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Polk Signature Series S15

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Used for a couple months in a bedroom system until I stumbled across a pair of 55s. Like new with original box & manual. Shipping from zip 19341, local pick-up near Exton or Reading PA.

$80 plus shipping. Shipping should be pretty reasonable via my company's UPS account.

crossover upgrades, 11T

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just pulled my 11T's out of storage and am trying to get them up to snuff. i have been out of the audio loop for a good many years, and am trying to learn.

question... has anyone used this upgrade kit from Ebay, or woul;d i do better elsewhere? and if eleswhere, can somebody point me in the right direction. i do have to be somewhat budget minded.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Polk-Audio-Monitor-10-10A-10B-and-RTA-11T-Upgrade-Kit-/260979800552?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item3cc39bb9e8

thanks

steve

MIT Tmax Super Speaker Modules

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***My apologies if this appears as a duplicate posting***

Through a random search on eBay for MIT products, I found and purchased these Music Interface Technologies (MIT) Super Speaker Modules. The set was $100USD shipped, so I took a chance. Note that these are directional, in that, one pair is labeled 'Amp', and the other pair labeled 'Speaker', so they should be connected accordingly.
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They require using MIT iconn connectors on the ends of the module wires, so I got a pair of spades for the amp end, and banana plugs for the speaker end. These basically screw on to the threaded module tips.
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The modules are connected between amp and speaker via RG59 coaxial cable, so I went with Belden 1505A RF cables from Blue Jeans Cable. You can see my previous speaker cables on the floor - 12AWG Monoprice copper strand cables :o
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So the sound...it is improved B) There's more air around the instruments, and I can pick-up more nuances of the player's technique - strumming, picking, bows across strings. Decays of cymbals and strings last longer. Everything is a bit crisper. [My wife used the term 'crisper' as well without me even saying it.]

I have to say, for the money spent - $100 for the modules, $65 for the iconn connectors, and $41 for the cables - it's a good investment. And it gives me a taste of the how the upper-echelon MIT speaker cables with more articulation points must sound. I confess...although I understand the theory of articulation points, I don't understand how it can be designed and built into those little black boxes. Whether I understand the physics or not, I can say that my ears understand, and it sounds better to them :) The modules in this system have 4 articulation points, but the Shotgun and higher MIT speaker system cables have a couple dozen articulation points :o

Other equipment used: Logitech SBT -> Peachtree Audio novaPre hybrid w/DAC -> Eastern Electric MiniMax BBA -> McCormack DNA-125 -> Infinity RSIIIa speakers

Color me impressed...or enlightened.

Had a very unsavory discussion with a member of the audiophile community today

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Polkies,

Figured I'd share this with you as I found the whole premise of this to be immoral.

As many of you know at this point I recently purchased a Backert Labs Rhumba 1.1, the guys over at Backert Labs have been absolutely fantastic to work with. Andy has been incredibly helpful to me as I learn this whole tube thing. I am in the searching a set of tubes for the Rhumba that will suit my tastes and my equipment, in this I purchased a set of RCA 5814wa's from a reputable company that many of you are very familiar with. I am not going to name said company outright as I find that distasteful but if you search in my threads in the 2 channel section, you fill find out. In fact I am sure many of you will know just by some of the things the guy said.

Anyway, the owner of the company called me today while I was at work after he noticed I listed the Rhumba 1.1 as the equipment I was buying the tubes for. I was expecting him to ask what I was trying to accomplish and maybe recommend a better tube for what I was trying to do. Instead in a very elaborate 15 minute (one sided) conversation, he told me that the Rhumba was not a very nice piece of equipment and that I should return if still able and buy a Primaluna, which he sells at his shop. Went on to say that the Rhumba should be selling for half of what they sell it at. Spoke very highly of his "over 40 years experience" and how he knows what he is talking about. He claimed that the Primaluna was a superior unit due to the 15 pounds heavier that it weighs and the point to point wiring and the fact that it uses tube rectification and yada yada yada. He also stated that Backert Labs use poor rotary source select switches that allow bleed in between sources and even went on to said that users in populous areas could pick up interference due to radio stations with the style switch. Seems pretty outlandish to me but I don't claim to be an audio engineer. He told me I could tell the quality of the unit just by looking at the pictures of the innards of both units and a bunch of other stuff. I think you get the point and probably know who I am talking about.


I was very taken aback by this and frankly offended as I spent my hard earned money on a quality piece of equipment and he thought it was acceptable to bash the equipment and company. The sales tactic of bashing another company is a demonstration of the type of person this guy is. I cancelled my tube order with him and will never be doing business with said company or representative. Honestly it just pains me to see this type of thing in the community where for the most part everybody is great. The stark difference from the(awesome) people at Backert Labs and this company is eye opening.

Anyway, I'll get off my soap box. Thanks for listening, I'd love to hear some of your thoughts

Zach

Roon Labs App

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Jusy checking to see if anyone here is using the paid app. Kinda pricy, but if this is a company that will stay in business for a while (hard to tell anymore who will last and who will not) but the lifetime membership seems like a bet if it does work well. On the fence as I usually am before diving into anything so any feedback from members here would be appreciated and hope all is well.

https://roonlabs.com/

Weather at Your House?

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WIth winter here I have been seeing that so far the northeast and mid west have been getting some nice weather recently. As a frequent flyer and traveller. I am always needing to check the weather at my destinations and usually use Intellicast.com as a friend of mine who is a pilot/skydiver tuned me into some years ago... No BS adverts no political agenda.... just the weather and easy to search with forecasts and radar and frequent updates... works on everything...

I recently put my PWS (personal weather station) online :smile:

http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KFLCAPEC94

anybody else with a PWS link?

What's the weather like at your house today?


Static Electricity in the House

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Cold here in Michigan. And dry in the basement/man cave at times. I occasionally get a static shock when touching my audio equipment, which scared the crap out of me since I don't want to fry anything.

Read some other forums where folks purposely discharge any potential static on other grounded items (wall switch, metal audio cabinet, etc.) prior to touching the equipment.

I now touch the metal columns on my audio rack as well.

Others add a humidifier to increase the RH in the room, which I have not done yet.

What do you guys do?

CP members in warm, balmy areas of the world, well, ok, please opine too!

Full 7.2 setup - Pioneer and Polk

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Here is a complete package ready to go - just add cables. I can throw in subwoofer cables for the two subs if needed. $1,750 for the lot.

Pioneer SC-63 - $350
Polk S60 - $550
Polk S30 or S35 - $125 or $175
Polk S20 - $200
Polk S15 - $125
Polk DSW 660wi (2) - $500/pr

All items are in pristine condition. Original packaging available for all Polk products.

Located in Arlington, TX

Audioquest RCA Jumpers PSC

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As above. A pretty much behind the scenes upgrade to the standard shorting bars found on electronics. Especially NAD. Never used and original packaging. PSC is their marketing of Perfect Surface Copper. All contacts treated w CAIG Pro-Gold.

$25 shipped CONUS.

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Shopping for a new laptop is...

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...one of the worst things to do it seems! Seriously all the options available it's like hunting for that gem in a sea of pure garbage. My current laptop an OLD Acer 8735G although huge by today's standards is a decade in age but oddly, still works fine for some odd reason. However as I age the thought of carrying the beast is becoming less as it's heavy and huge.

Seriously I need a new laptop...and this could get interesting...anyone got suggestions? Budget is about $800 Canadian dollars, about $650ish USD. Big thing is a possible 17.3 inch display...going to a 14 inch from 18.4 inch is not an option lol.

A Real SL 2000 Hack. Replace stock (burnt voice coils) with "silk diaphragm dome ".

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Thought you all should see what I have been up to this time. Just wanted to see if I could do it. Until I get the replacement tweeters ( I have them on the way now) I decided to see if I could hack into the toasted SL 2000s I had. Well it worked, how well I don't really know yet. So far so good they actually sound better than I expected. I expected they would not work at all or would sound terrible and they don't. Either way these did not work at all and after this they do. There are just so many variables (as many as you can imagine) that there was almost no hope in getting them perfect at least in one try. It was worth $11.00 just to see what happened ! I have a lot of fun doing stuff like this. Inevitably I will try again with different domes another day, its just a matter of time. Who cares anyway, these are shop speakers and I have more on the way. Have fun with this one !
First I removed the silicon.
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Took it all apart.
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Cleaned the gap with masking tape.
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De soldered the old wire.
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Cleaned my fingertips and parts.
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The old and new.
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Test fit.
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A small amount of glue.
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Then I put it all back together and let it dry. And..Thanked my helper Hoo Doo !
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As always, my disclaimer ..Do not attempt at home ! Thanks for looking !









Feels like Christmas at the Stangman household! Focals and Rhumba are here!

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I drove 300 miles today and went and picked up the Focal Aria 926s in PA and met Andy in Delaware to pick up the Backert Labs Rhumba. My new to me B&K ST125.2 arrived today as well, it is fairly beat up but seems to work well enough. The B&K is a stopgap until I get something else. The speakers are an interesting story, only the Walnut version was on sale so I bought a set of those. Focal delayed the shipment to the dealer twice and the dealer told Focal that it was not acceptable and convinced them to sell a set of black piano gloss to me for the same sale price. I am not certainly complaining, tremendous customer service by Ken at World Wide Stereo in Montgomeryville, PA.

Got everything set in place and wired up in about an hour. I am going to reserve judgement on everything until the speakers/pre/tubes get adequate break in time. Going to play music pretty much constantly this weekend to facilitate break in. I will say that I am already floored by the results though. I ordered a set of RCA 12AU7 cleartops to replace the stock JJ's at the advice of Andy from Backert.

Anyway, a few pictures

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Mag Mini Remote replacement..

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Does anyone know how I would go about replacing my remote for the Magnifi Mini soundbar? Was unable to locate anywhere on Polk's website.

Looking for Monitor Ideas

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Im kicking around Dynaudio, Usher, Harbeth, etc. Budget is 1500 ish, 2000 max. The room itself is 10 wide by 16 deep. Im really looking for more soundstage width and imaging than my previous speakers. On a side note....I have Boston Acoustics A70s set up upstairs in a much wider room which I am really digging. Any ideas...used is OK w me.

Power distribution and conditioning

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Interested to see what is being used and recommended.
I want to protect my equipment and "clean" the power going to my electronics.
Looking for the best bang for the buck.

Thanks in advance!
Keith

Another 1C upgrade path

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Hello everyone. Since I joined this forum I spent quite some time in and around the threads, and learned a lot. Having a lot of fun!!!

I currently own a pair of 2B's but recently purchased a set of older, or transitional 1C's as they have the blade/blade IC. Below is a picture of the original 1C listing:

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Curiously, I believe there was some discussion earlier about this exact set as another potential buyer was asking about the IC being blade/blade vs. pin/blade.

Thanks @f1nut for answering the question about this particular model. This was also confirmed on the VR3 website that has very good historical information .

Purchase price was 3 hundie w/o IC cable (fair?). I purchased an aftermarket one online for 50 bucks. Yes yes I know, I will eventually go to a dreadnaught but first things first.

I hooked em up and everything was working as expected. They appear to be bone stock.

The side panels and endcaps are shot. Pretty ugly. Typical fabric separation in the side panels. The end caps are missing chunks of veneer missing. Good news is that the front panels are in excellent shape.

So I decided to refurbish the side panels and end caps. I do woodwork as a hobby so not a big deal for me. Found many posts showing others who have done the same and was quite impressed.

Then I started to dive further into this forum ...

Thus far I have:

New RD0194 tweeters arrived last week
New XO's with @gimpod boards and SonicCaps, already ordered from DHS
Powergrab the insides
Dynamat the MW's and PR

Looking for a spare set of Larry's rings - Anyone have a set

And the journey begins.

Certainly please provide any comments/suggestions as they are most welcome

Something weird

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My feed for '2 Channel Audio' is displaying strangely. On the forum home page it will show the latest post for 2 Channel, but when I go to into the sub-forum itself, the topic for that latest post doesn't show. Also, a topic that I posted to a couple of days ago is not even showing now.

Fidelio X1's

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A barely used set of Phillips Fidelio X1's.
Bought new in 14' and maybe have 10 hours total as I didnt/still don't have much time to sit and listen. These popped on everyone's radar back when @Assimilated first got his ears on them. http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2016786#Comment_2016786

The reasons for sale are they sit idle, and Sennheiser 6xx's with BH Crack are my latest headphone experiment.

Includes everything from original purchase.(cord, cans, manual, box, reducer)

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$160 paypal'd and shipped to your door.
Conus US but am willing to work with "those people" north of the border.
Can't find much for sales on the used market. Bought for $247...
If I'm way out of line, shoot me a PM.
I ship on Saturdays due to work hours.

B)

Another Turntable Thread - Advice Needed

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I didn’t want to hijack the other recent (great) threads, so I figured I’d start my own.

I’ve hinted recently that I’m thinking of getting a turntable for myself since both daughters have been spinning vinyl on their bedroom rigs and really enjoying it. Ive been keeping an eye on local Craigslist sites and saw this one:

https://pennstate.craigslist.org/ele/d/harman-kardont35c-turntable/6480321902.html

I just stopped by this evening to check it out (brought my own receiver and speaker cables). The guy ‘inherited’ it from his wife’s uncle. It’s in pretty good physical condition, but I quickly discovered it was missing a stylus. It powered on and seemed to hold speed, but that was all I could check. I told him I might consider it as is for $50. Is that a fair/good for me price? Is a replacement stylus for the Ortofon OM-20 cartridge expensive? Should I just pass on it and wait for something else?

Here’s some additional pictures:

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As always, I appreciate the advice of the veteran vinylistas around here!

Thanks,
-Al

Case voltage

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Been having an issue with a new to me Onkyo... Warm up results in loud static from the CC or one of the left channels when in any multi channel mode. Random and it subsides after 20 min or so.

While checking connections, I bumped the case and felt a tingle like AC voltage. Put my DVOM to it and can see ~50v between case and earth. 36v between case and me...

This isn't right, and I can likely fix it, but I need somewhere to start looking (likely culprits).

Thoughts?
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