RSDS polydome k

okeeteekid

Well-Known Member
Anyone ever try replacing their original polydomes with the RSDS polydomes, I did an A&B comparison crossing an original and the RSDS over with a single cap just to see how they compare, they sound very close to me but I think the RSDS sounds a tad better, guitar strings and piano sound more realistic on the RSDS, both drivers measure 3.7 ohms, physically they look exactly the same accept the RSDS polydome has a more rigid/harder polypropylene dome, it also has a black cloth surround which seems to allow the dome to move more freely and it has a screen wire mesh to protect it from getting damaged, the wire mesh can easily be removed though, I'm temped to put them in my k9's but my k9's polydomes are still in excellent shape and I think I like the look of the clear stock polydomes better, probably just because I'm so use to seeing them in the speakers, just wanted to see if anyone ever installed the RSDS polydomes in their speakers and if so what were your thoughts.
attachment.php

attachment.php

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • 005.jpg
    005.jpg
    105.3 KB · Views: 148
  • 009.jpg
    009.jpg
    51.1 KB · Views: 140
  • 001.jpg
    001.jpg
    85.8 KB · Views: 132
Last edited:
I've done this to my K9

I've done this to my K9's and I am pretty happy with it. Before the VIFA dome were way too bright and harsh, but this replacement was much more balanced and pleasing. I've had to turn up the mids on the back a tad bit to get it the way I like it. I think the cloth surround is a bit less flexible and needs a bit more juice going through it to match the original polydomes.

Just my thoughts.
 
I've done this to my K9's and I am pretty happy with it. Before the VIFA dome were way too bright and harsh, but this replacement was much more balanced and pleasing. I've had to turn up the mids on the back a tad bit to get it the way I like it. I think the cloth surround is a bit less flexible and needs a bit more juice going through it to match the original polydomes.

Just my thoughts.

Thanks for your reply, It's interesting that you thought the RSDS was less flexible because of the cloth surround, the original polydome that I tested it up against was cloudy/white looking, definitely not yellow but maybe it was a little stiffer than if you had a new or clear polydome to test against, maybe the cloth surround needs to be broken in to loosen it up a bit, who knows, I think the RSDS is probably the best replacement option available if you can find them, glad you like the sound of it, did you bother removing the wire mesh screen on yours?
 
did you bother removing the wire mesh screen on yours?

No, I have little kids, and besides I like the looks of it.

There were some talks about the original polydomes being a bit muted compared to the emits and semits. Again those were the opinions of some. Also I've also heard that the polydomes were the weakest part of the K9, so I'm willing to try new polydome replacements. Some K9 have replaced the polydomes with the Reference series 5inch mids. I personally think the RSDS version of polydomes are better then the originals. But just in case I'm going to fix my original polydomes by Bill and keep it as a second set.
 
To me the original polydome did sound muted or some sound was missing compared to the RSDS

I tried replacing the polydome in my k9 with a high energy emim but to me it didn't sound right, the emim has more detail but lacks the dynamics of the polydome and just doesn't match the sound of the other drivers, maybe the crossover needed higher quality caps.

I agree with you, I think the RSDS version is better too.
 
Last edited:
Just aquired 3 of these. The surrounds are much stiffer than the polydomes. I can see now why Miller's replacement domes work so well. Very similar material (feel and rigidity wise) to the RSDS.
 
I think the surrounds on the RSDS are stiff from not being used since they were new, they probably need to break in, the dome itself is poly but the center flat looking thing on the dome is aluminum, don't know why infinity put that flat spot on the dome.
 
The surrounds seem to be the same material as the spider in a speaker. I would even go out on a limb and say it is from an actual spider.
My center button is the same material as the dome. One thought that comes to mind is they made a hole in the center to alleviate stress and stop any cracking. It's really, really THIN hard plastic.

20160305_101656.jpg

20160305_102438.jpg 20160305_102451.jpg 20160305_102421.jpg 20160305_101656.jpg
 
Last edited:
After looking at these, I'm almost positive the surround is made from a spider, which in my mind, opens up a lot of possibilities in repairing the clear domes.
 
The surrounds seem to be the same material as the spider in a speaker. I would even go out on a limb and say it is from an actual spider.
My center button is the same material as the dome. One thought that comes to mind is they made a hole in the center to alleviate stress and stop any cracking. It's really, really THIN hard plastic.

View attachment 698396

View attachment 698401 View attachment 698402 View attachment 698400 View attachment 698396
My center caps are aluminum, if I look from the side or edge of the cap it is silver in color.
 
Here are a couple of pics of my RSDS polydomes, you can clearly see that the edge of the center cap is silver leaving me to believe that they are made of aluminum.
IMG_1041.JPG IMG_1042.JPG
 
Yep, sure does look like it.
To be sure, I scratched the backside of mine, definitely plastic, plus you can see the injection mold "nipple".
 
Using the spider material would allow all kinds of domes and give perfect "suspension" to the dome.

I'm tempted to find a nice thin metal dome and see if works well. Be similar to the Genesis domes?
 
I just took one of mine apart and scratched the inside of the center cap like you did and guess what, mine are plastic too, don't know why they looked silver from the outside, must just be a reflection.
 
I tested the sound quality of the RSDS compared to the original polydome using a single blackgate cap and I also tried a mundorf silver/oil cap and I liked the sound of the RSDS better but when I installed the RSDS in my k9 I liked the sound of the original polydome a little better, to me the original polydome just blends in better with the other drivers, I think the caps that infinity choose for the midrange compliment the original driver much better, If you were to play around with different brand caps there's no doubt in my mind that you could get the RSDS to out perform/sound better than the original polydome.
 
Last edited:
Here is a video that I made of the RSDS polydome for anyone who has never seen one before.

The video shows it next to an original and also shows the back of it up close.

If we only knew 20 years ago that the polydomes were going to deteriorate we could have bought all these things up and had decent replacements, I bet a lot of them were installed in cars and ended up in the junk yard with them, what a waste.

 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom