refurbished

slimcain

been shopping around for monitor 70 or tsi500s. seen polks store on ebay. does anybody have any experience with refurbished speakers? thier alot cheaper, but is it worth the gamble?

slk55amg

I bought my 70,s from polk direct, no way to not think they were not brand new.

porphyriaboy

About 4 months ago I found my pair of Monitor 70's being sold as a pair, refurbished by and sold by Polk for $176.00 a pair. They had 3 speakers left. I got the last pair, I think.

I had never owned a Polk in my life though I had listened to older models, found them to be musical, smooth, maybe a bit underwhelming but quality. The towers were obviously going to sound different from the knee-high speakers from the 80's.

Of course, for the money the did not disappoint. I'll compare them to a speaker I know and love, the original Advent. The Advent in its "pink-tweeter" form can be a bit sibilant. If you feed the Polks a sub-par signal you'll hear it but driver tech has progressed where tweeters are concerned. I'd give the Polks the edge on top, the bottom isn't so clear. Properly powered the Advent woofer doesn't sound "pushed". I'm thinking of adding a small Polk sub to each side make up for the tightness and solidity lacking in many, no, most open-baffle or ported designs.

People like cheap speaker mods. You can try this with any speaker, just be aware of how it changes the functioning of things. Your port? Put a plug in it. A foam plug is ideal but I've used socks on small ported systems to "tighten-up" the bass. Listen a-b and YOU decide. Its your sound, your ears. It helps some, hurts others but it won't hurt them, just don't drive them quite as hard as before. You have an acoustic-suspension speaker, now but if the backs of the mid/high drivers aren't sealed you'll have trouble. Check. I've had some **** speakers that responded well to this. I wouldn't try it with the 70's without more info.

I have a pretty decent Pioneer receiver from the 80's and thought about using it as a power amp to bi-amp the 7o's. Getting ready to retire an old Sony pro-logic thing for a h/k 3490. The Sony has surround but it has asthma.
I'm looking for a two-channel system. I might put the sony in my bedroom...I have extra speakers!

Jeff Large

Monitor 70's, h/k 3490 (I gotta plug it up), Magnavox Blu-ray, Pioneer dvd-audio/SACD, Dual 606, BIC 940, Sony Dolby S cassette,srs surround to impress little kids.

porphyriaboy

My 70's looked new. I think they were as no scratches on binding posts. Listed as refurbished.

blehmbo

My rti a5s from polkdirect looked pretty much brand new when I received them. I did notice that they did not sound identical when I listened to them critically. Popping the crossovers out revealed capacitors from different manufacturers in the high and low circuits. With a quick call to polk customer service, I promptly received a new crossover in the mail free of charge. Buy with confidence knowing that they are under warranty from a company with great customer service.

dfretwell

Good info on the refurbished stuff. Been looking in to this and was loving the prices! Thanks!

mrbigbluelight

You can buy refurbs from Polk's eba store with absolute confidence.
The possibillity of getting something not up to par is practically nil, and the probability of Polk's Customer Service resolving any problems is absolute.

See what you like at a price you like ?: get it. You'll be happy.

dfretwell

Thanks Mrbig! I've been looking in the for sale section but not seeing what I want. Will check out the ebay store. Do they add new products often?

mufsoman

All my Polk's are refurbs. They are awesome, do not hesitate to buy the refurbs !!!

Glowrdr

Not sure of the current "market prices", but also don't forget NewEgg. They have a series II line (of Monitors at least, unsure of the rest of the models)

These are somewhat of a hybrid of regular Polks available exclusively to NE. They are the exact speakers, but the grill/ring colors are different (I believe I had heard they were Monitor 70's with TSi parts basically?)

So there is another option to consider, but either way - I wouldn't worry about the refurb Polks either. Never dealt with them personally but sometimes refurbs are the preferred way to go (New off the assembly line, maybe one in 20 get checked - refurb I think they all do)