Greetings: back to polk/Monitor 7 project

Scottinwa

Hi, This will be a combo thread so I can get all of it out at once.

Me: (then) Discovered Polk mid 80's. Military exchanges overseas carried them. Thought they lived up to the billing. They were transparent and coherent. I found them able to go toe to toe with the then more expensive KEF and vandersteen audio at least. Much less colored than Klipsch, bose, JBL and other affordable speakers. I owned SDA 12's, Monitor 4's, and SDA 4C's. I really liked the monitor 5, 7 , 10 up to the SDA-SRS. I was told that at one point, Polk tweeters were no longer peerless but an Asian clone. I kind of lost interest in polk around 1990 until the LS series came out.

Now: Just found a set of Monitor 7's complete with original black peerless tweeters and tweeter fuse. The vinyl covering was removed, cabinet painted flat black and scuffed. Besides that: they work fine. $50 on craigs list. I repainted the cabinets gloss black. I replaced the caps with recommended dayton audio metallized poly. Compared to the stock (worn) caps, the new caps were far more open, transparent and less congested. BIG improvement! I plan on finding some approximate vinyl covering. I would swap out the tweeters *IF* the drop-in replacements were truly superior to the Peerless. Also, I am scouring the web for 7a grills or at least grill frames.

Future: I would like to replace my (modified) Klipsch KG4's in my bedroom with some flavor of monitor 10, or CRS speakers (they will get modded too).

Oldfatdogs

Hello Scott,good story.Great buy on the 7s,I also have two pair of 7s with peerless tweeters.Personally I like the peerless tweeters but I also have a set of SDA1c with the 194rdo tweeters that beat them out by a little bit.Now this is just my old ears,there are members that like them better than any vintage Polk tweeters.What im trying to say is, if you like them as is uses them until you need to replace them.Just my take,welcome to the forums.
Dan

Scottinwa

I will look into it. The peerless were *AMAZING* for the day, but they have been beaten by newer designs. Newer stuff is more linear and less prone to breakup at higher volume. (really, the new ring tweeter is aces). I will gladly transplant my 70's peerless for any cost effective drop-in. (I am not spending $300 on scan speak for example). :P

gudnoyez

Welcome to Club Polk, and thanks for the service to our country. I also served in the Army, and the Audio Equipment that was available to us at AFFES (PX) was like audio nirvana, the choices we had was unbelievable. Polk Audio, Klipsch, Kef, Bose, Acoustic Research, JBL, to many to mention and that was just speakers. It was crazy everyone in the Barracks, or in military housing had kick **** systems.

I started with a pair of Acoustic Research AR 58's and AR 18's and Technics, Sansui, and Marantz gear. I own Klipsch, Acoustic Research, Polk Audio, Bose, JBL, Cerwin Vegas, some are in storage but my AR 58's AR 18's and my Polks CRS+s SDA 2Bs and Rti A5's and A3s are still being used. Glad to hear you like the classic Polk Sound welcome back.

Oldfatdogs

I believe the 194 tweeters are around 48.00,tell them you are a forum member for a discount.
Dan

gmjungbluth

How are your KG4s modded?

I recently went the other way - I traded a pair of Monitor 10s with the RDO-194s for some Polk 7s and 5s with Peerless. I found that the 10s weren't as focused as 7s, with poorer imaging. Bass was huge however. But then the day I traded them I hooked the 10s up to a modern Pioneer receiver and was blown away - very focused, fun to listen to. The lesson for me was to try speakers with multiple receivers - if I had demo'd my 10s on that Pioneer earlier, I may never have traded them away!

I just picked up a set of KG4s and am really happy so far- here is a speaker that to me is really similar to the 10s - there is the potential for huge bass (I had them initally hooked up to a 30wpc Pioneer integrated and they rattled my whole house), but very subjective to receiver pairing and speaker placement. I have seen large changes in the bass composition and clarity from moving the KG4s to and away from a backing wall - a few inches can make a huge difference.

Would you think about trying to put veneer on your 7s? It could be an improvement over vinyl.

Enjoy your speakers!!

Scottinwa

My KG4's have a Bob Crites crossover kit (www.critesspeakers.com) which consist mainly of high quality caps matched to the system. Save money by using dayton metallized poly caps and the Bob Crites Ti tweeter diaphragm. The original caps were degraded electrolytics. Also he sells a titanium diaphragm for the tweeter. The ti is MUCH better than klipsch poly. Theses mods together are amazing! I wish I had the skill to veneer. I can use the wood hobby shop on base.

AAFES used to carry Harmen International JBL (everything from the tiny two way monitors and 4312a to the 240ti) Infinity (From bookshelf to the medium large ribbons. Ended with kappa aeries in the 90's) Ar, Bose, polk, Klipsch. They had Nakamichi dragons, PA7, the best from onkyo, denon, yamaha sansui, pioneer, sae, Kenwood etc. All for a FRACTION of the US price. AR had some well defined bass thanks to acoustic suspension. I lost interest after the TSW series.

I will talk to polk about the 194 tweeters.

Thanks for the info.

Scottinwa

Stock phenolic kg4 tweeter diaphragm:

New Ti diaphragm for kg4

Scottinwa

Stock crossover for heritage klipsch (forte II/ quartet)


Bob Crites uses sonicaps which are nice, but dayton metal poly costs less and work as well.

StuartB

The new RDO tweeters are not just a simple drop in replacement for the Peerless tweeters. The resistor in the HF circuit is a little different, and the RDO requires a slightly larger cut out in the cabinet. I rebuilt a pair of Monitor 5b speakers, and added the RDO tweeters. For me it was worth it, the highs are a little sweeter and smoother, and I was already upgrading the crossovers. The RDO works best with a 2.7 ohm resistor.

StuartB

And this is not a knock on the peerless tweeters. Just that in my case there was an incremental improvement With the RDOs. By the way, my peerless are available for sale if anyone is interested.

gmjungbluth

Thanks for the info! I'll look in to the crossover upgrades. I am/was totally happy with the KG4s as is, but now I feel a case of upgrade-itis coming on!

Scottinwa wrote: »

My KG4's have a Bob Crites crossover kit (www.critesspeakers.com) which consist mainly of high quality caps matched to the system. Save money by using dayton metallized poly caps and the Bob Crites Ti tweeter diaphragm. The original caps were degraded electrolytics. Also he sells a titanium diaphragm for the tweeter. The ti is MUCH better than klipsch poly. Theses mods together are amazing! I wish I had the skill to veneer. I can use the wood hobby shop on base.

AAFES used to carry Harmen International JBL (everything from the tiny two way monitors and 4312a to the 240ti) Infinity (From bookshelf to the medium large ribbons. Ended with kappa aeries in the 90's) Ar, Bose, polk, Klipsch. They had Nakamichi dragons, PA7, the best from onkyo, denon, yamaha sansui, pioneer, sae, Kenwood etc. All for a FRACTION of the US price. AR had some well defined bass thanks to acoustic suspension. I lost interest after the TSW series.

I will talk to polk about the 194 tweeters.

Thanks for the info.

Scottinwa

If you have upgraded POLK and you witness the improvements to be had, the KG4 have the same potential. Either upgrade alone (caps or tweeter) made a PROFOUND difference by themselves. Together, they elevate the KG4's way up. The stock speaker just isn't even close.

I may have a local cabinetmaker or woodworker veneer my 7's. I may go light oak, cherry or ash with tung oil.

Although not undoable, the RDO transplant sounds like it would be a little work. I have no problem swapping the resistors. I have to decide if I want to do that. Incidentally, what about the sl2000 sl3000 tweeters I see everywhere compared to the peerless?

Scottinwa

FWIW my top ten philosophies on speakers.
1) A great speaker= great parts. Fidelity is not a product of poor parts.
2) Electrolytic caps have no place in a crossover. Storage ok... but e caps smear, distort, delay and degrade in as little as 5 years.
3) Some diaphragm materials (like klipsch phenolic) are self-limiting.
4) You cannot get top performance from a driver that doesn't behave correctly to begin with (resonance, breakup, beamy etc)
5) I do not believe in "magic" caps. I believe in competent caps (like metallized poly 5% or 1%) not incompetent caps like 10 or 20% electrolytic. IOW: some caps are just overpriced and not worth it. The BIGGEST change is getting away from .50 cent electrolytic caps, not some druid-blessed $50 wonder cap.
6) Too thick internal cable is as detrimental as too thin.
7) metal horn throats are bad juju.
8) Omitting bass or anything else is not fidelity. (I just hate that when some snob says "x speaker sounds bloated and slow" but they have some delicate speaker that rolls off at 70hz....)
9) Drivers in themselves do not make a great speaker. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard the $2,500 accutron diamond tweeters lay an egg.
10) There is such a thing as a point of diminishing returns. (Not all speakers over a grand each sound like it...)

Scottinwa

I have e-mailed a local woodworker about getting my speakers veneered.

Scottinwa

Just scored a pair of Sl-2000 tweeters for $64 shipped. Ordered 2.7 ohm precision audio resistors.