Silver dome to RDO a fountain of youth for Monitor 7s?

[Deleted User]

I picked up some Acoustic Research AR-4X and some unknown 3-way speakers w/
1975 era Philips drivers (made in Belgium) and have been listing to them for about
a month on my vintage setup. Getting to the point, when I went back to the
HT setup and my monitor 7's I noticed a harshness I hadn't really been aware of
before. :sad: I have/had the silver dome tweeters. A google search/reading/ call
to Polk for RDO-194s / setup account and here I am!

I got'em in the mail yesterday and decided to plop one in and do a A-B test.
Hmmm. Less sibilance. Less tweeter forward. It seems to match the other drivers
well. However, it seems the speaker had lost a bit of it's machismo. :sad:
Is there a break in period for tweeters? I decided to try overnight and will test
24 hours later. Did I get chiseled? Should I have saved the dough for some SDAs
or monitor 10s or another pair of RT7s? :rolleyes:

pitdogg2

give them some time you come to like what you hear the RDO194 is a much better tweeter

zingo

You did not get chiseled as they are a more HiFi tweeter. However, there are some people who prefer the brightness of the SL2000, and it is a tweeter that was ahead of it's time, and helped build the name and popularity of Polk.

westmassguy

Definitely give them some break-in time, 40-50 hrs minimum. Have the crossovers been recapped, or all original?
I personally can't tolerate the SL2000s for more than an hour without ear fatigue. I'm so acclimated to the silky smooth 194s and 198s.

gmjungbluth

Only you will be able to decide in the end whether the SL200s or the RDOs are a better match for you. I do think that coming from the SLs you may be straining for a bit with the smoothness of the RDOs. If you're used to having the treble right in your face it'll take a while to adjust. But the wait will be worth it, in my experience.

Per your other question, I wouldn't sell the Monitor 7s for Monitor 10s. In my experience you're not gaining a ton. I've had the 5s, 10s ,and 7s, and the only ones I really play now are the 7s. they are tighter and have better imaging in my opinion.

Enjoy!

[Deleted User]

Thanks for all of the advice. I've learned not to make a snap judgement on speakers
but was a little surprised at the brightness and clarity that seemed to go away.
I got an hour or so of serious listening in last night and I already like them much
better. So much so that I abandoned the A/B test and tossed in the other tweet.
No, I haven't replaced anything in the Xovers. Any suggestions along this line
would be much appreciated! Love my polks and want to get the most out of them :cheesygrin:

drumminman

The standard Xover upgrade is to replace all caps and resistors with high quality film caps and non inductive wirewound resistors, e.g. Sonicaps and Mills.

It makes a world of difference, but complete burn in of the new components does take a few hours. Shouldn't be too expensive on the 7's as their Xovers aren't too complex.

[Deleted User]

Thanks drumminman, I'm on it...:cheesygrin:
These might fall out of the HT and back into
the vintage setup at this rate. Likein' it.