How to Identify my model of Speakers

[bigcarpileup]

My brother gave me his Polk Audio Speakers that he bought new as well a Pioneer Receiver. I am trying to wire the whole thing up and make it sound as good as possible. I have moved twice since acquiring them and lost the metal jumpers for the terminals in the back. I don't know how many jumpers there originally were, but I now only have 1. Without the jumpers I decided to wire them up not knowing the first thing about "bi-wiring" and that has led me here.

My Main question is: How do I identify the model of Polk Audio Speaker that they are? I have looked all over the black exterior and have taken the black covers off the front that simply say "Polk Audio". They each have 2 mid-range looking speakers and 1 tweeter on the top. My last resort was to maybe unscrew them and look inside. Any other advice?

The model # i thought would help me to obtain the Jumpers online somewhere. Or I thought I could learn more about bi-wiring. So far my success with the bi-wiring is minimal. I have gotten some good sound, but if I go too far up with the volume, the receiver displays "OVERLOAD" and shuts down. At first I had the highs wired to the Front B connectors in the back, but after reading some about bi-wiring I put both the highs and lows in the Front A connectors.

[McLoki]

take the grill off one of the speakers, set them side by side and take a picture then post it here. Someone will be able to identify it. Not enough in your description to do it for us.

For the jumper you lost, just cut a short length of speaker wire and use it like a jumper to connect the top and bottom red or black terminal together.

Before you change anything though - post the pictures to ensure that we are giving you the correct advice.

Michael

BTW - Welcome the Club Polk.

[polkanddie]

Me thinks they are RT12, or RT16. But I agree, take a picture and you will have your answer in about 3 seconds. lol

[bigcarpileup]

Here are the photos of the speakers (atleast one of them). This one has a tweeter that is pushed in! don't know if that can be fixed.

As far as the "overload" problem, the only time this happens is when the tweeters are connected. If I disconnect them, I can turn the volume to max with no problems...

[ben62670]

http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/s...ecent/rt3000p/
It looks like the sub part is missing. You can try to pull the tweeter dome out with some tape.

[messiah]

Those are the Rt55 original, not the i series. You can make jumpers out of speaker wire to replace the lost ones. Some say that actually works better than the original. Oh, and try a vacuum to pull out the crushed tweeter.

[bigcarpileup]

It looks like the sub part is missing.

Do you mean that slot on the bottom? Is that the subwoofer?

[w_coyote]

No he was thinking they were something else. There is no sub part with that speaker, you have 2 mids and a tweeter.

[w_coyote]

http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/p.../recent/rt55i/ -this might help. The rt55 and the rt55i were almost the same. Some small changes were made but still pretty close. Didn't know I could post a link or I would have the first time.

[classic carl]

As you may have already figured out, biamping requires 2 seperate amps. You do not want to wire the highs to the speaker A output and the lows to speaker B on your amp. Use the jumpers to connect the high and low terminals on the speakers to each other and then connect your speaker A output from your amp or receiver to the low terminals on the speakers.

Bi-wiring is just running 2 sets of wires to the same terminal on the speakers from the same speaker output on the amp. The only reason to remove the jumpers would be to bi-amp, that is to connect one amp to drive the highs and another to drive the lows.

[Kex]

Those are great speakers, and yes, they are the RT55, from the late 90's IIRC. The printed specifications are absolutely identical, in every way, to the link posted to the RT55i. Get some proper juice to those and you'll get some pretty stupendous results IMO (the Pioneer may already be good enough, depending on which model).

BTW, that tweeter has been pushed in, which will affect dispersion. It's a pretty bad push, by the looks of it. You might be able to minimize it by using a vacuum cleaner, and slowly, very carefully, bringing the tube closer and closer so that it starts to suck the dome out. Do NOT let it come into contact with the front of the speaker or it might just suck the whole dome off completely. You can use your fingers, in front of the tube, as you bring it closer, to avoid this risk.

If you're good with D.I.Y., you can even dismantle the tweeter, and push the dome carefully out from behind, using a cotton tip stick. There are also replacements available, but the are silk dome, AFIK, not tri-laminate, and do not have the silver colored finish.