My new 4.1TL's are complete!

Hi David -

Thanks for the compliments. I have to say, I just couldn't be happier with how these speakers came out. As for the veneer work, the best advice that I can give you here is that if you don't know what you're doing, I'd find someone else to do it for you. That's precisely what I did. I know my way around a hammer and nails well enough, but I didn't feel nearly confident enough in my woodworking skills (or my tool collection) to do this job myself. The last thing I wanted was to sink a small fortune into these speakers, and then have the finish woodwork come out shoddy looking. So I enlisted my brother-in-law's help. He's quite a sophisticated woodworker, and has a woodshop with every tool I could think of. So he did all the veneer work and it came out great. We didn't order the veneer online, we just got it from a local woodworking store. If you're going to get into an exotic wood, that may be tougher to track down, but for just your basic maple, most quality woodworking stores should sell it. I wouldn't want to give you any more advice than that, though, because the woodworking part is just not my forte.

Neil

vcwatkins wrote: »

Just wanted to thank you, Neil, for this write-up. I have no experience in any of this stuff other than replacing a few caps or making a few solder repairs. But with: a) this thread, b) related ones from DarqueKnight, F1Nut, Toolfan66, and Gimpod, c) Gimpod's boards and site, d) Larry's rings and case, and e) Neil's transformer group buy, I put together some 4.1tl's and a Dreadnought. It took a several sessions but came off without a hitch. And I cannot believe how good they sound!

Moving 'em back to the office rig tonight for burning in, and starting on the 1.2's this week.

Thanks guys!

Craig

Wow Craig, that's great. It's a great feeling when you dive into a project that you think is way over your head, and then come out on the other side and you're so happy that you did it, because you end up with something that you're proud of and can show off! I'm happy that this thread helped you out. What parts did you use for your crossovers? How did you mount them?

What will you be using to drive these?

The problem I think DK had with the 1.2's is that Jantzen didn't make a like-for-like replacement for some of them, so he had to buy larger value inductors, and then unwind them until they were at the correct value. The problem for us mere mortals is that the meter to accurately measure the inductance is quite expensive. The nice thing about the 4.1TL inductors is that Jantzen has stock parts that replace all three of them - gauge of wire, inductance, and DCR are all correct.

I like to wake this thread up any time I tweak these. I've mentioned previously that my wife and I were planning on moving soon, but that's been put on hold for now, so I've unpacked all the gear and set my room up again. I took the opportunity to get the last remaining tweaks done to the 4.1TL's. I replaced the binding post cup with Trey's plates, replaced the SDA binding post with a Speakon connector, constructed all new wiring harnesses using Cardas Litz cable, replaced the polyfill, and re-did the grill cloth. I also replaced the new-stock drivers with vintage 6510's and 6511's. While I had the room taken down, I took the opportunity to get my Krell amp re-capped. I happen to live about 40 minutes away from Krell headquarters, and thinking I'd be moving away, it made sense to get the amp serviced while I could still drop it off and pick it up rather than having to ship it. So now I've got everything reassembled, and the sound is just superb. Audio memory doesn't serve me well enough to be able to meaningfully compare the sound of the stock internal wiring to the Cardas, for example, but suffice it to say that even with the re-capped Krell still breaking itself in, the sound is just great. I'm very happy to have my music room back. Here are a few pics:

Front/back of the binding post plates with the new Cardas Litz:




New Cardas wiring harnesses:



Huge thanks to DarqueKnight for all the great research with the Cardas Litz. As I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, my work is 100% imitation and 0% innovation. This forum has so many gifted members who blaze the trails and give exact instructions for dummies like me to reproduce.

Here's a photo of the binding post plate all mounted with cables attached:



And here's a photo of the front of one of the speakers with the refinished grill cloth. Big thanks to Westmassguy for the tips on how to handle the grill cloth, especially using the 3M glue.



The last thing I need to do is add the Polk logos back to the grills. The logos are a bit tarnished, so I'm going to hit them with some gold model paint before reapplying them.

So to summarize everything I've done to these 1989 CRS+'s:

- Stripped original oak veneer and trim, repaired cabinet dings with bondo and re-veneered, re-trimmed with maple and finished with tung oil
- Dynamat Extreme applied to driver and passive radiator baskets (and to Trey's binding post plate).
- All sealing gaskets (except tweeter) re-done with Armacell, including the binding post plates.
- JB Weld had already been applied to the vintage 6510's and 6511's I acquired.
- Crossovers rebuilt with Tony's boards, Sonicaps, Dueland resistors, and Jantzen inductors, then mounted using Larry's technique of a Lexan backer.
- TL mod with Sonicaps.
- RD-0198 tweeters.
- Solen 16mH SDA inductor.
- Cardas CCGR binding posts.
- Speakon SDA connectors.
- Cardas Litz wiring harnesses.
- VR3 binding post plates.
- Larry's rings, including tweeter brackets and binding post rings.
- Sonic Barrier applied to side walls.
- Acousta-stuff polyfill
- Mellotone premium grill cloth.
- Larry's incredible CRS+ stands.
- 1000VA Dreadnaught mounted in Larry's enclosure with Cardas CCGR posts.

This is the same cable that DK used. However, I did purchase and use a solder pot, which made tinning the ends a breeze. DK has since purchased a solder pot as well.

teekay0007, don't I recall that you have a pair of CRS+'s?

Nothing wrong with 2BTLs!

Sounds like my house. I have 18 Polk speakers besides my SDA's!