SDA 1C's are ready for the upgrade bug

Toolfan66

"OK" My 1C's will be hitting the upgrade table soon. (like this weekend)
I am going to take these minty looking 1C's completely apart.

I will be redoing the wood caps in a dark stain or piano black paint, the paint shop wants to see them first before they commit to the piano black paint,

The grill cloth will be replaced,

The drivers and passive radiators will be dynamated, and mortited,the drivers will be JB welded in a few spots around the magnets.

The SL2000 will be replaced with RDO-194's,

The crossovers will be upgraded with sonicaps and mills,

The binding posts will be upgraded to Vampire BPHEXCB binding post
(still debating on a third set for a upgraded interconnect cable with bananas)

And last but not least these babys will be spiked....

I am thinking about making a set of binding post interconnect mounting plates(not because they need it just because I can) out of delrin.

Don't think I am missing anything, this will take me a few weeks to do as I will not rush it nor am I in any hurry. So say goodbye to a minty condition set of stock 1C's.





I will update this thread as I move forward...:D

Here is one reason the polk forum should not shut down...

Peace,

Larry,

WastelandWand'r

Sounds like a great project!!!!
I still need to break out the drivers on mine and dynamat and mortite them.
I am not sure they have been out of the holes since new and hesitant to bust the seal on them. (PR's excluded)
On a personal note, please throw out some photos on the JB weld mod.
This keeps the magnets from shifting, no?
Nathan

Conradicles

Very nice!!! I like the JB idea in case they get transported in the future.
Have fun man.

One more thing:
(still debating on a third set for a upgraded interconnect cable with bananas) DO IT.

zarrdoss

will these be replacing your 1.2? if only for some time huh?

Fongolio

Cool. Have fun. The only thing I don't like is going piano black paint. Personally I love the look of wood grain. Even dark. The black paint I think would make them resemble studio's but if that's your preference, go for it!! I might change my mind when I see them. One or two other mods to consider are lining the boxes with rigid insulation and stuffing 1/2 to 3/4 with polyfil. Geoff727 did that with mine and they sound unreal. He also built an isolation box around the tweeter arrays inside the cabinets. This helps the tweeters not be affected by the cabinet becoming pressurized as the 6 1/2''s pump. Lastly he also re-drilled the mounting holes on all drivers and put in threaded inserts and mounted the drivers with allen T-nuts. A very classy looking finish for mounting hardware. Just a few suggestions. Take from it what you will. With the tweets and crossovers you will hear a giant difference. Have fun.

Kelvin

dpowell

Very nice. My 1C studios will live vicariously through your 1C's for the time being. Someday I'll do the same. I'm interested to know more about what you are dynamatting and mortiting and why/what you improve by doing so.

Fongolio

Dynamat usually goes on the speaker baskets to stop any ringing and mortite is used around mounting flanges to create a better seal causing the box to be more air tight and improve the effect of the passive radiator.

Toolfan66

WastelandWand'r wrote: »

Sounds like a great project!!!!
I still need to break out the drivers on mine and dynamat and mortite them.
I am not sure they have been out of the holes since new and hesitant to bust the seal on them. (PR's excluded)
On a personal note, please throw out some photos on the JB weld mod.
This keeps the magnets from shifting, no?
Nathan

yes it is to help keep the magnets from shifting, I did my 1.2tl's and it took some time to do all the drivers..

Conradicles wrote: »

Have fun man.

One more thing:
(still debating on a third set for a upgraded interconnect cable with bananas) DO IT.

Thanks, Yeah I am sure I will do the binding posts for the interconnect..

zarrdoss wrote: »

will these be replacing your 1.2? if only for some time huh?

Only till I finish the grill cloth and wood caps on the 1.2tl's

Fongolio wrote: »

Cool. Have fun. The only thing I don't like is going piano black paint. Personally I love the look of wood grain. Even dark. The black paint I think would make them resemble studio's but if that's your preference, go for it!! I might change my mind when I see them. One or two other mods to consider are lining the boxes with rigid insulation and stuffing 1/2 to 3/4 with polyfil. Geoff727 did that with mine and they sound unreal. He also built an isolation box around the tweeter arrays inside the cabinets. This helps the tweeters not be affected by the cabinet becoming pressurized as the 6 1/2''s pump. Lastly he also re-drilled the mounting holes on all drivers and put in threaded inserts and mounted the drivers with allen T-nuts. A very classy looking finish for mounting hardware. Just a few suggestions. Take from it what you will. With the tweets and crossovers you will hear a giant difference. Have fun.

Kelvin

Thanks Kelvin for the other ideas I will keep them in mind for sure..;)

Tony M

I love these project upgrades with photos! Larry, and others before,Thanks for sharing this with us!;)

I'll compile mine all together one day on my SDA-SRS's and SDA-CRS's like your doing here. Hear that AL, we need this forum for our Polk audio speaker endeavors.:D

billbillw

I'm all for the tweeter, cap, resistor upgrades, but I love the way the 1C looks. Maybe slightly darker stain on the wood, but not piano black....You'd be making them look like Mirage speakers if you did that! Good luck with the upgrades.

george daniel

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^what he said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^6666

Toolfan66

Well I have 1 torn down...

michaeljhsda2

Looks like fun Larry. That's gonna be my next project in a few weeks. How does the glue look on the internal bracing and the corners? Are you doing the xovers yourself?

Toolfan66

michaeljhsda2 wrote: »

Looks like fun Larry. That's gonna be my next project in a few weeks. How does the glue look on the internal bracing and the corners? Are you doing the xovers yourself?

The glue looks great but I may be doing an internal mod to the cabnets after talking to Ben.

I may or may not do the crossovers myself. I have everything here to do it myself but have thought about just sending them to Ben. as his soldering skills are better then mine.

Vette C6.r

TOOLFORLIFEFAN wrote: »

The glue looks great but I may be doing an internal mod to the cabnets after talking to Ben

Can you describe what internal cabinet mod you are doing ??

Face

Additional bracing? Sonic Barrier?

Toolfan66

Well I bit the bullet and ordered some BLACKHOLE 5 for the back walls, and some Sonic Barrier for the side walls top and bottom as well.

I also have my new binding posts on the way as well.

I sure hope my investment in these is worth it. My only worry is that I will want to put the Sonic Barrier and/or BlackHole 5 in my 1.2tl's

Hamatym

Larry,

Nice looking project!! I have the same exact speakers and just received the upgraded Crossovers and IC cable back from Ben. I got the RDO-194's in them and spiked...First listening was a half hour ago and they sure sound great! From what I understand, there is a good 100 hour break-in time and they improve....these are truely awesome speakers for their size! I also prefer the wood look as well, but the Gloss black does look amazing as well.

Good luck, and keep the pics and updates coming...I will follow closely

Toolfan66

Thanks,

I will keep it updated as I go, I should have some more pics this weekend as I start the wood caps, and drivers.

You will keep hearing them get better as they reach 300 hours. if you have not dynamated the drivers and passive's do so. that tweek is just as awesome as the spikes.

Hamatym wrote: »

Larry,

Nice looking project!! I have the same exact speakers and just received the upgraded Crossovers and IC cable back from Ben. I got the RDO-194's in them and spiked...First listening was a half hour ago and they sure sound great! From what I understand, there is a good 100 hour break-in time and they improve....these are truely awesome speakers for their size! I also prefer the wood look as well, but the Gloss black does look amazing as well.

Good luck, and keep the pics and updates coming...I will follow closely

Toolfan66

Pictures Of the drivers and passives being Dynamated.

hearingimpared

Nice work Larry.

Wow your sheet of Dynamatt E is very crinkly. I wonder why. Mine are as smooth as a baby's bottom.

Toolfan66

Well I had trouble getting one of the bottom caps off, the other three came off with ease. Polk must have used a little too much glue, to me it looks like liquid nail. as you can see it took a couple of chunks out of the wood cap.
(better that then the cabnet) I went to Home Depot and got some Plastic Wood, this stuff works great, and filled the holes and sanded them down, I might have been able to leave them as they were and filled them with a little liquid nail when I put the caps back on, but it was bothering me.

I lightly sanded the caps and put some black stain on them (2 coats of stain)
after that I put on a coat of polyurethane. don't judge the picture just yet as it is only one coat, and I will be lightly sanding between each coat till I put on about 10 coats of polyurethane.

leroyjr1

Looking good !!

Toolfan66

leroyjr1 wrote: »

Looking good !!

Thanks Leroy!!!:cool:

hearingimpared

Looks good Larry! Are you still dizzy?:D;)

Toolfan66

hearingimpared wrote: »

Looks good Larry! Are you still dizzy?:D;)

Thanks Joe!!

Yep just a little, and I am about to go out and do the second coat..

Toolfan66

What would one think about using Velcro on the side panels? That way if one needed to do a quick fix on a side panel, pull off fix and stick back on..

Thoughts??

Conradicles

I thought about using velcro, it can be done.

My only fear was that it could make the side panel rest too far off of the speaker and you may see a gap. You could always give it a try, cause it would be an easy fix if you did not like it.

hearingimpared

Conradicles wrote: »

I thought about using velcro, it can be done.

My only fear was that it could make the side panel rest too far off of the speaker and you may see a gap. You could always give it a try, cause it would be an easy fix if you did not like it.

The least little bit of gap between the side panel and the box will cause some rattling. My 1.2TL had a split in the seam in the lower right of the cabinet. On bass heavy passages it rattled and buzzed until I sealed it up. The gap couldn't have been more than a hair thick.

leroyjr1

TOOLFORLIFEFAN wrote: »

What would one think about using Velcro on the side panels? That way if one needed to do a quick fix on a side panel, pull off fix and stick back on..

Thoughts??

Reinstall the correct way it'll last another 20 years.

salasg

Great work on the speakers. I am lookin at Dynamating my SDA 1C's in the near future. How much Dynamat did you need to do your 1C's and what did it run you. Eventually I will do the RDO's and crossovers.:D