People really seem to enjoy tweaking these speakers with upgraded caps and what not. I didn't want to spend any money so first thing I did was play them without the grilles. If you leave the grilles on and play them at high volumes, the rubber surround on the lower woofers rubs against the backside of the Polk logo.
Secondly, since I wasn't biwiring and just got plain bored with this jumper and that, I desoldered the connections to the top lugs and resoldered them to the bottom ones. This made a huge, positive difference to the upper end, leaps and bounds better than jumper cables.
Third, some self adhesive felt pads under the speaker where it sits on bumpers mounted on my stands helped give the sound more immediacy and cohesiveness.
Fourth, plugged up the holes in the front. That elimated a majority of the muddiness errr chesitiness.
Fifth, added 1.3 oz of fill to control the bass as the speaker is made to produce as much bass as possible which I think is characteristic of the polk sound.
Sixth, used material similar to neoprene to create gaskets for the woofers and futher isolate them from the cabinet. That did wonders to improve imaging.
Seventh, lined the inside of the cabinets with thin sound absorbing material.
Eighth, cut out perfect self adhesive felt to completely cover the tweeter bezel and the painted white polk logo.
The speakers are placed 8' on center, tilted back 5-7 degrees, toed in 1", and placed approx. 20 inches from the front wall.
They abosolutely rock out. You won't get better sound from spending more, just a different flavor. Spend $2k more for solid copper phase plug woofers from the neitherlands and fancier cabs. You'll get more air, more truth of timbre, but lose the punch these speakers deliver.
These are speakers for the true audio hobbyist. They're instant out of the box classics. How can you beat that?
