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Recapped Polk M 11 Comparo

shacky

shacky

Addicted Member
I recapped one of my Polk Monitor (RTA) 11's. Albiet with an unusual combination of caps due to ordering to quickly and not thinking it through.

I'm doing mono comparison with original. Original sounds brighter - something I'm not use to when recapping.

I'd also say bass is punchier on non recapped.

I ended up using Axon + Russian PIO on tweeter. The two woofers on these are crossed off differently. One is 600 Hz and below and the other is midrange.

On midrange I put straight 47 uF Axon. On low mid/woofer I put combination of Axon 43 + Solen 4.7 - see what I mean about not thinking order through?

There is Zobel network in there somewhere and another 0.5 UF cap where I used the best cap in the bunch - Clarity.

The recapped speaker had a blown mid and unpon recapping I found burnt resistor. The tracing under the burn was tarnished. I checke continuity with DMM and it seemed fine.

So why would recap sound less bright and less apparant bass? I've been running the since last night. Here are some pictures:

Original:

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Burn area:

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New Crossovers - with new Mills resistors too:

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Unless your room is perfectly symmetrical, one speaker will always sound different from the other. Normally, one would put them next to each other for this before-and-after test but this won't work for speakers that have a left and a right unit.
 
Fasterdamnit said:
I had this same issue once-
Hate to say it but it was due to my mistake- wired wrong. Good luck!
Click to expand...

Had a little of that at first. I had asked about bypassing fuse to tweeter on Polk forum and got some bad advice. No output from tweeter. Had to take everything back apart and correct. I left fuse in line.

Maybe the new Axon plus PIO on tweeter is calming top end? Which IMO is fine. More worried about bass. But could be tied together - more top end on the original better defining bass.

I likely won't get to the other crossover for couple of days. Just doing gut check before continuing.
 
rnorton said:
Unless your room is perfectly symmetrical, one speaker will always sound different from the other. Normally, one would put them next to each other for this before-and-after test but this won't work for speakers that have a left and a right unit.
Click to expand...

Very good point!
 
Burnt places have carbon. Electricity likes carbon. Maybe some of your electrons are having a funny thing happen on the way to the forum.
 
shacky said:
Notice there is JB Weld under that new resistor to cover the char.
Click to expand...

Okay, my bad...I thought you were still using some of those traces and junctions in that area. Once had a rotor that provided a char path you couldn't even see.
 
musichal said:
Okay, my bad...I thought you were still using some of those traces and junctions in that area. Once had a rotor that provided a char path you couldn't even see.
Click to expand...

Yes I am using traces in those areas. The JB Weld is on the opposite side of PCB.

I tried checking continuity with DMM on different sections of the tracing. But that absolutely could be source of lowere output in top and bottom end. Challenge is how would I correct it without moving crossover to whole other board?
 
I would be up for that. Need help on wiring. Here's how I did my Forte's but that was with much help from Bob Crites.

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Draw a diagram looking at the traces. Let each trace be a big dot in your drawing. Draw each inductor, cap and resistor. Keep flipping the board over to see which trace the leads are connected to and draw a line from the component to the appropriate dot. Do one component at a time. When finished with your drawing, recheck several times to be sure you have it correct. Now you're ready to solder it up as per your drawing. You should probably put numbers on the traces and the corresponding number on your dots so you don't get confused about which dot represents which trace.

Also, it might be smart to make your drawing from the xover in the Polk's mate - that way if you did make an error earlier, you won't repeat it.
 
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Well I have so many projects and so little time I decided to hard wire the traces and remove that additional Solens 4.7 on low woofer just for piece of mind. Can't say it made decernable difference.

eWhat I can say is these are fabulous speakers :thmbsp: I'm running them with Adcom GTP 500 II and Fisher tube amp. I tried the Acurus in picture which is recent find. Acurus is too thin for my tastes. Though I appreciate it's ability to cast huge soundstage and very accurate sound.

I just like more meat on my bass :D

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Still haven't recapped second speaker but damn these sound very good. Nice match with the Fisher 7591 amp and Adcom.

I can't stop listening long enough to dig into second speaker :music:
 
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