New Polk SDA-2Bs: looking for Polk expert in Seattle area

In the ongoing quest for my ultimate champagne life/beer budget system, I just picked up a nice pair of Polks. After reading about the various mods available, I have a mild case of upgrade fever. Unfortunately, I don't know my ass from a soldering iron (or vice versa).

I'm hoping there are some generous (and skilled) Polk gurus in the Seattle area who would consider helping a complete neophyte with some of these mods in exchange for some good beer/scotch, pizza and conversation. I live in Snohomish.

Seth

Now this is my kind of newbie! Welcome to the forum, Moofy. I'm on the other side of the country, in CT. I wish I were close, I'd give you a hand. And drink your scotch! Good luck, hopefully someone will pop up that can give you a hand. 2B's are great speakers, you're in for a nice ride. They're quite similar to CRS+'s, except in a bigger cabinet. Here's what I just got finished doing to a pair of them:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/show...s-are-complete!

There are a bunch of good polkies in Seattle. Zingo, Cambir, Bikerboy will probably catch this and offer assistance. I'm local and would take your booze and pizza but I know nothing about SDA's :lol:

Welcome aboard! Send VR3 a PM. He can offer a great quote to have your boards modded and he does excellent work. Really wouldn't cost too much in shipping and one of the local polkies could hook everything up for you. The difference in mods is night and day. Mine are still breaking and in and I love em already. Also, consider the RD0-194 tweeter upgrade. Not sure of your budget, but they sure are silky smooth.

Thanks to all for your responses. I sent Trey an email this afternoon. Let's see what happens.

Great to be part of this community!

Seth

BTW, nspindel, your CRS+'s look awesome. I bet they sound lovely. Nice work.

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Originally Posted by deronb1

Welcome aboard! Send VR3 a PM. He can offer a great quote to have your boards modded and he does excellent work. Really wouldn't cost too much in shipping and one of the local polkies could hook everything up for you. The difference in mods is night and day. Mine are still breaking and in and I love em already. Also, consider the RD0-194 tweeter upgrade. Not sure of your budget, but they sure are silky smooth.

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I'll add my two cents on top of this good advice: VR3 can hook you up, but if you're upgrading the crossovers and tweeters, do the 2BTL mod on them so that you can use the RD0-198 tweeter rather than the RD0-194, for the relatively small cost of an additional capacitor for each crossover. More better.

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Originally Posted by agfrost

I'll add my two cents on top of this good advice: VR3 can hook you up, but if you're upgrading the crossovers and tweeters, do the 2BTL mod on them so that you can use the RD0-198 tweeter rather than the RD0-194, for the relatively small cost of an additional capacitor for each crossover. More better.

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Tru dat! Good advice

I'm always willing to help, and have helped many local Polkies mod their speakers. I live in Bothell, so once you get enough posts to send me an email or PM, lets get your mods planned. I can either do them for you, or teach you how to do them; which ever you prefer.

Looking forward to it.

do a search for nspindel's original thread on TLing the 2B..i read it probably 50 times:)

here it is

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/show...ed-to-my-SDA-s

Zingo, I'd definitely like to take you up on your offer. I received the info from Trey and the cost looks doable. As you suggested, I'll PM you when I'm able. Thanks.

Seth

No problem; I can help out whenever you're ready.

Rock on zingo!!

Zingo, how can I contact you without breaching Forum etiquette? I'm a lowly 0 pointer!

Thanks.

Seth

Make 5 more posts and you're golden. Tell us about your gear, or whatever. Ask a few more questions about what parts to use. Post a few pics of your speakers.....etc.

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Originally Posted by Moofy

BTW, nspindel, your CRS+'s look awesome. I bet they sound lovely. Nice work.

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Thanks. Hope yours come out just as well!

I've been in touch with Trey at VR3 mods and now know a little more about my speakers. They are a very early pair. Ill post pics of crossovers in a minute. Those pics are what Trey relied on to "age" the speakers. Now I'm in a bit of a quandary, as Trey can't know which mods will work unless he has the crossovers in hand, and I'm not confident in my ability to remove them without causing collateral damage. Zingo, I'm hoping you or others can advise. Thanks.

Attachment 77911Attachment 77912

Apparently, the model number of the woofers matters in terms of "mod-Attachment 77913ability", so here is a photo. I hope this provides the information the experts need to provide guidance.

I'm confused. A 2B crossover should have 4 caps, 2 resistors, and 4 inductors including the big 16mH. First of all, I never knew they made split crossovers for the 2B, but is it me or isn't there an inductor missing? I see the 0.4, then there should be a 1.25 and a 2.5. I can't tell which one is in the picture but it definitely seems like one is missing, right?

You've gone over my head. The speakers seem to work fine.

Just a bit of a mystery as to what model you've got there, Moof. Can you check/list values of some parts?
*Are the two drivers both MW6510? That would indicate 2A's not 2B's (which had MW6503/MW6511).
*Can you read off the values of some of the caps on the crossovers? The 2A's had 2 paralleled 130uF caps--I'm curious what the values are on the silver caps from your pics (too blurry to read). I'm guessing they're the 130uF's. No caps of such large values on the 2B's.

Check out the pictures/discussion from this thread (2A crossover upgrade): LINKY The crossovers there look suspiciously like yours (although 130's are blue rather than silver).

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Originally Posted by Moofy

You've gone over my head. The speakers seem to work fine.

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Sorry:lol: that was really a question for some of the experts to ponder. I was going to suggest that these may not be 2B's, as affront is suspecting as well. We'll get to the bottom of this don't worry.

If you are hesitant about what model they are, the best (and safe) upgrade would be simply to swap components one-for-one.

moofy, im a snoho boy myself,

Moofy, According to the crossover pics you've got SDA 2A's. The two 2.7 Ohm resistors are a dead give away, The 2B's only used one 2.7 Ohm resistor.

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Originally Posted by nspindel

Sorry:lol: that was really a question for some of the experts to ponder. I was going to suggest that these may not be 2B's, as affront is suspecting as well. We'll get to the bottom of this don't worry.

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Affront? I assume auto-correct spelling is to blame. That's funny right there. :lol: Hopefully no one was affronted by my post!

Looks like we're getting to the bottom of this all.

Hahahahah. Yup, that be the autocorrect on my iphone! If you want to see something hilarious, check out www.damnyouautocorrect.com :eek:

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Originally Posted by Moofy

Attachment 77911Attachment 77912

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Do you feel comfortable pulling the crossovers and writing down all the component values? If so, we can get selecting and ordering parts, then set a date for the install.