7C's or 7A's what to do????

vstarkwell
vstarkwell Posts: 328
edited January 2012 in Vintage Speakers
I have a quandary and was hoping for some advice. This past October I purchased a pair of Polk 7 C's with the Silver dome tweeters. In my excitement & haste to get them I didn't pay too much attention to the drivers and it wasn't until a week or so later that I realized one of the drivers was not a stock Polk driver. It wasn't until I unscrewed it and to my chagrin I realized it was a Radio Shack driver. I touched bases with local Polkie and he said I could probably find a replacement driver in the $25 - $40 range. From what I've read here it would be universally accepted that I also replace the Silver Dome tweets with RDO-194 or is it RDO-198?.

So my question is this, I have access to a pair of 7A's with Peerless tweets and two fuses each on the back of them. I paid a Hundy for the 7 C's and can get the 7A's for the same price possibly a little more. What should I do? invest more in the 7 C's or get the 7 A's? As always any thoughts, opinions are appreciated.
Monitor 7C's With Tubes
Post edited by vstarkwell on
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Comments

  • Joe08867
    Joe08867 Posts: 3,919
    edited January 2012
    Invest in the 7c's. The peerless tweets are nice but RD-0194 is much nicer. Upgrade the caps as well and you will have an awesome set of speaks.
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  • gdb
    gdb Posts: 6,012
    edited January 2012
    Own Both
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  • skrol
    skrol Posts: 3,375
    edited January 2012
    The 7C should sound very nice with the upgraded tweeters ($48 each club price). Then add in the $25-$40 for a mid-bass driver brings you to $121 - $136 on top of what you paid for the 7C.

    The 7A is also a very nice sounding speaker with Peerless tweeters. You could buy the 7A's assuming that they are in nice condition and sell or part out the 7C's. Take the money and upgrade the crossover components in the 7A's and you are golden.

    I will mention that in comparing my 5A's (same era as the 7A and same tweeter) and my 5B (same era as the 7C, and same tweeter) I find the mid to upper range more pleasant on the 5A. However, the 5B has better bass response. In this case there were significant changes to the Monitor 5 cabinet and mid-woofer selection form the 5A to the 5B. I am not sure if this is the case with the 7A vs 7C.

    However, if you want to fix up the 7C's, I might have an extra MW6502.

    Stan
    Stan

    Main 2ch:
    Polk LSi15 (DB840 upgrade), Parasound: P/LD-1100, HCA-1000A; Denon: DVD-2910, DRM-800A; Benchmark DAC1, Monster HTS3600-MKII, Grado SR-225i; Technics SL-J2, Parasound PPH-100.

    HT:
    Marantz SR7010, Polk: RTA11TL (RDO198-1, XO and Damping Upgrades), S4, CS250, PSW110 , Marantz UD5005, Pioneer PL-530, Panasonic TC-P42S60

    Other stuff:
    Denon: DRA-835R, AVR-888, DCD-660, DRM-700A, DRR-780; Polk: S8, Monitor 5A, 5B, TSi100, RM7, PSW10 (DXi104 upgrade); Pioneer: CT-6R; Onkyo CP-1046F; Ortofon OM5E, Marantz: PM5004, CD5004, CDR-615; Parasound C/PT-600, HCA-800ii, Sony CDP-650ESD, Technics SA 5070, B&W DM601
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  • skrol
    skrol Posts: 3,375
    edited January 2012
    Joe08867 wrote: »
    Invest in the 7c's. The peerless tweets are nice but RD-0194 is much nicer. Upgrade the caps as well and you will have an awesome set of speaks.

    I have wondered about this. My 5A's with Peerless blend fairly well with my RTA11TL's with the RDO's. The SL2000 is not even close. But since the 5B seems to have better bass response than the 5A, I could swap the SL2000 for the RDO and it should be the best of both worlds.
    Stan

    Main 2ch:
    Polk LSi15 (DB840 upgrade), Parasound: P/LD-1100, HCA-1000A; Denon: DVD-2910, DRM-800A; Benchmark DAC1, Monster HTS3600-MKII, Grado SR-225i; Technics SL-J2, Parasound PPH-100.

    HT:
    Marantz SR7010, Polk: RTA11TL (RDO198-1, XO and Damping Upgrades), S4, CS250, PSW110 , Marantz UD5005, Pioneer PL-530, Panasonic TC-P42S60

    Other stuff:
    Denon: DRA-835R, AVR-888, DCD-660, DRM-700A, DRR-780; Polk: S8, Monitor 5A, 5B, TSi100, RM7, PSW10 (DXi104 upgrade); Pioneer: CT-6R; Onkyo CP-1046F; Ortofon OM5E, Marantz: PM5004, CD5004, CDR-615; Parasound C/PT-600, HCA-800ii, Sony CDP-650ESD, Technics SA 5070, B&W DM601
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  • Conradicles
    Conradicles Posts: 6,081
    edited January 2012
    I just bought a pair of 7A's with the 2 fuses. They are very, very early models around 1978.

    Buy them just to have a piece of Polk history. I just upgraded the capacitors and resistors in mine and they sound incredible for such a budget speaker.

    Here they are hanging out in the garage rig...
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  • audio_alan
    audio_alan Posts: 770
    edited January 2012
    gdb wrote: »
    Own Both

    +1 - You can never have too many speakers, and you can probably flip one of the sets for little or no money loss if you decide you like one set over the other. :cheesygrin:
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  • Conradicles
    Conradicles Posts: 6,081
    edited January 2012
    The only thing I dont like about the 7A's are the grill fasteners. They are really odd.
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  • vstarkwell
    vstarkwell Posts: 328
    edited January 2012
    To all who have replied I just double checked on the speakers and they are in fact 7B's with just one fuse not what I hade mentioned earlier. Sorry for any confusion.
    Monitor 7C's With Tubes
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  • vstarkwell
    vstarkwell Posts: 328
    edited January 2012
    gdb wrote: »
    Own Both

    I thought of that but currently own a pair of SDA II's & 5Jr+ Series 2 (which are currently on loan to a friend). I wouldn't know what to do with an extra pair.
    Monitor 7C's With Tubes
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  • vstarkwell
    vstarkwell Posts: 328
    edited January 2012
    skrol wrote: »
    The 7C should sound very nice with the upgraded tweeters ($48 each club price). Then add in the $25-$40 for a mid-bass driver brings you to $121 - $136 on top of what you paid for the 7C.

    The 7A is also a very nice sounding speaker with Peerless tweeters. You could buy the 7A's assuming that they are in nice condition and sell or part out the 7C's. Take the money and upgrade the crossover components in the 7A's and you are golden.

    However, if you want to fix up the 7C's, I might have an extra MW6502.

    Stan

    Depending on what I do I will take you up on the offer if you do have an extra MW6502.
    Monitor 7C's With Tubes
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