Older Monitor 5 series vs S10 series?

jeffandpamsmith

I have 4 older Monitor 5 speakers and 2 S10 speakers. I used then years ago in my home theater till I upgraded. I just want to use them to fill my LR and DR with music for ambience, not audiophile. The specs say they are all 8 ohm, but I thought iI remember something years ago about Polks being 6 ohms. I want to run the Monitor 5's in parallel on a Soundcraftsman pro power 10 (old workhorse, 400 watts at 4 ohms, supposed to be stable at less). If these are 6 ohms, though-I worry.

Also, comments on the Monitor 5 Series vs the S10? I recall the Monitor 5's being well thought of but the S10's nothing special (even back then, but reviewed the cust reviews on the vintage models in this forum).

I used to have all 6 hooked up with a Russound speaker selector to even the ohms, but I want to steal the Russound for outdoor speakers noe and just may do without the S10's.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

AudioGenics

always liked the Polk Monitor 5's and still do

concealer404

I do believe the Monitor 5s are 8ohm.... I know none of my recievers had a problem running them even at high volumes, and they were only good to 8ohms.

As for the S10, sorry, i haven't heard them.

smglbrth

The original instruction manual I have states the nominal impedance at 4 ohms for the Monitor 5B. There may be another older Monitor 5 I don't know about?

heiney9

Monitor 5's are either 6 ohm or 4 ohm nominal depending on which Polk literature you read. They are fairly easy to drive as I run mine on a 13wpc tube/mosfet chipamp hybrid with no issues.

For background running them as you suggest on the Soundcraftsmen amp should be no trouble at all. I love my 5B's and have no experience with the S10's so subjectively I can;t help there.

H9

jeffandpamsmith

Would Polk be able to tell me by the serial numbers? I'm just tryiny to decide if I just run the 2 pairs of Monitor 5s should I attach them in parallel (3-4 ohms...maybe 2 if one of the above posters is right) or series (12-16 ohm load to the amp...it has the juice, but I remember hearing advice not to do series for other reasons...can't remember why).

heiney9

You could call Ken Swagger @ Polk CS. I doubt the 5B's were ever truely 8 ohms. I've never read that anywhere. Still, even as background music I doubt you'd have an issue. Soundcraftsmen are very beefy amps. Now if you were running them to very loud levels with very dynamic material you might have an issue.

Parallel or Series, I doubt it will matter for you low level application. I assume the Soundcraftsmen has a protection circuit if it trips when wired in parallel then you'd know for sure.

H9

skrol

Here are the specs for the Monitor 5B. Like many Polks of this era, there were design changes without name changes so the spec changed somewhere along the way. They started out as 4 ohm and apparently changed to 6 ohm.

Monitor 5B (1984 - 1989?)
Subwoofer 1 - 8" Diameter fluid coupled subwoofer (sub bass radiator)
Midrange 1 - 6-1/2" Diameter (16.51cm) drivers
MW6502
Tweeter 1 - 1" Diameter (2.54cm)
Polk SL2000 silver coil dome tweeter

Overall Frequency Response 28Hz - 26kHz (30Hz – 26KHz)
-3 dB Limits (43Hz – 20KHz)
Crossover Frequency 60Hz and 3000Hz
Nominal Impedance 4 ohms (6 ohms)
Recommended Amplifier Power 10-125 w/channel
Efficiency 91 dB (90 dB)
Max Output Level 116 dB

Dimensions Cabinet Size 21.5" H x 10.5" W x 8.5" D
Weight 29. lbs.



The Monitor 5 Series 2 (1990) are rated 8 ohm
Subwoofer 1 - 8" Diameter (20.32cm) sub bass radiator
Midrange 1 - 6-1/2" Diameter (16.51cm) driver
Tweeter 1 - 1" Diameter (2.54cm)
Polk SL2500 dome tweeter

Overall Frequency Response 30Hz - 25kHz
Lower -3dB Limit 43Hz
Upper -3dB Limit 23kHz
Nominal Impedance 8 ohms
Recommended Amplifier Power 20-125 w/channel
Efficiency 90 dB

Dimensions Cabinet Size 22" H x 10" W x 10" D
(55.88cm H x 25.40cm W x 25.40cm D)

skrol

Here are the specs for the S10 and other S series and for one of the Monitor 5B versions.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80780&highlight=literature

mhardy6647

heiney9 wrote: »

Monitor 5's are either 6 ohm or 4 ohm nominal depending on which Polk literature you read. They are fairly easy to drive as I run mine on a 13wpc tube/mosfet chipamp hybrid with no issues.

H9

I swear that on a quick reading I thought you wrote that you were using a chimpamp... Now that would be interesting.

Sorry. Back to our original thread topic.

skrol

Come on, quit monkeying around!

heiney9

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I swear that on a quick reading I thought you wrote that you were using a chimpamp... Now that would be interesting.

Sorry. Back to our original thread topic.

skrol wrote: »

Come on, quit monkeying around!

Banana powered chimpamp

ROLTFLMAO

skrol

I feel like such a CHUMP for falling for that.

mhardy6647

my apologies to to the original poster for the monkey business.

The Monitor 5 family are nice sounding little speakers (my son uses a pair of 5Bs as his dorm room speakers at school).

Unfortunately, I know squat about the S10, so I really cannot help much; my work is done here.

:-P

madmike

I agree the 5B's are great sounding for their size, I've had mine since 1985. Have to replace the tweeters now, running a set of peerless right now but those are for another set of speakers that I've had since 1981.