NVSD - Polk Monitor 5A

Monkey_Relish

Hi all,

New Vintage Speaker Day. I picked up a set of 5A's through the local FB Buy, Swap and sell.
They were listed as 5 Jr's, but when I picked them up, they were 5A's. Score.
Cost me $150, which is great in Australia, as these are thin on the ground over here.
This set has the Peerless tweeters, and black basket passive radiators. Markings on the crossovers indicate late 1981.







After researching these, mainly on here, the first thing I did was to Araldite (Epoxy glue) above and below the woofer magnets, to prevent magnet slip.



Don't have a pic of the glued magnets, but I'm sure you can use your imagination.

The next step was rebuilding the crossovers. After more research on here (thanks guys), I purchased Solen 33uf for the bass cap and Sonicaps for the tweeter. Also replaced the cement resisters with Mills 5W (Had already ordered these before finding out most use 12W, but hey, the old ones are 5W, so shouldn't be an issue.








So, happy days. The speakers are a match made in heaven with my Yamaha CA-620 integrated amp (only recapped the filter caps), and Technics SL-1400 turntable.

I'm playing Rattle Snake off Flying Microtonal Banana by King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard (say that six times fast) and these sound glorious.

I don't know how to describe the change of the crossover recap, slightly cleaner top end, and more defined bass. And "Haunting Mids" LOL.

Anyway, i'm not selling these anytime soon. It's also HNAD, as I just bought a Yamaha CA-1000 which works, but I will give it a birthday first.

Mr Relish

Faustin

Enjoy and welcome to Club Polk

mdaudioguy

Wow, that may make the Top 10 all-time first posts! Nice work down under... Welcome to CP.

GlennDog

mdaudioguy wrote: »

Wow, that may make the Top 10 all-time first posts! Nice work down under... Welcome to CP.

That’s pretty much what I was thinking… Welcome aboard!

Monkey_Relish

Thanks. Hard to go wrong with all the helpful info on here.
Actually, the amp is a Yamaha CA-610.

Mr Relish.

dromunds

That CA-1000 will be the shiznay

KenAnderson

@Monkey_Relish, is that just hot glue that I see keeping everything in place? And, did your capacitor stack get anywhere close to the back of the passive resonator? And, how did you, in the end, repack the polyfil; did you try to keep it away from the back of the PR?

Thanks,
-Ken

Faustin

KenAnderson wrote: »

@Monkey_Relish, is that just hot glue that I see keeping everything in place? And, did your capacitor stack get anywhere close to the back of the passive resonator? And, how did you, in the end, repack the polyfil; did you try to keep it away from the back of the PR?

Thanks,
-Ken

Don't know for sure, but probably is hot glue. Here is how I rebuilt my 5A's. Resistors on the bottom of the board. Spread things out on top.

civilian

Great post, very informative.

Monkey_Relish wrote: »

After researching these, mainly on here, the first thing I did was to Araldite (Epoxy glue) above and below the woofer magnets, to prevent magnet slip.



Don't have a pic of the glued magnets, but I'm sure you can use your imagination.

Funny, i speant 15 seconds looking at the pic, thinking "dang, I don't even see the glue."

Monkey_Relish

KenAnderson wrote: »

@Monkey_Relish, is that just hot glue that I see keeping everything in place? And, did your capacitor stack get anywhere close to the back of the passive resonator? And, how did you, in the end, repack the polyfil; did you try to keep it away from the back of the PR?

Thanks,
-Ken

Yes, that is hot just glue. Plenty of room to the passive resonator.
I redid the existing polyfil, as it had fallen down to behind the PR.
I made sure it was packed up behind the tweeter and the woofer.
The polyfil is cut like a set of pants, a rectangular sheet with a split in it.
the top part is rolled up behind the tweeter, the legs go either side of a brace, and are rolled up behind the woofer.

And for the next stage, I am going to rip off the vinyl, and give it the veneer it deserves.

Mr Relish

Monkey_Relish

dromunds wrote: »

That CA-1000 will be the shiznay

Oh, it certainly is, after a full rebuild replacing all electrolytics, protection relay, class A snap switches, removing and cleaning phono and coupling switches and chasing down a noisy transistor on the tone board.
Sounds awesome with the Polks.

Mr Relish

BlueBirdMusic

Hi "Mate" and your speakers look brand new.

AlRod

Great work you have done, I have a pair that still work perfectly wondering if I should sell or keep them

F1nut

Before you make a decision, just know that you cannot sell them here.

xschop

Those look well-taken care of, and that's the real find. The 5's are one of the best all-around performers of any "bookshelf" for their given foot-print.

AlRod

Thanks for feedback, every time I listen to them especially playing Vinyl, the y sound great, makes me want to refurbish the cabinets as they are marked

AlRod

Thanks for feedback, every time I listen to them especially playing Vinyl, the y sound great, makes me want to refurbish the cabinets as they are marked