Tweaking the SRS 2.3's - A Winter Project

[schwarcw]

Greetings my fellow Polk crazies!

It's been a while since a tweaked my SRS 2.3's. Please not that I don't have the TL's.

I have rebuild the crossovers, replaced the tweeters, upgraded my electronics, cables and wires. Spending money and having a blast. My rig has never sounded better. However, I have been compelled to try some of the "second generation" tweaks that Raife, Ben and others have be using. So, I decided to embark on a number of tweaks this winter/

1. Upgrade the interconnect cable, I have done this, but I can easily do better with some quality wire. The wore and connectors are already in the house.

2. I think I need to work on the cabinet bracing. I have searched the Forums without much success. Maybe someone who has done this mod or tweak would like to chime in with some sketches or photo's. I would like to cross brass side to side and front to back. The unknowns are the size, number, materials and location of braces. I figure to cut these to fit, glue with Liquid Nails and screw into place.

3. I would also like to beef up the bass brace. The cheap piece of all thread leaves a lot to be desired. I'm thinking to place a reinforcing plate inside the cabinet with a larger, internal washer tacked or screwed to a larger plate affixed to the cabinet with glue and screws. Any thoughts here?

4. The "Fun with Foam" seems like a low cost option, I'm leaning toward to foam as opposed to the Dyna mat.

5. What about sealing the cabinet with some Silicone (or other quality) caulking? Any ideas or comments?

6. What about dampening material. This subject is very confusing to me. How much? Where?

7. Has anybody put one of these mats on the bottom of the cabinet?

8. What about the finish of the interior of the cabinet itself. It's rumored that Stradivarius had a very secret formula for the varnish that gave his instruments that sound that has never been duplicated. Any thoughts here on an internal cabinet finish? Paint, varnish, shellac, stain?

9. What about shielding the inductors or crossover? There was a lot of type and claims of lower noise floor when the A1-1 or Dreadnaught transformer was isolated. Should the crossover be shielded? Could the inductor be picking up some noise?

Beyond the speakers I have plenty of quality electronics, cable, wire etc. that should satisfy the most discriminating taste. Or, it could sound like **** to you:D

Your comments, ideas, pictures, drawings, etc. are welcome.

I ask a lot of questions, thanks for humoring me.:)

[GV#27]

9. What about shielding the inductors or crossover? Should the crossover be shielded? Could the inductor be picking up some noise?

No shielding required,unlike source components, preamps, amps etc. speakers don't have any circuits that are sensitive to RFI nor do they have the mega hertz bandwidth to reproduce it.Some electronics are very sensitive to RFI and can become unstable to the point of oscilation or have their noise floor raised.This and the low signal levels involved is why IC's need to be shielded and filtering added to input stages and AC inputs etc.Speaker wires and inductors don't need it.
However If inductors in a crossover are not properly oriented their magnetic fields can interact with each other.To minimise the crosstalk they should be placed at a 90 degree angle to each other and spaced apart a few inches.

[NJPOLKER]

4. The "Fun with Foam" seems like a low cost option, I'm leaning toward to foam as opposed to the Dyna mat.

Dynamat Extreme is inexpensive and easy to use so why not use it?
Its also designed for this type of application. Go with the Dynamat Extreme

[DarqueKnight]

2. I think I need to work on the cabinet bracing. I have searched the Forums without much success. Maybe someone who has done this mod or tweak would like to chime in with some sketches or photo's. I would like to cross brass side to side and front to back. The unknowns are the size, number, materials and location of braces. I figure to cut these to fit, glue with Liquid Nails and screw into place.

The SRS 2.3 and 1.2 have improved cabinet designs over the preceding SRS 2 and SRS. I have not run across a cabinet bracing mod for the SRS 2.3, 1.2, 1.2TL. or 2.3TL. I would ask Polk what, if anything, they would recommend.

4. The "Fun with Foam" seems like a low cost option, I'm leaning toward to foam as opposed to the Dyna mat.

I might use Dynamat Extreme on a future speaker damping project. I say "might" only because Dynamat Extreme is more time consuming to apply (much more cutting) and is very difficult to remove if you decide you don't like the sound of it or if you want to try something else in the future.

With the foam weather stripping tape, I just marked and cut off lengths of what I needed from the roll. With the Dynamat, every piece will have to be individually cut from the sheet. Something like an X-acto knife or box cutter and staight edge is recommended for cutting Dynamat Extreme. You can use scissors to cut Dynamat, but they must be very sharp.

The foam and steet prices of Dynamat Extreme are about the same.

[DarqueKnight]

Deleted...duplicate post.