What should I buy for my Monitor 5's?

ramaneer

Picked up a pair of M5s(slight assumption, on back of speakers it says Model 5) for free this week, and have heard from several people that they are quality speakers even though they are 20 years old. Im young, and new to audio setups, and Would like some help picking out a receiver for these speakers so I can use them with my Sony Bravia 42" and my bluray.

Polk on their website recommends the Amplifier Power at 20-125 w/channel. Not really sure what to do with this information. Do i need to find a receiver that can push 125 out to both speakers?

Also, what kind of connections should I buy. Right now I have copper with no plugs, but I think the gauge is too big for the binding posts, unless there is another way to connect them. (again, I'm new at this)

Im on a budget but if I find a good value Im willing to put some money into this. Preferably less than 200 on a receiver however.

Thanks for the help.

wutadumsn23

First of all, welcome to Club Polk. If you did indeed get a set of Monitor 5's for free and they are in good shape and work well, you got a very good set of speakers at no cost to you. I have a set of Monitor 10's that I got for $50 and I was driving away from that guy's house as fast as I could, lol. Your budget will be the limiting factor in this, $200 isn't going to get you much, but those 5's will run well off any AVR that will push around 100W per channel. Check Craigslist or Ebay for deals local to you. Onkyo, Yammaha, Denon, Harmon Kardon, Pioneer are some of the brands you can keep a look out for. Maybe a Polkie here has something kicking around that they would be willing to sell you for that price range. As for connections, get some banana plugs and that will eliminate the size problem you are having now. My 10's have pretty small holes on the terminals as well, but I bought some nanners and that took care of that. They are relatively easy to find and can be had pretty cheap. Good luck and any more questions, feel free to ask.


-Jeff

fbm211

I say get a baby adcom sometime down the road for some quality sound that will blow you away.(If you listem to music that is.)
Make sure you get a receiver that has pre outs.
If you need to get some good speaker cables try monoprice.They have real good prices.And if you like DIY get some canare 4S11 cable to make your own.Its the best damn budget cable you can get for the money at only a little over a doller a foot.Im not sure what kind of binding posts that model has but if banana plugs work some GLS plugs are good.

Mr. Sharpe

Welcome to clubpolk.

If I had these speakers and just this is just personal preference, i'd use 12 gauge wire and you can use Banana plugs so they'll fit. I know about their binding posts, the holes for the wire is tiny but banana's you can use any size wire the plugs will accept and just plug them in. but it doesn't matter, if you're using 125 watt amp you can use 14 or 16 gauge wire. Wuta nailed the receivers, those brand he names aren't all less than $200 unfortunately. If you got an Onkyo makes one for $179 on crutchfield. it's rated for 50 watts/ch but Dynamically power is 135 into 8 ohms.

hope that helps and good luck.

cnh

Welcome to Club Polk!

Get a nice NAD or Cambridge Audio 50 watt integrated and call it a day. Lots of power, clean/dynamic sound, etc.! Go 'used'. You won't be able to meet your price point if you don't!

Even a 40 watt integrated would do it for M-5s!

Good Luck!

cnh

Mr. Sharpe

Yes, a 40 or 50 watt from NAD = probably 110 Watts i'd guess. they use High current circuitry.

gdpeck

Mr. Sharpe wrote: »

Yes, a 40 or 50 watt from NAD = probably 110 Watts i'd guess. they use High current circuitry.

I really, really, really like my NAD T720BEE with my Monitor 5 Series IIs.

I bought the speakers new in 1991. They were paired with a Yamaha AVR, then a Denon AVR3802, and finally moved to a music only system in my bedroom with the NAD. Each of those receivers was a step up from the previous in terms of how musical the speakers sounded, but the NAD really makes them sound nice.

So if you can find a used NAD in your price range, I think it would be a fantastic match.