One more thing. This "batch" number range of blown Polk speakers?
Keep in mind that only a small percentage of people who have polk on a motorcycle actually visit forums.

And of those people, unless they are really into sound systems, they will not be down here reading the audio section.
And the only time a lot of those guys will post anything about Polk, it will be when one goes bad. No one post about their speakers working.

So the sample used to come to the conclusion that it is concentrated down to a particular batch of speakers is not scientifically accurate enough for me to accept that as 100% certain.

I want more information so I can come to my own conclusion. I don't accept things easily just because someone said so.

If I did I would have voted for obama, but I did not. I have a brain.............LOL

 

All 4 polks, different issues SS d4.520.

Fairing speakers tweeter stalks are canted sideways, midrange cones brittle.
Rear pod speakers snap crackle and pop, midrange cones brittle.

Talked to someone I know at "High" end car audio installation place here in Atlanta. He asked me where I had the SS d4.520 X over set. Looked at it was at Full Pass. He told with the Polks I should have it at Hi Pass as that could be causing the speakers to overheat and fail. He also said that the d4.520 is a little "harsh" and may be distorting at higher volumes when running down the road, distortion that you can't hear at highway speeds.

4XXX batch on all 4 speakers.

Put a set of Focals Performance series in the fairing, turned gain down a little. Not as loud as the MM651 but much clearer better sound. going to get a pair of last years Focals polyglass for the rear pods.

 

I completely understand your logic BigGelvis and that's not in question, neither is your sanity or mine; Spirited debate is all.. What's in question is accuracy of information. And I keep in mind my experiences with PV as the same device that I put on my bike and read completely different VEs (not far off but enough to make me question it's accuracy) than that of my TTS and re-verified with my SEPST. Not that it makes a big difference either way where I found the descrepencies, but it wasn't accurate in my mind so it was sold in the classifieds and I stayed with my "difficult to use" tuning devices.

Now back to the issue at hand. I didn't take offense to anything at all sir.. Just pointed out what the electrical system is capable of based on HD specs, not DynoJet. I simply stated that this IMO is a witch hunt. I don't really care about the 100s or 1000s of people who buy Polk speakers and either have or don't have issues with them and are never seen or heard from on this forum. I only care about the folks that are here. There is certainly NO scientific compilation to my reasoning, just is what it is. I recommended things to people that have worked well for me for some time, not something that was slapped in, played for a couple of hours and then I went on a rampage praising it. I feel bad for those who have had this issue and who have listened to my recommendations (doesn't mean I'm going to buy everyone new speakers ) only to be let down by inadequate QC measures. I have also had discussions with Polk, SS, and a couple of other sources of GREAT technical value to me. Something has changed from then and now and once again the only thing that can be extrapolated from the information I've obtained from these guys and gals here is the batch number of 5000 - 6000. What I've run in my bike for over 2 years is the 3000 and 4000 series Polks with the same SS amp at the same voltages everyone else is setting their gains with and therefore the same voltages everyone else including yourself are seeing at "cruising" speeds.

To be honest with you; specifically what I'm waiting for is someone at Polk to slip up and tell me that a manufacturing facility has changed or something along those lines. One of the forum guys here even contacted Polk directly this past week to discuss and Polk knowing where the speakers came from, directly warranted a pair of speakers purchased from Sonic Electronix and as Polk puts it is an "unauthorized dealer". Now why would they do that? I'll tell you why; because they now know they have an issue that needs to be addressed.

 

If you recall, last week Polk told me they were unaware of any issues.

 

Thank you for the reply sir and I understand all you are saying.

But something doesn't jive here. As the poster right above your last post, all 4 of his polk's went out and they are all from the 4xxx batch. NOT the 5xxx and 6xxx batch like you say.

And his is not the first I have seen that say they are not from the 5xxx to 6xxx batch.

I still am starting to think that there is more to this than glue. I'll stop there and stop beating a dead horse. But I will be on the fence until I see definitive evidence that suggest it is a manufacturing defect and not an amp either set too high or just plain distorting and the owner does not realize it.

Move along people, nothing to see here...........lol

But I still want to see replies with Amps used when the polk's blew.
Nothing wrong with that right?

 

not a dead horse man.. good questions...

the poster above me is the 1 exception i stated in the previous post. Talked to Bill in length about his issues.

 

Ultra, talked to Beav, his were 4XXX batch too. Purchased within a week of me purchasing mine.

And I purchased each pair from different on line dealers. Sonixelectronics was one, Elite Audio another.

And Polk told me TODAY that they hadn't heard of any of the issues raised here. I told them to go to CVOharley.com or HDforums.com and they could see the MULTIPLE posts about these issues. While on the phone with "Alex" he went to both forums. His response was "seems like some people don't understand that if they don't buy from an authorized POLK distributor we aren't responsible for the speakers."

I told the putz that I wasn't expecting POLK to replace my speakers, was just notifying them of an issue that I had with their products. Thought they just might like to know how many pissed off Harley owners they had talking about their product. He asked me to send pics and contact info and he'd get back to me. I'll see how that goes.

 

Lost a fairing speaker after a month. From the 6000 batch. Was cranking on'em pretty hard when it went. Running the SS 520 amp / gains at 11 o'clock and AVS on 1 bar. Called Polk directly and found out that I had not bought from an authorized dealer. Sent them the speaker anyhow, had to wait 3 weeks for the complete turnaround but they still replaced it with a new one as a "good faith" replacement. Since replacing have turned gains down to 10 o'clock / still rocks plenty hard but am taking it easy for now. Getting really good at pulling the fairing, done it last night off/on in 3 songs.

 

no offense here but you can go back and read the many threads about this issue and some are SS, some are RF, I do recall an Alpine KTP445U, and a Sony XM-4S as well in conversations..

 

I'm certain my situation doesn't play into the witch hunt, but...

I connected MM651's and MM6501's to an SS 520. The amp had a bad channel right out of the box, so one 6501 never got any juice. By accident I left the other channel on while intending to only run the front 651's and I severely killed the other 6501. I think somehow b/c of the bad channel that the other channel was getting too much juice.

I got the 6501's warrantied, I replaced the amp with a RF Prime R400-4D, and I have it set for HP with the gains fairly low. Even though I set things modestly I am afraid to turn the volume past 6 or 7. This thing cranks!!! Never a problem out of 651's. Do I have to look at the back of the speaker to see the series? That amp is in there so tight I really don't wanna take my batwing off anymore unless I absolutely have to. *LOL*