm a newb) that there is no way I could purchase something that sounded this good new for even twice the price. I have a relatively small living/listening room and they really fit the bill. I would like to know what the non newbs think of the 11T just out of curiousity though I can already tell that this is the beginning of a horribly exspensive hobby as I still have alot of work to do on the source/preamp/amp side of things. My Technics from the 90s is going to have to do for now though:o
This part is for the newbies such as myself. Upgrading the crossover really changed the sound for the better is so many ways. Then I replace the SL2000 tweeters and that was just icing on the cake. When I was listening to them tonight I kept checking to make sure my other receiver(sourround sound for movies) wasn't on as well! The RD0194 tweeters seem to have a much better dispersion(I think thats the word I'm looking for)! All in all I guess I'm just trying to encourage anyone new such as myself to give something like this a shot. It can be a very rewarding experience for someone if they happen to come across a decent pair Polks from the late 80s or early 90s for a good price. I hope that helps a fellow newbie. That's just my 2cents folks:) Thanks again!

heiney9

Congrats on a worthwhile project. RTA 11's are very nice speakers and among my favorite classic Polks. The retailed for about $950 when new and you got a great deal including all the upgrade parts. And you're right you probably couldn't get as nice a speaker today for twice the price.

Enjoy them as they are really nice sounding classic Polk. I had a pair for almost 20 years.

H9