Rebuilding A Set Of Polk Audio M1S

[tajohns34 3]

This is my first post, but I thought I would share this process. I have a set of Polk Audio M1's that I was using for my side channel surround speakers. I just moved and I hadn't installed them yet. I went to get something off a shelf and they fell off, and of course the plastic housings shattered. They were beyond repair. However, all of the Guts were in good shape. I considered building a set of custom boxes, or just using the 4.5 drivers as mid ranges in something else. Then another Idea occurred to me. Why not use something pre-made? There is a Goodwill near me and a junk shop. I know they both always have some kind of cheap speakers that I could put the good Polk speakers in. So I hit the Good will first since it was closer, and I struck gold.

I found a set of RCA RP 9316 speakers for $4, here they are

[todd.brust 106]

No finished pics? Nice job recycling those speakers though! How'd they sound after swapping them to the new enclosures?

[tajohns34 3]

Okay,  So I finally got these finished.

 

Here is a picture of the 2 speakers,  the one on the bottom shows how the layers come apart.

 

First thing I did was pop the RCA logos off

 

Here are the 2 emlems side by side.  The RCA one has 2 legs and the polk only has 1.

 

 

I drilled a hole in the center of the 2 and the polk logo fits fine. (sorry about the blur)

 

Behold the awesome 3 watt RCA speakers (that don't work)

 

Next to the polks (I found out later that the screw holes didn't quite line up, but the self tapping screws went in just fine.

[tajohns34 3]

I took the dead RCAs out and cut a hole in the back for the speaker terminals

 

Time to pry them apart,  the scredriver left a little mark on the edge but once they are back together it wasn't so noticable.

 

soldered the wires to the connector then fed them through box.

 

ready to go back together

 

This is where left them for a while. 

 

since I finished them I have added tweeters and new terminals.  I'll grab some pictures and post them later tonight or tomorrow.

[tajohns34 3]

*Update*

 

I didn't like the factory terminals with these boxes.  So, I grabbed a set from the local audio shop.  The holes were cut just a little too big, that is why I used the duct tape.  It isn't structural it just keeps the air from leaking out.

 

I used hole saw to cut the hole for my cheapie ebay tweeter.  I used the center of the hole saw bit to line up the tweeter. 

 

Even though they are cheap tweeters they do add a decent high end to these.

[todd.brust 106]

That's what they're for!  Did you use a crossover of any sort?