Are the Monitor 70's an upgrade over my current speakers?

azmtbkr81

I've been looking to upgrade the Cerwin Vega VS-80 monkey coffin speakers that I bought in high school in the late 90's. These speakers have been great but are beat up from college and moving around and I've been considering an upgrade in sound quality (and appearance) for some time.

I've had my eye on the Monitor 70s - the price is right and love the sound of the Polk R15s I use for my computer. I haven't been able to find Monitor 70s in any of the local stores to demo so my question is if these will be a significant improvement over the CVs or should I save up for more expensive speakers (RTi series etc)? I listen to about 80% music 20% movies - a lot of classic rock, some country and occasionally jazz. My receiver is a restored Marantz 2240 (40 watts per channel RMS) which I love and will probably never replace unless it is with a more powerful classic Marantz. I'm not interested in adding a subwoofer so the low frequency response of the 70s is appealing compared to say the Monitor 60s.

Any input or suggestions are appreciated!

PrazVT

Welcome to CP!

I'd say the Monitor 70s would probably work out better - they are more efficient than the RTi / RTi A series so your Marantz would probably have an easier time driving them.

If your receiver is 4ohm stable, LSi9s would be a great choice too since you listen to a lot of music. They can extend down to 40hz and the tweeters sound more 'real' and less bright. Maybe even 7s, but I haven't heard them - but both of those are 4ohm speakers. Polk direct has both at a discount, though they might be a little above the Monitor 70 budget.

Just a thought

EndersShadow

PrazVT wrote: »

I'd say the Monitor 70s would probably work out better - they are more efficient than the RTi / RTi A series so your Marantz would probably have an easier time driving them.

Not true. The Monitor 70's and all the RTiA's are 90 db effecient (RTi A7's are 89, but that wont make enough of a difference to matter).

The problem is more of how loud you like your music. Even the Monitor 70's (and possibly your Vega's) really need more wattage/current to really shine w/o a sub IMHO.

Some people say the RTi's are more "bright" on the higher end stuff than the Monitors, but overall the RTi's are better for music than the Monitor 70's.

But actually going with a set of older Monitors (10, 12,) or even SDA's might be easier since they tend to cost a bit less and fill the room more and are great speakers to boot.

cnh

Welcome to Club Polk!

That Marantz puts out decent wattage for a receiver but M-70s would probably like even more. I would imagine that the Marantz has pre-outs so you could use it as a pre-amp and get a nice used two channel power amp to up the power. If so. Think Big...go for some Rti-A9s if you can afford them. Or some Rti-12s (older series).

Vegas play loud but they do so at the expense of detail, etc. They're not a very 'revealing' speaker.

cnh

PrazVT

Not true. The Monitor 70's and all the RTiA's are 90 db effecient (RTi A7's are 89, but that wont make enough of a difference to matter).

The problem is more of how loud you like your music. Even the Monitor 70's (and possibly your Vega's) really need more wattage/current to really shine w/o a sub IMHO.

Some people say the RTi's are more "bright" on the higher end stuff than the Monitors, but overall the RTi's are better for music than the Monitor 70's.

But actually going with a set of older Monitors (10, 12,) or even SDA's might be easier since they tend to cost a bit less and fill the room more and are great speakers to boot.

Fair enough - I thought I'd read some posts where folks said monitors were easier to drive. Though I suppose most folks are using higher power receivers / amps. I have RTi A7s so I'll agree that they're great for music.

EndersShadow

PrazVT wrote: »

Fair enough - I thought I'd read some posts where folks said monitors were easier to drive.

Yeah, they probably meant that in regards to getting loud or as you stated if using a AVR rather than dedicated power. But when your talking about bass (since he's not using a sub) AND music the RTi line is where its at (or LSi, but thats a whole different ballgame), BUT you need a fair amount of wattage/current to really get the low end you want.

PrazVT

BUT you need a fair amount of wattage/current to really get the low end you want.

Oh totally. Neither my previous Yamaha RX-V663 or my current Denon 3311 (125wpc) really cut it bass-wise with my A7s. It took adding a high current amp to get the kind of bass response I was expecting.

tonyb

He's talkin M70'S guys, one of the easiest speakers to drive in the polk line up. His older Marantz will do just fine. It's 40 watts are better than todays for sure. The only thing you'll be missing with the marantz is the updated processing available in newer receivers.

EndersShadow

tonyb wrote: »

He's talkin M70'S guys, one of the easiest speakers to drive in the polk line up. His older Marantz will do just fine. It's 40 watts are better than todays for sure. The only thing you'll be missing with the marantz is the updated processing available in newer receivers.

But he's also not running a sub, so he probably wont get as much bass as he is used to from the Vega's.

Thats where my point is, low bass requires more power than mids/highs

tonyb

Generally speaking I agree bro, but that older marantz probably has more current than a cheap 90 watter on todays standards. He sure won't do any harm by running them off the marantz, that is of coarse unless he thinks he'll get the volume of the CV 's out of them by jacking up the volume dial. Then all bets are off.

Ronster267

Why married to that Marantz? Sentimental value? They make great stuff, I grew up with my parent's 70's version and it started my passion for great audio. There are countless used Marantz receivers and amps that will drive the Monitor 70's that can be had for minimum $$$ if your current amp doesn't. I have a pair of Monitor 70's and they are AWESMOME with my Pioneer A/V Receiver about 4 years old, (so the power numbers are probably optimistic). I think your vintage Marantz will do just fine.

azmtbkr81

Thanks for all of the input guys, I have to say this is defintely one of the better forums I belong to on the internet, I've been lurking for some time and nearly every post here is educational as well as civil, rare to find!

A bit of an explanation on the Marantz - I bought it about 6 months ago on the advice of a friend (don't ask) after my lower end Yamaha died. The Marantz was in terrible shape, full of cat hair, cat urine, and 30 plus years of dust and grime. I'm a tinkerer by nature so I learned everything I could about old Marantz receivers and tore the thing complely apart replacing all of the bad capacitors and other worn components. After a 100 odd hours of scrubbing and soldering it looks and sounds incredible - much better than anything else I've heard costing under $1000. Money wise I don't have that much invested in it but the sweat and learning that went into it make it worth more than the sum of its parts I suppose. I'll probably look to upgrade at some point but for now I am satisfied.

So back to the speakers, I demoed the rti a9s, rti a7s, tsi500s, and a pair of JBL towers at Fry's Electronics today. I think out of the bunch I liked the rti a9 the best (big surprise) followed very closely by the a7s. The tsi500s weren't bad, I could certainly tell that they were more efficient but they just sounded a bit messier? I don't know if that is a valid description but it was like the difference between listening to your favorite band in an arena vs a small club. The JBLs weren't even worth considering. This may not be a fair assesment however as the speakers were driven by a $200 receiver fed by a $50 DVD player.

The LSi9s look great and I really like the price/performance of the a7s even though they are quite a bit more than I was hoping to spend right now. I'm tempted to pull the trigger on the 70's and upgrade both the amp/reciever and speakers in a few years - I could always put the 70's and the Marantz in the den...hmm. I looked up the specs on the Vegas and they have a slightly higher low frequency response than the 70's (38Hz vs 30Hz) but are much more efficient at 6 ohms and 94dB.

Attached are a few pics of the Marantz if anyone is interested...

Ronster267

Good Pic's, thanks for posting them. The creepy thing is THAT is the SAME EXACT model of Marantz my folks bought when I was a kid in the late 70's. Still looks really cool.

tonyb

Thats a sweet receiver, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I'd like to own it myself. The power supply in those oldies but goodies were way better built than what you find in todays modest receivers. Hook up the M70's and rock out.

trans am

that receiver is amazing! definitely keep it! I think that receiver was what got the Hi-Fi craze going in the 70s. I think the monitor 70s were made for that receiver. Do you listen to a lot of disco? Personally I like that "disco sound" if that is what you want then you might want to redo your car stereo to something like this...
http://youtu.be/f9vO8ycLO2A

also I think I saw your receiver in this one:
http://youtu.be/wB6JQEsrL7w