ID These Monitor Series Please!

nacam

Hi All;

Planning some upgrades to my 1.2's soon but in the meantime I picked up these two pairs of Monitor Series (4's for Center, 5's for Rears).

The Monitor 5s:
Just wondering what versions these are? The guy I bought them from said they were 5a's, but I can't see schematics for them. Obviously sporting the ever sought after Peerless tweeters

My first impression was that the high end on the Peerless tweeters is very mellow compared to the RD0's in my 1.2TL's. Caps obviously need to be replaced.

The Monitor 4s:
Didn't get any further info other than they were M4's. But what version? Looks like a more modern tweeter in these and not replaceable by anything newer or ???

Thanks in advance!

(I'll talk about what needs to be done on my 1.2's later....)

nadams

I would say Monitor 5a and Monitor 4a, per pictures on www.polksda.com

intangible

I think that is a Monitor 4.5, because it is ported. Though, I am be no means an expert.

Edit: It does look like the 4A picture, though.

Edit 2: What is the difference between the 4.5 and 4A anyway? They appear to have the same crossover and drivers.

OldmanSRS

I had a pair just like the ones in your photo in 1991. They are 4A's




http://jedipadwa.blogspot.com/2010/02/polk-audio-monitor-4.html

Greg

Joe08867

They are definitely 4a's and 5a's.

The smaller is a Monitor 4A, and the larger is a Monitor 5A.

skrol

I see your 5's have the gaskets on the PR and MW but plastic attachment for the grills. They look to me like a transitional version from Model 5 to Model/Monitor 5A. However, I don't think that there is much difference between the Model 5 and Monitor 5A other than age and possibly the version of the Peerless tweeter. I don't know about the XO components.

The Model 5 (no letter) had velcro attachments for the grills and the paper gaskets on the PR and MW.

My Monitor 5A's were built in 1983 and are labeled Model 5A (Monitor 5A) and have no paper gaskets. Any idea what year yours were made? If you remove a MW, it is likely stamped. But don't do this just to get the date.

nadams

As we've found when researching vintage models in the past, there was a lot of overrun between models and revisions...

skrol

Somewhere here I posted a document that I am working on called "Vintage Polk Audio.pdf" that attempts to catalog all the vintage models. It is real fun trying to track down all the variants. You learn something new every time.