1.2's are Home ;) & Mink Oil,Yes or No?

[Lasareath]

Hello All,

The 1.2's are home, the 2nd one was much easier to bring up my stairs.

They are really dusty, and all of the grill material needs replacing, even the material on the sides.

The wood is pretty good, each one has a little chip on the top surface, but overall it's pretty good,

The cones of the 6.5's are really dusty, I took some distilled water on a rag and gently cleaned them off, they are not bad now.

two 6.5's have their centers pushed in, Anybody know the price of these from Polk?

I have not hooked them up yet, I'm going to in a few minutes.

One question, When I was getting a driver replaced on my Sunfire sub the tech from Sunfire told me to buy some really good Mink Oil and apply it to the drivers twice per year.

Has anybody ever heard of this?, I'm thinking it would help clean the drivers, I will wait before I do it.

Thanks All,

Las

[ben62670]

I heard that you should use doe in heat urine:D

[ben62670]

Try taking a vacuum cleaner to suck out the dust cap. Most MW6503's have fairly flexible dust caps. Polk does have replacements that are $48 a piece shipped. Just let them know you are a Club Polk member.
Enjoy

[Lasareath]

Try taking a vacuum cleaner to suck out the dust cap. Most MW6503's have fairly flexible dust caps. Polk does have replacements that are $48 a piece shipped. Just let them know you are a Club Polk member.
Enjoy

So the MW6503's are only $48 for Club Polk members?,

Aren't there two 6.5" drivers in these?

[Lasareath]

I hooked them up and the Left Channel sounds Great, the right one is lacking, I can't really figure out what it is yet, The tweeters sound fine, maybe one or some of the 6.5's are blown.

OR, I guess the Crossover can control how much power gets to the drivers?

Maybe something in the right crossover is blown.

I have a multi-meter, does anybody know of a post that goes through each of the components of the crossovers and what their resistance should be?

Thanks Again,

Las

[george daniel]

Pull the suspect drivers,,and,, attach speaker wires and turn the volume up slowly a wee tad . Do they make a scraping sound when gently pushed in(do tis first)? If so, you may have a bad driver. Good luck and let us know the outcome. Congratulations on your new aquisition.

[Lasareath]

Pull the suspect drivers,,and,, attach speaker wires and turn the volume up slowly a wee tad . Do they make a scraping sound when gently pushed in(do tis first)? If so, you may have a bad driver. Good luck and let us know the outcome. Congratulations on your new aquisition.

If I press on the drivers evenelly, all 16 dont make any stratching sounds,

If I press on the cone with one finger, almost all make a stracthing sound, I guess that happens just because the pressure is the uneven and then the coil makes that stratching sound?

ummmmm, is it safe to hook the drivers directly without using a crossover?

I think that maybe the right drivers are fine, that it's something with the crossover, that not all the power is getting to that speaker.

because I disconnected the left speaker and played just the right one by itself and the music seemed correct. Maybe i need to do this with several songs, to see if I hear anything that sounds strange.

Thanks

[george daniel]

Hmmm, if you disconnect the sda cable the affected speaker/drivers sound fine,, you might want to give the x-over a look,,hopefully some others with better sda troubleshooting experience will chime in.

[Lasareath]

No, I disconnected the left speaker completely, I played only the right speaker, to see if it sounded correct. And to see if I can pinpoint which driver was not playing or sound incorrect.

The tweeters are easy to tell if they are working, but the 6.5's all move together, so it's hard to see which one is the culprit.

[F1nut]

With the cable disconnected you're only feeding the stereo drivers, so that defeats your purpose. It shouldn't be hard to hear which driver(s) isn't playing, stick your ear right up to each driver, the bad driver(s) will sound dead compared to the others.

Forget the mink oil crap. Windex, applied to a soft, link free cloth works the best to clean the dust off the sticky cones and oxidation from the rubber surrounds without harming anything. Do not use Armor All either.

Masking tape applied to the dust caps will safely pull them out. Vacuum cleaners can suck it right off.

[Lasareath]

Masking tape applied to the dust caps will safely pull them out. Vacuum cleaners can suck it right off.

I tried the Vacuum Cleaner and it did nothing, I will try some tape. Thanks!

[F1nut]

Time for a new vacuum cleaner.

[Lasareath]

Time for a new vacuum cleaner.

LOL, It's a Shop Vac, it's pretty powerfull, it't strange, the same mirrored cone is pushed in on both speakers.

[george daniel]

So, have you diagnosed the problem?

[Deadof_knight]

mirrored cone huh , should be black fabric .........

[engtaz]

You know that your not going to sleep till you fix the speaker. LOL

engtaz

[Lasareath]

mirrored cone huh , should be black fabric .........

No, I meant Mirrored Image, the bottom left driver on the left one and the bottom right driver on the right speaker have pushed in cones.

[Lasareath]

So, have you diagnosed the problem?

Not Yet, I did narrow it down to the right speaker's tweeters. Raife posted some really good suggestions and I will go through them and see if I can figure it out.

[snow]

Make sure when you hook them up with the cable that both speakers are the same distance apart and the same distance from the rear wall. Believe it or not if you have them slightly off the right speaker can appear to have defective tweeters. It happened to me. I actually took the tweeters out and moved them to the other side with no apparent difference in sound. Then I read somewhere here that placement was very important, and got out the tape and measured things, and the sound evened up. I am not saying you dont have defective tweeters because you could have, But make sure they are equi distant before buying new tweeters. REGARDS SNOW

[Lasareath]

Make sure when you hook them up with the cable that both speakers are the same distance apart and the same distance from the rear wall. Believe it or not if you have them slightly off the right speaker can appear to have defective tweeters. It happened to me. I actually took the tweeters out and moved them to the other side with no apparent difference in sound. Then I read somewhere here that placement was very important, and got out the tape and measured things, and the sound evened up. I am not saying you dont have defective tweeters because you could have, But make sure they are equi distant before buying new tweeters. REGARDS SNOW

Hey Snow,

My SDA 1C's were in the exact spots and they are back there now and everything sounds great.

The difference was so apparent that even standing in front of the right speaker you could hear the left speaker.

When I hooked up the tweeters only, I could hear the difference right away, the right speaker's tweeters were playng like 70% lower in amplification.

Las

[engtaz]

Did you sleep at all?

engtaz

[Lasareath]

Did you sleep at all?

engtaz

Yeah 2am to 5am, then 7:30 to 9:30am

[danger boy]

are you using the interconnect SDA cable or not? connect it.. then see which drivers are working. without the SDA cable, only half of the drivers in each speaker will work. except the tweeters. they always play,with or without the sda cable

[Lasareath]

are you using the interconnect SDA cable or not? connect it.. then see which drivers are working. without the SDA cable, only half of the drivers in each speaker will work. except the tweeters. they always play,with or without the sda cable

I disconnected my SDA 1C's and hooked up the 1.2TL's exactly the same, I played some cd's and some songs from my iPod.

70% of the music was coming from the left side.

then I disconnected the leftside interconnect Cable & the left speaker and only listened to the right speaker and something was off, it didnt sound correct.

then I tried just the left speaker and it sounded pretty damn good.

then I moved both speakers to the center of my living room (no interconnect cable at all) and took the right speaker cable coming from my amp connected it to the 6.5's of the left speaker and played a song. The 6.5's sound good and loud.

I used the same speaker cable from my right channel of my amp and connected it to the right speaker's 6.5's and it sounded exactlay the same as the left.

then I took the speaker cable and hooked it up to the tweeters of the left speaker and it was loud and clear.

I then took the same speaker cable and connected it to the tweeters of the right speaker and the sound was very low and muddy. the right tweeters played at least 70% less in volume.

I did not change the source song or it's volume.

So, Now the 1.2's are in my hallway, and as soon as I get a chance I will look at the polyswitches and if that does not fix it I will swap the right tweeters with the left and see if the left speaker is having the same issues as the right is now.

and then I will strip a 1/8" stereo plug and insert it into my iPod and connect it to each one of the right's speakers tweeters until i can find the culprit one.

Las

[F1nut]

I then took the same speaker cable and connected it to the tweeters of the right speaker and the sound was very low and muddy. the right tweeters played at least 70% less in volume.


That tells me you've got at least a couple of bad tweeters. If the polyswitch was the problem, you'd have nothing at all coming from the tweeters.

[Lasareath]

F1nut,

So, if the polyswitch is bad the tweeters would not be playing at all?

How do you feel about getting rid of the polyswitches?

Thanks,

Las

[F1nut]

Correct, like a fuse, it's either working or it's not.

I'd only recommend removing the poly's if one is running a high quality amp or if one knows they aren't going to attempt loud volume levels. I wouldn't recommend it at all if one is running an AVR.

[Polk65]

I popped a sl3000 tweeter with a NAD 2600 amp (150 w/ch). Heed DarqueKnight's and F1nut's advice of only removing the polyswitch if you have a truly powerful high current amp and don't have someone around that can crank the volume up beyond insane.

You can download the SDA check sheet (http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showpost.php?p=564265&postcount=13) and use a multi-meter but here's something else you can try. Turn your source on very low with some music. Cup one hand around your ear then place your cupped hand around each tweeter in your left speaker for a few seconds. I believe you will find the loudest tweeter to be one of the two in the center. They have a firing order so some sound louder at different frequencies. You can now either take the loudest tweeter to your right speaker and test in the same position or take all tweeters from the right to the left speaker and test in that position. The tweeters are all the same but the wires go to a certain position and should be labeled with a small piece of tape. Write a note of which goes where.

Another possibility is the quick connect on the crossover inside your speaker is loose or corroded. Easiest way to check this is put a stable work area in front of your speaker just underneath your crossover plate. It weighs around 5 pounds and has short wires attached so be ready to support it with your free hand. Unbolt the crossover plate and gently pull it towards you. Lay the crossover plate face down and check the quick connect plugs.

[george daniel]

Correct, like a fuse, it's either working or it's not.

I'd only recommend removing the poly's if one is running a high quality amp or if one knows they aren't going to attempt loud volume levels. I wouldn't recommend it at all if one is running an AVR.

If you bypass the polys,what should you use in place? Romex?
thanks

[Lasareath]

If you bypass the polys,what should you use in place? Romex?
thanks

I would assume that you either use a small piece of wire and solder it in place of the poly. or just snip away the poly and place some solder where the legs were.

[Lasareath]

I popped a sl3000 tweeter with a NAD 2600 amp (150 w/ch). Heed DarqueKnight's and F1nut's advice of only removing the polyswitch if you have a truly powerful high current amp and don't have someone around that can crank the volume up beyond insane.

You can download the SDA check sheet (http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showpost.php?p=564265&postcount=13) and use a multi-meter but here's something else you can try. Turn your source on very low with some music. Cup one hand around your ear then place your cupped hand around each tweeter in your left speaker for a few seconds. I believe you will find the loudest tweeter to be one of the two in the center. They have a firing order so some sound louder at different frequencies. You can now either take the loudest tweeter to your right speaker and test in the same position or take all tweeters from the right to the left speaker and test in that position. The tweeters are all the same but the wires go to a certain position and should be labeled with a small piece of tape. Write a note of which goes where.

Another possibility is the quick connect on the crossover inside your speaker is loose or corroded. Easiest way to check this is put a stable work area in front of your speaker just underneath your crossover plate. It weighs around 5 pounds and has short wires attached so be ready to support it with your free hand. Unbolt the crossover plate and gently pull it towards you. Lay the crossover plate face down and check the quick connect plugs.

Thanks Polk65, I will try your suggestions tonight when i get hom from work.

[Lasareath]

Another possibility is the quick connect on the crossover inside your speaker is loose or corroded.

Does each tweeter have two wires from the crossover?

Or is there a common ground wire and just the +'s go to the crossover?

[Polk65]

Negative tweeter wires share a common ground on the crossover but each tweeter has a + and - wire from the crossover. The wires should have tiny pieces of colored tape to help identify their positions in the cabinet.

Don't get discouraged. Some of us have had problems and work it out. You are in the right place and I tip my hat to you for taking the task of fixing these up. That's real dedication.

[Lasareath]

I tip my hat to you for taking the task of fixing these up. That's real dedication.

Thanks for the hat tipping :),

Do you know where I can get the grille material?, can I buy it by the yard?

Also, I notice on my 1C's that they are not the original and the staples that were used are brass in color, does this matter?

Thanks,

Las

[Polk65]

DarqueKnight recommended Hancock fabrics. A search for hancock will bring it up and I think it's also in his SDA Compendium. Fabric from www.PartsExpress.com has been used by some members. You can also check local fabric stores for some light thin black fabric and give it a listen. They sell it by the yard.

Brass staples I think were an upgrade as they add a bit more mass than tin staples.


































:D :rolleyes: :p

[Lasareath]

DarqueKnight recommended Hancock fabrics. A search for hancock will bring it up and I think it's also in his SDA Compendium. Fabric from www.PartsExpress.com has been used by some members. You can also check local fabric stores for some light thin black fabric and give it a listen. They sell it by the yard.

Brass staples I think were an upgrade as they add a bit more mass than tin staples. :D :rolleyes: :p

Thanks, I found the fabric @ PartsExpress,

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=260-335

it's 70" wide and they sell it by the YD, Can somebody give me an idea of how much to get?, I'm redoing the main grilles and the 4 side panels as well.

Thanks,

Las

[Lasareath]

Windex, applied to a soft, link free cloth works the best to clean the dust off the sticky cones and oxidation from the rubber surrounds without harming anything. Do not use Armor All either.

Thanks Jesse,

I bought some windex @ Costco today and I cleaned one of the MW6511's and it looks really nice. It's really tacky now and a lot of dirt came off the surrounds and the metal frame.

The cone is also very black now. The bad part, now that it's so clean I noticed that this driver has a little tear in the butyl rubber surrounds. So now I need (4) 6511's. But that's OK, I'm buying another replacement from Polk and I'm going to steal the (4) MW6511's from my 1C's and put those in my 1.2TL's

Then I will take the (4) new replacements and put those in the 1C's

What are the other four drivers in the 1C's?, Are they 6503's?, If they are I may buy 4 replacements from Polk and keep those as spares for my 1.2's

Thanks Again,

Las