FireGuruMN
Active Member
I had to get some music in the living room a few years ago. It had to sound good. It had to have high WAF (wife acceptance factor). I heard good things about these Polk LSi7's. A pair showed up on shopgoodwill and I landed them for about $200.00 which is about what they are worth. Since then prices on SGW have gone nuts. Things are selling for more than E-pray. Untested, no warranty, buyer beware. but I digress. . .
Slipped them onto the mantel shelves without even a comment from quality control. Yes, they are sideways. Get over it. I drilled some holes down to my main home theater system and connected them up to zone 2 on a CX-5000/MX-5000 system then I control everything with the wonderful Yamaha app on my phone(s). Source music comes from terabytes of FLAC files on a network attached storage (NAS). All my childhood dreams come true.
You would not believe the bass that these things put out. On a whim I hooked up a pair of Polk PSW10's sub woofers just to see if it added anything. It sounded better without them. Way better. No amount of phase shifting or crossover point adjustments would make it sound better with the subwoofers. So sub woofers went back to their other home.
So if you have followed my other postings, it's time to read about replacing the capacitors. The crossover is mounted on the back of the speaker terminals. That's my favorite option because it is usually easiest to work on.
There is no rocket science to the crossover. I drew a schematic but it is lost to me now. Technically the film caps should be fine but the electrolytic could easily be drying up even at this young age. I really really like the sound of solen capacitors so I replace even the film caps. But there is not enough room for them on the same side as the yellow caps are installed. And whatever glue Mr Polk used to glue those yellow caps in place was really good. So I mounted my caps on the trace side of the PCB:
It's not a big sin since the inductor is already mounted there. Just make sure to put plenty of glue in because you don't want the traces pulling out the back side. I would add a tie strap around the whole assembly also just for good measure. I can't sleep at night anymore any way so I skipped it. Live your life.
If you bought axial capacitors like everyone does because that is what PE stocks then do this:
Please don't skip the heatshrink.
Be sure to bend the leads of the old capacitors out of the way. It is not good if they end up in the circuit again.
Parts (total for both speakers)
Qty 2 of 027-346 17uF 100V Electrolytic Non-Polarized Crossover Capacitor (yes you could probably fit film caps somewhere in the board and they would not be too expensive but we all have to make choices in life.
Qty 4 of 027-572 Solen 12uF 400V Polypropylene Capacitor
I swear the speakers have even more bass now. But mostly the caps provide clearer midrange and vocals. I think that is more a property of the Solen capacitors more than anything else. But for Easter brunch wifey actually asked for the music to be a little louder. That's worth all the capacitors in the world.
Slipped them onto the mantel shelves without even a comment from quality control. Yes, they are sideways. Get over it. I drilled some holes down to my main home theater system and connected them up to zone 2 on a CX-5000/MX-5000 system then I control everything with the wonderful Yamaha app on my phone(s). Source music comes from terabytes of FLAC files on a network attached storage (NAS). All my childhood dreams come true.
You would not believe the bass that these things put out. On a whim I hooked up a pair of Polk PSW10's sub woofers just to see if it added anything. It sounded better without them. Way better. No amount of phase shifting or crossover point adjustments would make it sound better with the subwoofers. So sub woofers went back to their other home.
So if you have followed my other postings, it's time to read about replacing the capacitors. The crossover is mounted on the back of the speaker terminals. That's my favorite option because it is usually easiest to work on.
There is no rocket science to the crossover. I drew a schematic but it is lost to me now. Technically the film caps should be fine but the electrolytic could easily be drying up even at this young age. I really really like the sound of solen capacitors so I replace even the film caps. But there is not enough room for them on the same side as the yellow caps are installed. And whatever glue Mr Polk used to glue those yellow caps in place was really good. So I mounted my caps on the trace side of the PCB:
It's not a big sin since the inductor is already mounted there. Just make sure to put plenty of glue in because you don't want the traces pulling out the back side. I would add a tie strap around the whole assembly also just for good measure. I can't sleep at night anymore any way so I skipped it. Live your life.
If you bought axial capacitors like everyone does because that is what PE stocks then do this:
Please don't skip the heatshrink.
Be sure to bend the leads of the old capacitors out of the way. It is not good if they end up in the circuit again.
Parts (total for both speakers)
Qty 2 of 027-346 17uF 100V Electrolytic Non-Polarized Crossover Capacitor (yes you could probably fit film caps somewhere in the board and they would not be too expensive but we all have to make choices in life.
Qty 4 of 027-572 Solen 12uF 400V Polypropylene Capacitor
I swear the speakers have even more bass now. But mostly the caps provide clearer midrange and vocals. I think that is more a property of the Solen capacitors more than anything else. But for Easter brunch wifey actually asked for the music to be a little louder. That's worth all the capacitors in the world.