Just received my RDO194 replacements and..

lukewayne

they don't fit er.. well i was under the impression it would be a drop in replacement with no adjustments.

anyway, I consider myself pretty lucky here, i found a pair of Monitor 5b's on the craigslist free section, with the only problem being one blown tweeter.

i decided to skip trying to find an ebay deal on an original and go ahead an order the RDO194's after reading everyone's enjoyment of those on this forum.

I believe my original tweeters are SL-1000 they have a brushed aluminum plate with an inverted V shape to the leads on the front, and the back is marked with a couple rubber stamps 5514 04 84 / APR 05 1984 and M5

The magnet of the RD0194s fits into the hole in the speaker box, but the mounting plate doesn't line up correctly, it is bigger than the inset in the box, and the mounting holes are spaced too far apart vertically.

I need advice as I am very new to speaker modification, and my woodworking skills are .... amateur to say the least, I am pretty good with electrical stuff though.

Can i use the original mounting plates from my SL-1000s on these replacement tweeters? not only would that solve my hole placement issues, i like the brushed aluminum look about 100% more than the plastic on the RDOs. I just dont want to go tearing these brand new tweeters apart if A) that wont work, or B)it will ruin them ;-)

Thanks for any advice, i'm super excited to hear these new to me speakers in action.

-Luke

skrol

DON'T DO IT! You may destroy them. Talk to Polk Customer Service first. They will guide you through.

lukewayne

calling..... survey says, .... this is going to require woodworking tools i dont have. ... damn.

F1nut

You can't swap faceplates.

To install the new tweeters you have to slightly enlarge the opening on the cabinet.

lukewayne

thanks for the replies guys, yeah the polk customer support suggested routing the indention larger to facilitate the larger faceplate as well as filling the old holes and drilling new ones.

again another little bit of luck for me, the same shop i'll be changing my shocks in this saturday has the correct tools, (and more importantly a friend with the correct knowledge) to do this in a way that will look perfect, instead of me hacking away at it with my multi-tool or a box knife.

I saw in another post somone who advised to keep your original foam ... is it a grommet? because the replacement doesn't come with one, which it didn't. I'm wondering if since i have to make the hole bigger should i really be replacing this grommet with a slightly larger one? or will this not have any effect? if i should be replacing it, is there a common material i could make one out of? or what does everyone else do?

btw thanks again, calling polk was the right thing to do.

-Luke

skrol

How much bigger are the tweeters? This is an off the cuff thought but can you shave down the plastic tweeter faceplate?

danger boy

who said the RDO-194 was a drop in replacement for the SL1000? it's a drop in for the SL2000, but I don't think the SL1000. I am confused who told you that?

someone should have steered you in the right direction.

AND

What speakers are they?

lukewayne

They are monitor 5b, did i fail to say that .. wow sorry..

you know i think i may have read that they were drop in replacements when i was assuming they were SL-2000 then i figured out they were SL-1000 after learning more as i am new to Polk and stupidly assumed that 1000 and 2000 would be the same size.

As far as shaving down the plastic, i suppose that might be an option, but the mounting screw holes still don't line up, so i think i'm just going to to it the way Polk suggested, my buddy sounded pretty confident that it would be an easy fix (he's one of those guys with every tool, and who knows how to do everything)

it seems like i read a post somewhere that mentioned there have been crossover changes over the years in the 5b's so i am assuming that there is a slight change necessary to mine as they are one of the older varieties, but i think i'm going to wait to get into that for a while as my x-over knowledge is right around my woodworking knowledge ;-) and i'll have a fair amount to learn before i go ruining things

F1nut

The new tweeter is only slightly larger, so you'll still be able to use the original gasket.

lukewayne

Thanks for the answer on the gasket. I'll get to make the cuts either Friday or Saturday.