Vintage Monitor 5jrs and Monitor 7s

zappafan2

Hey guys just recently signed up but lurked here a long time and have a question. I have a pair of 5jrs and a pair of Monitor 7s hooked up to a Marantz 2230 receiver. I do not run both at same time just use for different things. I really do love the sound but am wondering if I would notice a huge difference if I used the Marantz as a pre and got an amp. I really want to continue using the Marantz and have thought about upgrading to a bigger one but the prices are skyrocketing on these things. Been looking at Emotiva amps and just wanting to get some opinions and varying ideas to think about. Thanks for any advice and I really enjoy this site and the information I have got here, thanks again. Mark

westmassguy

Welcome to CP. What size rooms are they used in, and how loud do you normally listen. The Marantz is most likely conservatively rated at 60 watts per channel, and should power either quite easily. What type of improvement are you looking for?
Both the 5s and 7s are long in the tooth. You may be better off looking into crossover upgrades and new replacement tweeters, which will improve their sound dramatically.
A power amp will give you more reserve for sure, but may not improve their sound the way you want.

leftwinger57

Zappa, welcome to CP,general concensus is if your receiver or avr has pre outs then yes an amp will greatly improve the sound and take the strain off the avr. Since your new here this story has been told many times by me. I have a Yamaha RX-V665 @ 90wpc. Well it's 90 divided by 7 or some rediculous formula so when I went to air out my system the Yamaha clipped and went into protection mode. It came back, I tried it again ,the same nonsense happened and then thankfully the guys here told me my avr has pre outs and get a stand alone amp. I picked up an Adcom 555 from Audio Classics and used that before going 2-channel.
No affiliation--- again welcome to CP

zappafan2

Thank you leftwinger I will check out audio classics

zappafan2

Well westmass my system is in a smaller room now but planning on moving into a larger living room soon. The Marantz is actually 30 wpc and honestly it sounds good but I keep hearing that by putting so me more watts into them they will sound even better. I guess I am just worried I may be missing something LOL. I do know I definitely should upgrade the tweeters from what I have been reading here. Loudness just varies for me sometimes I do like to turn it up.

westmassguy

zappafan2 wrote: »

Well westmass my system is in a smaller room now but planning on moving into a larger living room soon. The Marantz is actually 30 wpc and honestly it sounds good but I keep hearing that by putting so me more watts into them they will sound even better. I guess I am just worried I may be missing something LOL. I do know I definitely should upgrade the tweeters from what I have been reading here. Loudness just varies for me sometimes I do like to turn it up.

You're right, I looked at the wrong Marantz. At 30 WPC, you're most likely running out of steam, especially with the 7s. It has pre-outs, so a power amp could easily be added.
You could also do a "Y" split on the pre-outs, and use the internal amp for the 5s and a separate power amp for the 7s.

zappafan2

Oh wow thats a great idea on the "Y" split thanks I appreciate that.

leftwinger57

When Dave asked how loud you listen to music and the size of your room 2 very important issues w/ receivers and wanting to go louder. Besides my suggestion of the Adcom 555 which is 200watts a side there are a boatload of other amplifiers out there and 100watts of clean ss power and current is what you need. Just look around. I also have M7s from '78 w/ new x-overs in them so I do push them w/ ease. Talk to Dave on his site if you want to improve your sound internally.

zappafan2

Is the tweeter upgrade easy? Where do you buy them from? The x overs I would not tackle lol somebody would be doing those lol

zappafan2

Oh also I know there is not a lot of love for emotiva amps it seems but they were having a great xmas sale. I got a mini x for $149 shipped, I have 2 smaller systems in house so I figured at worst I could use in another spot. This is a 50 w continuous per channel and I have had it hooked up to my Marantz for about 4 albums so far. The differences are subtle but they are there ,a little more volume for sure actually plenty for my room lol. I am not an audiophile just know what I like and it seems that my bass and drums seem a bit tighter and overall just a little more cleaner sound and a more noticeable seperation of instruments if that makes sense. For the $150 I am happy but also I have never listened to speakers with a seperate amp powering them in my system.

zappafan2

Just ordered replacement tweeters

leftwinger57

Me M7s from '78 have the original Peerless in them. I now know why people rave about them so much. They are very smooth w/o being piercing or fatiguing in any way. Oh that remark about doing the x-overs was directed towards Dave who did mine. We do not discuss prices here and contact him on his e-mail or site on E-Bay. If you do go for a seperate amp the strain off the Marantz will increase it's life span and you'll have the volume w/o distortion you want.



dhsspeaker@hotmail.com,

cortico

Hi welcome to the forum, that marantz will do a pretty good job driving your speakers.

I Have 1060 hooked with with a CRS SDA pair, the 1060 has the same power supply, same preamp and power amp design as the 2230.... It's sounds pretty amazing!

zappafan2

Wow Cortico I like the looks of your space, here is mine

Nightfall

I wanna be sedated!

Did you know Motorhead is a fan of the Ramones?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHc6x01QCKk

cortico

Thanks Zappafan, I'm limited in terms of space, the speaker placement isn't optimal. Although, it still sounds very good.

Your 2230 is great, very well built, people say it's the best sounding of the 22XX line.

The Ramones are a classic! Wow 6 Marshall stack on the video, it might get loud!

zappafan2

Love the Ramones and Motorhead my music tastes are very diverse, as i have gotten older they have changed but sometimes you just have to ROCK lol. Actually listened to some Iron Fist yesterday

cortico

Someone pickup up this 2230 like yours from a dumpster... He says is still working!

zappafan2

Mine is a tad cleaner lol

soundfreak1

I would've been scared to plug that amp in.

soundfreak1

Would love to have a drawing with dimensions on those.

solarrdadd

howdy, I have a pair of monitor 10A (peerless) for fronts and a monitor 5jr for a center in my bedroom 5.1 system. it's the 6.5 mid, 6.5 radiator and 1" silver coil dome tweeter. I have found someone with a genuine working peerless tweeter # 55143684 that's spec'd for Mini Monitor, Mini Monitor II, 12B, 11, 10, 10A, 7A, 7B, 5, 5B. my question is, if I pick this up, can I swap it out for my current silver dome tweeter and it work with no problems or harm/damage to the crossover or mid driver? I don't know if there will be a resistance issue or something that the current crossover might have with the differences in the tweeters. he said the resistance is reading at 6.5 ohms, does that sound about right?

my point in all of this, I'd love to have 3 peerless tweeters in my front 3 speakers and I have a chance to BUT, only if I can simply swap the current silver for the offered peerless. price is not an issue, so, no need to get into that. I'm just wondering about potential conflicts between the peerless and the crossover in the existing 5jr. since the 5jr is not listed in what the driver is claimed to be "good for" I'm wondering if the crossover can handle it. I'd love to have all 3 peerless tweeters across my front's, but, not at the risk of damaging my current 5jr as I only have one of them. believe it or not, when I purchased the 5jr, they were only selling a single speaker and that's how it came to be used as my center. there is nothing wrong with it either, works perfectly. just want to get the peerless hat trick if I can now that I have the 10a's in place.



i have included a picture of my bedroom fronts to include the speakers mentioned in the above post. time is limited for me to get to pull the trigger on this as it's time sensitive. thanks in advance to anyone knowledgeable who answers.

please & thank you.

Nightfall

No, you cannot replace the SL2000 in your speaker with a Peerless. You can, however, replace it with an RDO-194 for $50 which would be much closer than a SL2000.

solarrdadd

Nightfall wrote: »

No, you cannot replace the SL2000 in your speaker with a Peerless. You can, however, replace it with an RDO-194 for $50 which would be much closer than a SL2000.

thank you for your quick response.

solarrdadd

well, now I won't have to worry about my thoughts on if I can put a peerless tweeter in my 5Jr+ to match my two Monitor 10A for front my 3

I found a pair of these!




i'll have them next week, now i'll have a pair of 10A's as L & R and a 5A as a center to create a Peerless Front 3 sound wall! i'll keep the other 5A as a spare!

boston1450

^^^^ those look very nice. Congrats.. I had a pair of those-on tilt stands-on a Sansui g2000 small receiver & wow you wanna talk about perfect match. It was Pure Bliss. One of those stupid decision making things i shoulda kept

Nightfall

Eff that, use them both!

Polkaguy58

Hi Zappafan,
I too am a fan of both Frank and Marantz (not to mention Polk)
I found that a good match for my Polks (Monitor 5's & 5Jrs) is the Harman Kardon 730 Twin Powered receiver.
It's nice to have a little extra headroom, as lower powered amps, at loud volumes, distort ealier.............and we all know what distortion does to old tweeters.
I just joined today after lurking for info for years.
My 5's have the replacement RDO series tweeter (which I love), but for my Jr's I made a set replacements out of some old Infinity Polycells and a vintage fiberglass serving tray. The Polycells have the same Ohmage and frequency responce and I didn't have 100 bucks for some new ones at the moment.
(see my logon photo)
"Great Googlymooglies"

Polkaguy58

While we're showing systems, this is mine.
Two Monitor 5's (series ll), two 5 Jr.s, powered by a Yamaha 150 WPC receiver and a Marntz CD player.
I also have an early pair of Monitor 5's with the Peerless tweets packed away for spares.

zappafan2

Hey Polkaguy you must really like the 5s lol , well I did replace the tweeters in my 7s and the jrs will be next . My newest purchase was a Sansui AU-717 which I have been listening to non stop since last friday. I feel I got a great deal on this integrated, it has been all recapped and all the dreaded Sansui glue cleaned off and it really is a beautiful piece. The sound is amazing, its still in a break in period but all I can say is wow!!! You want to know what album I played first ? Apostrophe!!! Initially I was wanting a 2270 or bigger but the prices are just getting crazy for something in good shape, my 2230 is now in a living room system, 2220 B bedroom system, and my 2010 is with my son in college. The 717 is 85 watts and I am pleased just sounds great to me and the 7s like it. I really need to do cross overs but the speaks are sounding great so for now I am happy. Still would like to come across a set of 10s, it will happen someday lol anyway I was a lurker for a long time before joining so welcome. I am sure you already know there is knowledgeable and cool people on this forum.

Polkaguy58

I traded a pair of Monitor 10's years ago for some 7's, which I then traded for 5's (I have a stereo nut for a buddy).
I prefer the 5's over them both.
The 7's seemed a little tubby in the bass for my tastes and the 10's were just too big for my little sound room.
You know what Zappa album really sounds good on Polks ?
"One Size Fits All"
Especially the song Inca Roads.