should i go and check these out?

solarrdadd

hey polkheads, any of you own or had a chance to hear a pair of Polk Audio 5JR monitors, and if so, do you think they are worth $65? they say the cabinets have some scratches on them but claim that the drivers are intact and work perfectly. here are a couple of pictures:







they would be for my office at work so i'm not too worried about the cabinets as long as they don't look like they've been carved or something! sometimes these things look good after they've been cleaned up with a little furniture polish and a vacuum cleaner to the grills!

i like the tweeters and the fact that the woofers can get down low below 45hz (close to 30) because i don't have a sub at work but the speakers i have can only go down to 55hz so, if the drivers all work and the cabinets don't look too bad, i might just buy them.

i would like to hear (pun intended) from the polk community first of course! i need your feedback as i am thinking about acting this weekend before they walk.

thank you in advance to any and all who give their input. i lucked up last year and got a mint (and i mean showroom, outta the factory mint) set of SDA-2's w/interconnect cable and I love them so, while i know these (monitor 5JR's) aren't them, i would like to consider getting them for my office to get better low end.

mhardy6647

I think I'd be happier to spend fiddy smackers or less on 'em... but I'd be interested if only to add a pair to the collection ;-)

solarrdadd

it's on craigs with a OBO so yeah, i'm sure i can talk them down to that. thanks for your reply.

steveinaz

Are they worth $65 bucks...yes. Can you find them cheaper, yes, well--maybe.

solarrdadd

steveinaz wrote: »

Are they worth $65 bucks...yes. Can you find them cheaper, yes, well--maybe.

thanks for your reply steve, as i mentioned before, they are OBO on craigs, below $65 will be no problem. they have informed me that they are connected to a receiver for auditioning and i'll be giving them a listen and a look tomorrow. i was also told that all drivers are original and are working perfectly; they only have cabinet scratches and they are said to be not deep and not dents either.

i'll be sure to let you all know tomorrow if i buy them. my primary thing is how good they sound and how low (hz) they go and sound good; of course the tweeters are important too! secondary is the cabinets and that they are not too badly damaged.

i can deal with some scratches if they sound really good.

Nightfall

Are your SDA2's SL2000's? If so, worst case scenario is you have a pair of timbre matched speakers for a center, rear, or presence channel.

I don't think you'd be disappointed in them. For their size and price, the smaller monitors are awesome.

boston1450

I have those same ones in my room above garage & they work & sound very nice. Have them hooked to a Yammy cr620 & they do very well. For a good price you cant go wrong. GL

solarrdadd

Nightfall wrote: »

Are your [B]SDA2's SL2000's[/B] ? If so, worst case scenario is you have a pair of timbre matched speakers for a center, rear, or presence channel.

I don't think you'd be disappointed in them. For their size and price, the smaller monitors are awesome.

thank you for your response & yes they are. i have no intention of using these speakers with my SDA2's which are used for my 2 channel setup. i plan on using these speakers in my office at work. i currently have some speakers that only go down to 55hz and that's with a strain. i wanted something small in size, that could go down lower than 55hz and i am a collector of vintage polks and for the money these look to be nice. i'm going to check them out later this morning.

since i can't have a sub at work, these speakers offer potential of getting some good low end (more than i can get now) in my office and that extra low end for my hi-rez jazz and other music will make all the difference in the experience. i've got a hugh collection of hi-rez FLAC from 88.2/24 up to 192/24 that i'm hoping to be able to use with these polks if they pan out on the auditioning later this morning!

i'll keep you guys posted.

solarrdadd

boston1450 wrote: »

I have those same ones in my room above garage & they work & sound very nice. Have them hooked to a Yammy cr620 & they do very well. For a good price you cant go wrong. GL

thanks for your response Randy. i have a small emotiva mini X amp that will give these speakers up to 80wpc continuous. for my office that's plenty of power. i don't play the music too loud, but the potential of having speakers that can go down lower than 55hz is what i'm after and my understanding is that these speakers are rated to go well below 55hz so that will be nice as i listen to a lot of jazz and yeah, there are plenty of big bass moments and plenty of deep drum moments too and it would be nice to hear (feel) them experessed a good bit better, and of course if they pan out, for the money i can't go wrong!

i'll keep you guys posted.

steveinaz

I owned the monitor 5jr + some years ago, and liked it very much. I think these will make an excellent office speaker.

solarrdadd

Yes, I picked them up! I went armed with two cd's to audition the Monitor 5JR speakers:

Steely Dan: Guacho

Blade Runner: Movie Soundtrack

First I gave them a good visual once over; they were as advertised, scratches and some staining.

None of which were so bad that I couldn't tolerate it in my office as long as they worked good; boy did they work good!

Here are the official specs:

Monitor 5JR, vintage 1984-85

Midrange 1 - 6-1/2" Diameter (16.51cm) drivers MW6502
Tweeter 1 - 1" Diameter (2.54cm)
Polk SL2000 silver coil dome tweeter
Overall Frequency Response 30Hz - 26kHz Crossover Frequency 3000Hz
Nominal Impedance 4 ohms
Recommended Amplifier Power 10-100 w/channel Efficiency 92 dB
Max Output Level 114 dB
Dimensions Cabinet Size 17" H x 9" W x 8.875" D Weight 45. lbs./ pair


So I listed to two tracks off of each disc. The tracks played had enough highs, mids & lows for what I wanted to hear. There were also male & female voices to hear as well. These speakers have for their age, held up very well.

I picked them up for $40

One of the things I really like is that they use the same tweeters (and possibly woofers) that are in my SDA-2 speakers and you know how I love them. I chose to keep it all in the same family! Here is a shot of the monitors sitting on top of a SDA-2.

Yeah, both are shirtless. . When I got them home, I disconnected the cables from the SDA-2's and connected them to the Monitors and played a. Lot of good jazz and such. I couldn't believe how good those little speakers sounded to my ears at home!

While the enclosures have scratches and staining, that may never come out, the drivers are completely in tact and will give me mor lower end than I can get from the speakers currently in my office ( Emotiva ERM 6.2 which are rated for 80hz) ill probably take them to my office tomorrow for setup and a listen.

So again, I'm very happy with the vintage Polk line up!

Ill keep you guys posted.

boston1450

Very nice. Nice price too That amp should make them little guys sing too.when i got mine i had them on the table and was surprised at how much force came out the little bass port. Well worth cheap $$$ Enjoy

solarrdadd

i'm at my work office, the polks are in place and i just can't get over the amount of bass these little things put out. i'm listening to Fleetwood Mac, Rumors "Dreams" 96/24 FLAC and it's incredible just how that drum sounds. the highs are wonderful, cymbols have that crackle to them and Stevie's throatiness is as deep as Mick always said it was! :twisted:

"You Make Loving Fun" sounded brilliant, Christie was workin it like a second job! next up, Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack 192/24 track 6, RISE, those kettle drums at the very beginning of it are working my ribcage! Then i went to The Hoff Ensemble, A Quiet Winter Night, 192/24, the entire album is in a different language, but, the music sounds incredible.

next up Freddie Hubbard, The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard, 88.2/24, "Caravan" my goodness, will this audio treat for me never stop; how will i actually get any work done tomorrow!?! overall, everything is very relaxing, these speakers sound great and for $40 bucks, in my office, i now have the "mini-me" sound of my home two channel system which are the SDA-2's!

other than when i was a young man in the Navy, oversees, this is the best $40 bucks i've ever spent! :cheesygrin:

boston1450

lotsa people love the Monitor's enjoy your new speakers

solarrdadd

boston1450 wrote: »

lotsa people love the Monitor's enjoy your new speakers

from the looks of your sig, your rolling in premo vintage polks, i love it!

HTguru1982

You make me sick lol. I'll never forgive myself for selling my vintage Monitors. Great looking speakers and @ $40, you stole those things. Enjoy!

boston1450

solarrdadd wrote: »

from the looks of your sig, your rolling in premo vintage polks, i love it!

my favorites are the 7's & i hope someday to upgrade them. All monitors are well liked. I am new to the Monitor speakers too & i enjoy them alot. I have the 4-5-5jr+ 7 10's in different systems throughout the house & garage. Prices were good vs new expensive speakers. I see youve been around here awhile so its nice to see you chime in. Your sig looks like some very fine gear. Are you 2's upgraded ? I have some but no upgrades yet

solarrdadd

boston1450 wrote: »

my favorites are the 7's & i hope someday to upgrade them. All monitors are well liked. I am new to the Monitor speakers too & i enjoy them alot. I have the 4-5-5jr+ 7 10's in different systems throughout the house & garage. Prices were good vs new expensive speakers. I see youve been around here awhile so its nice to see you chime in. Your sig looks like some very fine gear. Are you 2's upgraded ? I have some but no upgrades yet

of my 2's, (and mind you they are my greatest find & purchase for my 2 channel listening pleasure) i am the third owner to include the original purchaser who bought them new back in 84. the second owner purchased them from an estate sale (the original owner died, old dude, had good taste in speakers) and then sold them to me. the second owner never had any upgrades done to them and i gather the original owner didn't either.

i do hear (pardon the pun) that upgrading the caps is one of the best upgrades for them, but, if there is soldering or anything like that, well, i might not do it. so far they sound great just as they are. i am still thinking about it. too bad there isn't a service (a trusted service) that offers to replace the components on your crossovers upgrade them to you if you send the crossovers into them at a set price. i might go for that if it's not too much. however, the drivers will stay original until they fail.

the only thing i've been told about the monitors is that the seller (as far as they know) said that they are completely original. i have no reason to doubt them, again, as far as they know.

solarrdadd

HTguru1982 wrote: »

You make me sick lol. I'll never forgive myself for selling my vintage Monitors. Great looking speakers and @ $40, you stole those things. Enjoy!

i'm greatful for the chance to have gotten them, having said that, i would have paid the full asking price if the cabinets were in good shape. they have some form of chemical damage/discoloring to the veneer and i've tried everthing to clean it off but no luck. i'll just live with it for fear of damaging the surface. i can live with it because the speaker drivers & internals work perfectly!

all i know is, color damage to the cabinets or not, i got an incredible deal on these things! here's the funny thing. i had a pair of emotiva bookshelf speakers in my office with two 6" drivers in them and they were only rated to 80hz, these polks are rated to go lower than almost twice the rating those speakers and the polks are over 25 years old and still going strong!

despite the cabinet damage, those polks received a lot of love to keep them in great working condition all these years! they will continue to receive love in my office with my hi rez audio as well as the emotiva mini X amp rated at 80wpc continuous for 4 ohms so, they will be plenty happy! :biggrin:

agfrost

If you're looking for a way to farm out the work on your crossovers, give VR3 (Trey) a holler. Check out his site, http://vr3mods.com/Home.html , to see the kind of stuff he can do. He'll be happy to chat with you about what you're looking for, and you can have him do up your crossovers anywhere from mild to wild. Lots of folks have used his services around here.

Enjoy your Polks!

solarrdadd wrote: »

of my 2's, (and mind you they are my greatest find & purchase for my 2 channel listening pleasure) i am the third owner to include the original purchaser who bought them new back in 84. the second owner purchased them from an estate sale (the original owner died, old dude, had good taste in speakers) and then sold them to me. the second owner never had any upgrades done to them and i gather the original owner didn't either.

i do hear (pardon the pun) that upgrading the caps is one of the best upgrades for them, but, if there is soldering or anything like that, well, i might not do it. so far they sound great just as they are. i am still thinking about it. too bad there isn't a service (a trusted service) that offers to replace the components on your crossovers upgrade them to you if you send the crossovers into them at a set price. i might go for that if it's not too much. however, the drivers will stay original until they fail.

the only thing i've been told about the monitors is that the seller (as far as they know) said that they are completely original. i have no reason to doubt them, again, as far as they know.

solarrdadd

agfrost wrote: »

If you're looking for a way to farm out the work on your crossovers, give VR3 (Trey) a holler. Check out his site, http://vr3mods.com/Home.html , to see the kind of stuff he can do. He'll be happy to chat with you about what you're looking for, and you can have him do up your crossovers anywhere from mild to wild. Lots of folks have used his services around here.

Enjoy your Polks!

thanks buddy, i might just look into this. i almost can't imagine them sounding better, but, i'm also aware that those caps and other old parts won't last forever.

thank you and the rest of the polk community, strength in numbers!

solarrdadd

so, i went into work today and turned on the tunes like usual and within 10 minutes, people came over to my office. they came by for two reasons:

remember this:

Here are the official specs:

Monitor 5JR, vintage 1984-85

Midrange 1 - 6-1/2" Diameter (16.51cm) drivers MW6502
Tweeter 1 - 1" Diameter (2.54cm)
Polk SL2000 silver coil soft dome tweeter
Overall Frequency Response 30Hz - 26kHz Crossover Frequency 3000Hz
Nominal Impedance 4 ohms
Recommended Amplifier Power 10-100 w/channel Efficiency 92 dB
Max Output Level 114 dB
Dimensions Cabinet Size 17" H x 9" W x 8.875" D Weight 45. lbs./ pair

the output for these speakers is so much more db wise than the old speakers that the level of sound heard was much louder and of course it had the low frequency!

the first thing they all said is that they sound great as they knew i got a new pair, of course the next thing they said is could you "turn them down a little" :redface: :cheesygrin:

it's wonderful, i didn't have it any louder than i usually have it yet, much like the SDA-2's the db output is so high that the sound output is much higher than some speakers put out at the same volume level.

i'm so happy! :biggrin:

cnh

The 3db+/- is probably more like 50hz or maybe a tad more. The Polk listings for full range are usually a little misleading on the old speakers because you won't hear much 30hz, or it won't be very loud compared to let's say 50hz-23Khz? The 3db +/- rating for the much larger Monitor 10s is only 37hz but they can put out some very nice, BIG, bass!

Nonetheless most usable, hearable bass in most music is above 40 hz. So that's fine!

Enjoy! Nice speakers.

cnh

boston1450

Dont ya love happy endings

solarrdadd

cnh wrote: »

The 3db+/- is probably more like 50hz or maybe a tad more. The Polk listings for full range are usually a little misleading on the old speakers because you won't hear much 30hz, or it won't be very loud compared to let's say 50hz-23Khz? The 3db +/- rating for the much larger Monitor 10s is only 37hz but they can put out some very nice, BIG, bass!

Nonetheless most usable, hearable bass in most music is above 40 hz. So that's fine!

Enjoy! Nice speakers.

cnh

agreed, but, what i can hear & feel bass wise, it a hugh improvement over the speakers i had in here before that had a low end rating of 80hz. also, these speakers are 25+ years old so, i've got to give them the love. the music has so much more body to it because of the prescense of the lower end improvement that even at lower volumes its still evident. keep in mind, they are bookshelf speakers and i have no sub and yet i can still hear and feel the lower end and me likes it! :cool:

bottom line, i'm doing better music wise at work starting today than i was on Friday last week and it only cost me $40 can't beat that, just can't! :cheesygrin:

steveinaz

I rocked my Monitor 5jr + with a 215watt Soundcraftsmen, they never broke a sweat. I was amazed with those little speakers.

boston1450

Attachment not found.

steveinaz wrote: »

I rocked my Monitor 5jr + with a 215watt Soundcraftsmen, they never broke a sweat. I was amazed with those little speakers.

got my jr+ hooked to a small Sansui & they sound incredible. Listening to them as i type those are sitting on monitor 10 stands

solarrdadd

boston1450 wrote: »

Attachment not found. got my jr+ hooked to a small Sansui & they sound incredible. Listening to them as i type those are sitting on monitor 10 stands

WoW! :biggrin: those look nice! how do those 5JR+'s sound with their PR's? i would imagine the low end produced by them is quite superior to the 5JR's?

are the PR's 8" or 10" on the JR+ speakers?

EDIT: I just saw that the PR on the 5JR's is 6.5" and they also have the SL2500 dome tweeter, nice!

boston1450

solarrdadd wrote: »

WoW! :biggrin: those look nice! how do those 5JR+'s sound with their PR's? i would imagine the low end produced by them is quite superior to the 5JR's?

are the PR's 8" or 10" on the JR+ speakers?

EDIT: I just saw that the PR on the 5JR's is 6.5" and they also have the SL2500 dome tweeter, nice!

ive never A&B either monitor 5's i have but i listen to the 5jr+ daily. As you see in picture in dining room temporary. The others like yours are in my weight room & doesnt get used as much as id like. Lol. But there both great speakers