Monitor 10b Tweeter and X/O Upgrade
Comments
-
Hello folks I have 10b's that are dated 1983 on the back of the tweeter. The 1 amp fast blow fuse blew twice. the tweeter sounded distorted the Midrange speakers sound fine and the surround is still good. I replace on more time with the same fuse and the tweeter popped. I removed it and it
is open circuit. removed the coil to inspect. I do not see a burned wire but there is continuity from the connectors to the diaphram, but accross the diaphram it is open. So I guess I need to throw the towel in. IF I buy the replacement tweeter can I get away without replacing the caps on the crossover? I have a funny feeling the tweeter acutally had shorted and was drawing too much current. I am not sure. but I donot want to buy a new tweeter and then blow it up too because of the crossover caps or something.
Any advice will be most appreciated.
Thanks
Steve -
Have been reading here at Polk for some time but never posted. Thought I would give my opinions on the 10b upgrades. The first upgrades I did to my 10bs were the xovers. The caps were a little out of spec, but the speakers sounded good for their age as they were. I spend just under a c note for some good quality 1% caps, and non-inductive resistors. It was a job getting the bigger caps to fit on that little xover cup, but I got it together, and sat down for a good listen. I found that the sound had changed a little, and I believed it was for the best, but the difference wasn't earthshaking since the speakers sounded good to start with. Still worth the money, and now my xovers with last the rest of my life, and then some. That is the real advantage to good quality film caps over electrolytics. They will still function in spec. when electrolytics are ready to be replaced. I know alot of people believe in high dollar caps, and think different caps sound different, but I've heard many different types, with different prices, and my conclusion is that a cap is a cap as long as it's good quality, and in spec. My 25 plus years of experiance in electronics, my education, and my experiance tell me that the lowest price cap made with high quality materials and good workmanship is the best cap you can buy. I know that many would disagree, and this is just my opinion based on my experiance for those considering upgrading their xovers. My next upgrade was to remove the tissue thin speaker gaskets and install mortite like putty to seal the drivers. I then did replaced the SL2000 tweeters with the RDO-194s that Polk offers as a replacement. This was a big improvement in my opinion. While the SL2000 tweeters sounded good, they just weren't as clean and clear as the RDO-194s. Now I'd say the old 10s are about as good as can be, and they even blend will with my DQM-9s when listening to all my Quad music which is pretty impressive and shows me that the 10s are a really top notch speaker when their potential is unleashed with the RDO-194s.
So my opinions are as follows on the 10b upgrades.
Xover upgrade is good for bringing the Xover to spec, and making it bulletproof. It will now stay in spec for many decades. Sound improvement will be proportional to how far out of spec the original components were. Probably not huge but any improvement is good. Just having a rock solid reliable xover makes this worth doing.
Sealing the drivers didn't really change the sound of my 10bs, but gives me peace of mind, and didn't cost much. My cabinets were sealed good to start with, but if your's are leaky around the drivers this would probably make more of and improvement.
Upgrading the SL2000 tweeters with the RDO-194s from Polk brought these 10bs to a whole new level, and I'm very impressed with the sound quality of these speakers. I have listened to speakers costing many thousands of dollars that didn't impress me more than these upgraded Monitor 10s, so I would highly recommend the updated tweeters for anyone who wants the get the best out of their 10bs...
Chris
