chefjeff Posted October 27, 2013 Posted October 27, 2013 Hi Folks, I picked up these vintage Polks on the side of the road yesterday. It's our council pick up day! They don't have any kind of model number anywhere and there doesn't seem to be any signs of the model number being rubbed off anywhere. The cabinets aren't ported and the seals are still excellent so I'm not keen to open them up. I got them working and they sound great though, real strong speakers. Any ideas? I recognize the tweeters as being the same ones used in the Carlson OA-50 series so I'm guessing mid 80's? Thanks for any help, Jeff
Full Range Posted October 27, 2013 Posted October 27, 2013 Hi Folks, I picked up these vintage Polks on the side of the road yesterday. It's our council pick up day! They don't have any kind of model number anywhere and there doesn't seem to be any signs of the model number being rubbed off anywhere. The cabinets aren't ported and the seals are still excellent so I'm not keen to open them up. I got them working and they sound great though, real strong speakers. Any ideas? I recognize the tweeters as being the same ones used in the Carlson OA-50 series so I'm guessing mid 80's? Thanks for any help, Jeff See this helpful Polk page on Vintage Products http://www.polkaudio.com/vintage
blinky Posted October 28, 2013 Posted October 28, 2013 They are Monitor 11s. Best thing about them is the tweeter. The "silver" tweeters commissioned by Polk at the time were blisteringly bad, take the enamel off your teeth at 100 paces - but then I think the same thing about berylium, so i must be wrong
cafe67 Posted October 28, 2013 Posted October 28, 2013 I used to have monitor 7 or 5 , didnt think they sounded that bad -good pick up for free well done :-)
FAPOS Posted October 28, 2013 Posted October 28, 2013 Monitor 10 http://www.polkaudio.com/products/monitor10 Ive got Monitor 5s & 12s.
chefjeff Posted October 28, 2013 Author Posted October 28, 2013 Thanks folks, they are indeed Monitor 10's. Sadly I blew one of the tweeters yesterday while enjoying them. They seem to sound best when you crank the volume knob a bit. I've got one spare tweeter around here somewhere and I think I better replace the blown tweet and sell them on. Cheers, Jeff
Super Mustud Posted October 28, 2013 Posted October 28, 2013 Thanks folks, they are indeed Monitor 10's. Sadly I blew one of the tweeters yesterday while enjoying them. They seem to sound best when you crank the volume knob a bit. I've got one spare tweeter around here somewhere and I think I better replace the blown tweet and sell them on. Cheers, Jeff Blew the tweeter? That's a bit like killing grandma!
FAPOS Posted October 29, 2013 Posted October 29, 2013 You can actually buy brand new 'improved' replacement tweeters directly from Polk, and yeah they love the volume knob. Shame you're not in WA, id totally take them!
chefjeff Posted October 29, 2013 Author Posted October 29, 2013 You can actually buy brand new 'improved' replacement tweeters directly from Polk, and yeah they love the volume knob. Shame you're not in WA, id totally take them! You're talking about the silver colored ones with the Polk logo on the face plate right? I've heard that they weren't as good as the Peerless, (in fact I've heard some pretty bad reports on them), but I've also heard they were a bit more durable than the Peerless. Maybe I should try them. Those Peerless units are the same tweeters used on the Carlson OA-50's and OA-52's, I have a pair of each and have already been through 4 of those tweeters and I don't play what I consider to be too loud very often. I'm going to give up chasing all over the web and just upgrade those Carlson Tweets. I really like those Polks and am kind of considering keeping them myself but I'm also trying to keep things down to 3 or 4 pairs of speakers around the house. Do you know of any other tweeters that would replace those original peerless without too much structural alteration?
FAPOS Posted October 29, 2013 Posted October 29, 2013 The replacements are black dome tweeters - the silver ones are the originals used afaik and like you say are considered not the best. There were so many different tweeters used on these (even on the same models) its hard to keep track - The replacements though are considered better than any of the originals - RDO198 for SL2500, and RDO194 for SL1000 & SL2000. Not sure myself on other alternatives sorry - The forum on the Polk Audio website would be more assistance if you havent been there already: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?28-Vintage-Speakers. 1
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