why all the changes?

chunny

I don't know why? Can anyone explain to me why all these Forum audiophiles are making changes to all types of Polk speakers. From what I can gather, it seems that everyone thinks that all original factory Polk crossovers were invented by deaf people. I own several versions of Polks and have never felt the sound was lacking but every where I look on the forum sites someone is mentioning that so and so speaker needs this cap or that resistor replaced to give the ultimate sonic performance. Whud up with that?!!

zarrdoss

I have some sda 2.3 tl with upgraded tweets but no x-over, I just replaced the tweets because three were blown, and to my ears they sound fine with the origional x-overs, Over the years the origional caps and resistors get old and dont sound as good and were sub par to the ones everyone is going with now but were audio junkies and anything to break the previous high I guess well do.

chunny

But in the end, Won't the frequency response be altered giving the speaker a non factory sound which kind of defeats the reason to buy them in the first place.

treitz3

Chunny, there is nothing wrong with any Polk speaker. This forum is just filled with crazy audiophools that like every possible tweak done to their rig in order to achieve the best sound, up to and including the Polk speakers.

If you enjoy what you have, just pay them no mind. Your wallet will thank you.

Oh, my manners. Welcome to the forum.

zarrdoss

same here welcome

Face

chunny wrote: »

But in the end, Won't the frequency response be altered giving the speaker a non factory sound which kind of defeats the reason to buy them in the first place.

No, the FQ will be the same. Just detail, soundstage, tonality, amongst other things will improve.

The original caps in the SDA, Monitor, and RTA lines were fine for the time that they were produced, but passive component technology has improved by leaps and bounds since.

chunny

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. The same to you. It's not that I'm against altering the speakers, it's just that Polk's got millions of dollars in research equipment and I've got my garage. How am i supposed to make a decision to upgrade based on Forum members saying the speaker sounds better. Better How? Is it subjective? Maybe all the audiofools have blown out their eardrums and they need to alter the crossovers to emphasize frequencies they have a hard time hearing. Do you follow me.

thsmith

Welcome Chunny !

Just like any hobby/enthusiest people want to improve or personalize.

Cars, TVs, motorcycles, speakers, AMPS, room acoustics. It never stops.

If you are happy then be happy you are happy. It can become obssesive real quick and expensive.

I drove 2200 miles in 48 hours to pick up some 1987 SDA 1Cs. As sson as I got home I installed the pre-ordered upgrade/modern tweets and mortited the cabinets. Did I have too, no but I put part of me into them and enjoyed every minute doing it.

ben62670

A little example. The Mustang. Great bang for the buck sports car. It is made for a mass market. Same with nearly any speaker in the price range of Polk's. A few simple mods can really make them shine. Most HT/audio owners are not into it like a lot of us here. Lots of people are just running some run of the mill receivers, using crap speaker wires/IC's, and even using Mp3's they downloaded off the internet as music:eek:You can get a lot for a little if you can solder. Also most of the mods you see here are on speakers around 20 years old. Caps dry up degrading in performance.

chunny

Is there anybody out there selling these crossover mods on already altered circuit boards so I can just remove the wire connections from the drivers, yank out the existing crossover and bolt in the new one. Then rehook up the wires to the drivers thus avoid the tedious work of de soldering and resoldering separate components to the circuit board?

cnh

Chunny,

That's right, just think of this place as Monster Polk Chopper Garage, people 'tricking' out their equipment. The place is full of 'tweakers'. Audio is a 'hobby'. Personally, I'm not qualified to mess with any of this equipment...well maybe I could try redoing a surround or replacing a speaker...hot glue and a soldering gun--I might be able to handle that. But otherwise I read with great interest only! Oh and when my power amp decides to act up, I will be calling on the boys here for the fix!

cnh

bcline

It is not just the people on this forum. There are people working at Polk Audio that will tell you that these upgrades improve the speakers. From what I understand, the original components were all that was affordable and available to them in the 1980s. As Face said, capacitor and resistor technology for audio equipment is much better today. We are not altering the frequency response as we are still using the same values on the caps and resistors. It is just that these newer components are cleaner and better suited to use in speakers.

I was skeptical at first. I had always felt the speakers sounded fine. However I got interested and decided to upgrade a set of 5bs just to see if I could tell any difference. The speaker was really improved by the upgrade and I had not realized how much I had been missing. Now I'm convinced this is a good thing to do to these older speakers.

chunny

Well, since I'm still using the original tweeters in my RTA 12B's which have 5514 stamped on them, should they be upgraded and if so to what? Also if that happens, do I need to modify the original crossovers? Thoughts Guys?

chunny

I don't suppose Polk sells any of these mod kits do they?

Face

Nope.

Where are you located, maybe you can find someone local to help you out.

chunny

Unfortunately I'm in Canada, so I have to talk to a service rep here who then would order the parts from Polk for me.

curved

chunny wrote: »

Well, since I'm still using the original tweeters in my RTA 12B's which have 5514 stamped on them, should they be upgraded and if so to what? Also if that happens, do I need to modify the original crossovers? Thoughts Guys?

If you like the sound then leave it.

Remember, Polk would never stick $150 worth of crossovers and resistors in $500 speakers. It's a business and they need to cut corners in some areas or they wouldn't be making any $.

chunny

I've seen some mod kits on Ebay for the Monitor 10 B's but not for the RTA's

chunny

Where can I find the diagrams showing what needs to be modified?

curved

You should easily be able to find something around here.

ben62670

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=28
There are two stickys with most of the diagrams;)
Have fun.
Ben

Systems

chunny wrote: »

Unfortunately I'm in Canada

You mean fortunately right.;):DWhere might I ask?

nooshinjohn

treitz3 wrote: »

If you enjoy what you have, just pay them no mind. Your wallet will thank you.

Plus one on that! My wallet curses the day I found this place... I was happy with monitor 50's. Now I have SDA-1c's, LSi15's and a Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature seven/400. and I might not have gotten any of them had I just stayed away! These guys mean well though... Welcome to CP

inspiredsports

chunny wrote: »

I don't know why? Can anyone explain to me why all these Forum audiophiles are making changes to all types of Polk speakers. From what I can gather, it seems that everyone thinks that all original factory Polk crossovers were invented by deaf people. I own several versions of Polks and have never felt the sound was lacking but every where I look on the forum sites someone is mentioning that so and so speaker needs this cap or that resistor replaced to give the ultimate sonic performance. Whud up with that?!!

Hi Chunny . . . welcome aboard.

Even the best quality caps "bleed out" after 20 years so if you own SDA's, the values have drifted from what they were when originally installed. The caps were generally economy TI (Texas Instruments) caps manufactured in Mexico, and while generally on value in the late 80's/90's, they were not the best caps available. Same for the resistors.

Modern technology now provides exceptional caps and resistors with prices in reach for most tweakers.

Thousands of Polk owners have experimented and found exceptional "recipes" of components that they have been kind enough to share within these pages. Many of these recipes were even contributed to by the very same engineers who designed them in the first place. They certainly were not deaf, just limited by pricing constraints and the components available in the original year the speakers were built.

It has also been discovered that the tweeter protection components degrade each time they trip and add noise to the circuit. Most with decent quality sources and reasonable listening habits choose to remove and bypass them for improved sound.

Last, current replacement tweeters sound vastly better to most listeners than the originals.

In my humble opinion, you will definitely get what you pay for. Enjoy!

bikerboy

You ask why? The same reason that a person takes a 67 Camaro and mods the hell out of it. Its better than what any company can produce at the same price point and its fun. You might even learn a thing or two. Plus Polk Audio makes it easy for all the crazes to gather together in one place on this forum.

infomercialscam

Hey this thing is good because with the changes the version are done newer and also it gets upgraded so to get nice audio and clear sound then changes are compulsory to do....

McLoki

Every manufacturer has places where they have to (or can) save money. By switching out the "weak link" in anything for something better, you get a big leap forward in performance for a relatively small price. (compared to selling what you have and upgrading to new) I have modded my LSiC crossover and plan to mod the rest of my LSi's at some point.

Regarding the pre-amp - I modded that to work a little better with my speakers (increase system synergy). I was successful and am happy with the results.

Michael

NJPOLKER

chunny wrote: »

I've seen some mod kits on Ebay for the Monitor 10 B's but not for the RTA's

Welcome to the forum.
Stay clear of any kits sold by anyone. The folks here will lead you to the best suppliers of the components you will need. Do some searches here on the forum and you'll learn a lot in no time.

amulford

^^^ what he said. You can order everything you need yourself through very reputable and knowledgeable distributors. Don't fall for some sales pitch. We'll lead you right...

fredv

The so called kit pretty much a set of caps and resistors of the exact values. You can do better by sourcing yourself, just take a look at the schematic to find out the parts.

There is a point of diminishing return of investment, for example, how much a $100 preimum cap is better than a $20 commonly use PP cap, but is it worth? Everyone has his/her value point of view, no right and no wrong, just opinions. So, it is really up to you to decide what to use - maybe based on a fixed budget, or the best parts you can find, or whatever.

You have seen many value opinions from the members. Set your objectives, ask questions, make a decision, and do it. At the end you are going to have a better sounding RTA 12 for years to come. WIll it be night and day? Only one way to find out :-)

cfrizz

LOL! Welcome to Club Polk.

Some upgrades are done because of the age of the speakers. The MAJORITY of it is simply tweekers who just can't leave well enough alone, have decided that they are better speakers designers than the people who actually do it for a living.

I have just learned to ignore those threads and let them be happy tweeking away.

For the record, I have a 19 year old pair of Polk RTA-8T's WITH the original tweeters that so many on here think are horrible. I love them to death, and when something finally goes on them due to age I will simply get new speakers.

Just like everything else with this hobby, 99% is subjective & people are in it for different reasons.

VIVA LA DIFFERENCE!:D

chunny wrote: »

I don't know why? Can anyone explain to me why all these Forum audiophiles are making changes to all types of Polk speakers. From what I can gather, it seems that everyone thinks that all original factory Polk crossovers were invented by deaf people. I own several versions of Polks and have never felt the sound was lacking but every where I look on the forum sites someone is mentioning that so and so speaker needs this cap or that resistor replaced to give the ultimate sonic performance. Whud up with that?!!