Polk monitor 70 for music... yay or nay?

Mystery

I'm tempted to jump to these as the price is very good.
$150 for the pair but I am not sure if these will sound as good as my vintage speakers for music.
Mostly for HT but I won't have two sets at the same place so one pair should work for both.
What say you?
thanks

hochpt21

I mean, there is much better out there of course, but value-wise, I don't know that you can do much better.

I started out with M70's in my 2-ch rig and really enjoyed them, then got the LSi's and now the 70's are in the HT rig.

I will say that M70's need good amplification to sound their best.

When powering them with a HK 85W receiver I enjoyed the M50's better than the 70's. But when I upped the amp, the 70's were great.

cnh

H21 is right. You want "music" out of M-70s, POP a power amp on them. Without it you won't think they sound any better than your vintage stuff. My JBL L80ts tower over them for music, but when amplified with 200 watts or more x 2 the M-70s are OK. Still NOT as good as the JBLs and they're, what, over 25 years old? While I'm at it, the L80ts are better than the Rti-A5s and A7s as well! Polk should "step up" their game soon! The Rti-12s, A9s are probably worth it?

Heck, my Monitor 10As sound "better" than a new pair of M-70s in many ways.
On the other hand, there is NOT much new available for 300 a pair that will be better than properly amplified M-70s.

You've got some Boston A400s there. M-70s will NEVER touch those regardless of amplification!

When I think of what Andrew Jones did with those SP BS22s. Makes you wonder what Polk is doing with their less than LSiM series. Get those "engineers" off their butts and working on the "value" speakers!

I bought a set of VIFA dome tweeters from PartsExpress to put into some JBL 2600 bookshelves, after they were redone they made the tweets in the Rti series sound a tad "lame". The VIFAs were only $36.00 a pair with neodymium magnets and treated fabric, wonderfully crisp highs, beautiful imaging, fantastic dispersion off axis. Better than any Polk bookie save the LSi, LSiM?

Just WHERE is Polk sourcing their drivers? Build some speakers around an RD-0198 tweeter for God's sake! They're in stock.

cnh

Mystery

I see.
I was just tempted to try because of the price.
Will pass.
Thanks

PolkieMan

I use them for rear surrounds I like the height and they are narrow. SDA they are not :-)

Mystery wrote: »

I see.
I was just tempted to try because of the price.
Will pass.
Thanks

Mystery

cnh wrote: »

H21 is right. You want "music" out of M-70s, POP a power amp on them. Without it you won't think they sound any better than your vintage stuff. My JBL L80ts tower over them for music, but when amplified with 200 watts or more x 2 the M-70s are OK. Still NOT as good as the JBLs and they're, what, over 25 years old? While I'm at it, the L80ts are better than the Rti-A5s and A7s as well! Polk should "step up" their game soon! The Rti-12s, A9s are probably worth it?

You've got some Boston A400s there. M-70s will NEVER touch those regardless of amplification!

Giving 2nd thought.
I do have Speakercraft BB275 and Adcom GFA-555 II now so power is covered.
I'm selling Klipsch KSP-400 as they are too deep and will replace them with something slimmer like the Monitor 70 or just use my bipolar Definitive BP10's.
I also have JBL L80t3 that are waiting for re-foam and Infinity RS625 towers as slimmer choices.

A400's are great but I'm not using them in family room for movies, they are just for music in the living room and they really have a lot punch once I added power amps instead of A/V receivers.
Here is living room setup:
Philips 312 Turntable.
Yamaha CD Player (I have a Nakamichi CD player somewhere in the basement that'll replace it soon).
Harman Kardon Signature Series AP2500 Pre-amplifier.
Adcom GFA-555 II Amplifier.
Marantz 3000 Cassette Player.
Boston Acoustics A400 Speakers.
Definitive Technology PF15TL+ subwoofer.

cnh

I run M-70s in my HT system with a CS2 and supporting series surrounds and a 300 watt 12" sub off the Onkyo TX-SR805 and they do a very nice job on movies.

For music they sounded best to me on my Denon AVR 2807 and an Adcom GFA-555. To tell you the truth I wasn't expecting them too, but they lit up a bit for music on that system. I suppose if I were running them for both music and HT, which I am not (so I keep them on the Onkyo sans power amp). I'd probably run the Denon and a couple of Adcoms for the front three, I have a 545 I could power the center with.

The long and the short of it is that I used to use the JBLs as R/L in the HT but when I went HDTV, the room being too narrow the M-70 towers took up less space and I could timbre match everything. The surround sound is fairly seamless.

cnh

vijayv82

$150 for pair of M70 is a steal. where are you buying it from ?

VJ

Mystery

It was listed locally but I passed on it.
Too many speakers already.

boston1450

IIRC they are/were running a sale online at 159.99 W/Rebate =129.99 each which i think is a really good deal NIB

Capta1nRon

I am piecing together my first system. I've previously only purchases HTIBs. I just bought a pair of Monitor 70s (on sale at Newegg for $160/ea). Need a center channel that matches. I didn't realized when I bought these that this was an older model, but the only 25c monitors I can find are cherry (I need black). Is there another center speaker that matches up well with these M70s?

Also, how important is it that the back surround speakers are from the same series? I just bought Klipsch Synergy S-10s as well, and I don't know if I need to send them back or not.

hochpt21

CS1 or CS2 would match the Monitor 70's. I would highly recommend the CS2.

Back speakers matching is not as important as the front 3.

What AVR are you planning to use?

PolkieMan

Polk has the CS2 on sale at their Ebay store
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xpolk+cs2&_nkw=polk+cs2&_sacat=0&_from=R40

hochpt21 wrote: »

CS1 or CS2 would match the Monitor 70's. I would highly recommend the CS2.

Back speakers matching is not as important as the front 3.

What AVR are you planning to use?