Driver Question

smglbrth

Hey All!!

I need to replace one driver in my Monitor 5B's, so..., I'm going to replace them both for uniformity. Besides, it's always nice to have an emergency extra laying around.

My question is this. The original drivers have "dual" magnets. I.E. - they have the regular magnet but with another "glued" directly behind the other to make this HUGE, sort of, one piece magnet. I have never seen Polk drivers like this before. Is this actually the way they made them for the 5B's or did someone think they knew better than Polk?

Just thought it'd be interesting to see if anyone knew for sure.

hoosier21

most likey somebody added the second magnet, it is a "bucking magnet", this bucking magnet will alow you to put the speaker close to a TV

smglbrth

Hoosier - Thanks, never thought of that one but I suppose it makes sense. Strange about the driver bad driver though. It just won't do didly, nada, nothing. It went pop and that was it. Polk drivers I've blown have always sounded ok until you get them moving than that awful "boink" sound comes. Maybe the voice coil came completely separated. Who knows, I didn't even have it up that high but I'm sure age is somewhat of a factor here.

smglbrth

Found out what happened (in case anyone was wondering)!!

Figured the driver wouldn't work no matter how I tried things so decided to pull the front "dust" cover off the middle. What I found was quite interesting. On the older 65xx drivers the two little wires run through the cone and back into the voice coil. One of these wires had broken! The other is still attached albeit it's green like the other one, CORROSION.

So...., guess age was the ultimate factor after all. She just gave up the ghost. Almost, or around, 20 years I would expect. Not bad for a driver IMO!!

So if you have older drivers and one goes pop and just stops playing this might well be the problem.

:eek:

Mully

So did you repair the broken wire?

I've had my Monitor 5b's since circa 1989. I blew a tweeter when Metallica's And Justice for All came out. The dealer I bought them from opened it up on the show floor and put in a new one from another on the show flow. Great service. No problems since.

BTW. When the spider became unglue on my PSW150 I emailed Polk customer serice and had an authorized dealer repair for only $60.

Good Luck.

Mully

smglbrth

Mully - Hope you like the forums!

My wife called Polk today and they told her the 6502 drivers are on backorder until the end of February. Boy does that stink but what to do, right? So..., only one speaker is running and mono gets old in the office REAL quick.

In order to find the problem I had to take the front dust cover off. It didn't come in one piece, off that is. That wire is so stinking small, not at all like what you see on the back of the cone. Not very fixable, not to mention ugly.

Hope you have fun "surfing" the forums!

dorokusai

SMG - That much corrosion sounds like a earlier or possibly current, moisture or humidity problem. Oxidation could occur faster in some than others, so it may have just been a fluke.

Just a thought.