Peerless Tweeters

polklover656

What type of peerless tweeter is this?

delkal

It is the original 8 ohm Peerless that were used in the early Polk speakers. The 751.....number means it was a Danish made tweeter or the later ones make by Polk (I don't remember which is which right now). Either way these Peerless tweeters sound excellent and are much better than the SL replacements.

polklover656

Which one

polklover656

Those are two different tweeters

delkal

Sorry. One is danish and one is made by Polk under license but like I mentioned I don't want to say which is which without being sure (someone will be along with something definite). But by the codes both tweeters were originally installed by Polk. They should sound the same and you should be able to mismatch them in a pair of speakers but this is audio and I am sure there will be many opinions that differ.

polklover656

Alright thanks A lot

Gardenstater

I am coming to learn that Peerless made tweeters with specified nominal 8 Ohm *impedance* which, when you test them with a meter, vary quite a bit in DCR. The last 4 digits are presumed to mean the week and year of mfg. The prefixes I have seen so far are: 1514, 3514, 5514, and 7514. Usually the 7514s have been the earlier years in my experience. That 1082 date code one is about the latest I believe I have ever seen. There is a 1514 on eBay right now where the seller says it is 6.6 DCR. My 5514s (with made in USA stickers) measure around 7.0, 7.1 and my original equip. 7514 from 1979 measure around 8.2 Ohms. I'm beginning to think that the 4 prefix #'s are related to the DCR but I'm not certain.

Anyway, even though that eBay seller says they both measure at 8 Ohms, I would insist upon verification of that.

By the way, I have seen 7514s on eBay that also had "made in USA" stickers, so maybe that disputes the common belief that it meant they were Danish.

delkal

Gardenstater wrote: »

The last 4 digits are presumed to mean the week and year of mfg. The prefixes I have seen so far are: 1514, 3514, 5514, and 7514. Usually the 7514s have been the earlier years in my experience. That 1082 date code one is about the latest I believe I have ever seen. There is a 1514 on eBay right now where the seller says it is 6.6 DCR. My 5514s (with made in USA stickers) measure around 7.0, 7.1 and my original equip. 7514 from 1979 measure around 8.2 Ohms. I'm beginning to think that the 4 prefix #'s are related to the DCR but I'm not certain.

I heard that too about the date code. But here is an example of 2 different styles of Peerless (look at the magnets) that are within a month of each other and towards the end of production. I am wondering if Polk was going thru their remaining supply of tweeters and stamping them with the date they were found. Not the date they were manufactured.


Just speculation........

Gardenstater

Until someone with inside knowledge divulges it, either ex or current employee of Polk or the other manufacturers that used Peerless tweeters or someone who worked for Peerless all we seem to be able to do is speculate.

I have seen similar number stampings on Peerless that eBay sellers have indicated came out of other speakers, like Cizek, Infinity, M&K, etc., so I don't believe that the end users were doing those code stampings.

I have never seen a Peerless with the small hole in the dome (Aperture tuning) in a speaker other than Polks so they either had Peerless do that for them or they did it in house.

polklover656

I just saw a peerless tweeter with the 7514 marking, the last two numbers are “83” but it has a sticker that says made in the USA

polklover656

delkal

polklover656 wrote: »

I just saw a peerless tweeter with the 7514 marking, the last two numbers are “83” but it has a sticker that says made in the USA

There are a lot of things about the early Polk speakers that are lost to history. in the early years they were just some guys in a warehouse putting together speakers. Sometimes using whatever they had. They sometimes swapped parts that "weren't supposed to be there".

What are you looking to do with the tweeters? Are you trying to buy a pair? For what speakers? All of the tweeters you posted would be good replacements for an early Polk speaker. We can debate on which subtype of these tweeters sounded the best or if you should get an exact match. My opinion is one make had to sound better 40 years ago when they were new. But today I think there will be more variation in sound depending on how they were used and stored for 40 years. So get some tweeters and be happy. Unless they are defective the general consensus is that any Peerless tweeter sounds great.

Gardenstater

polklover656 where did you see that one? Good find! More importantly, does it have a hole in the dome?

delkal where did you hear that Polk made Peerless tweeters under license? Are you thinking of the SL1000?

delkal

Gardenstater wrote: »

delkal where did you hear that Polk made Peerless tweeters under license? Are you thinking of the SL1000?

I think I did get them mixed up. Polk "made" the SL1000 tweeters. I don't remember all of the details though. Did they really make them in house or was it the same factory that made the USA Peerless tweeters. I thought I even heard Polk used the peerless part number on the SL1000. Lots of history (or mystery) here.

F1nut

I thought I even heard Polk used the peerless part number on the SL1000.

That is 100% correct.

Gardenstater

I think maybe around 1983 the American mother company (at the time), EAD, sold Peerless to Peerless of India, which at the time had become a separate company from Peerless in Denmark and USA. So, up until that time Peerless tweeters were being made in USA, probably in addition to Denmark, but that manufacturing in USA presumably stopped around then. It all seems pretty tumultuous and convoluted. Maybe Polk decided to sever their business relationship at that time and started manufacturing their own tweeter, namely the SL1000, which was *inspired* by the Peerless tweeter. I don't know if they made it in house or outsourced the manufacturing. I have seen many sales brochures where Polk referred to both the Peerless and SL1000 tweeters as HF1000 and in outward appearances it had the same V-shaped voice coil wires to terminals and had a dome and surround which was bonded to the front of the bezel.

Anybody is welcome to correct the above if it is incorrect.

pitdogg2

I was under the impression that the tooling to make them was broke and cost prohibited to replace. Peerless had moved on to round bezels and replaceable domes and voice coils, (Butterflies as we called them) much like what you and @xschop are playing with right now. I retrofitted many of my speakers to use those peerless tweeters with replaceable butterflies.

polklover656

I’m trying to switch out my tweeters for my 10a, looking for danish made peerless.

Gardenstater

What Peerless #'s do you have currently? Did they get fried? Do you know what the DCR is (or was)?

My advice would be to try to get ones that have the same DCR as your old ones so as to not upset the voicing of your speaker, assuming the voicing was correct in the first place.

Also, make sure they match from L to R so your center image is nice and balanced. I would probably not even mix 7514s with 5514s. Well maybe if they have the same DCRs (which I don't *think* they do) but that's a judgement call because they may have different sPL sensitivities at different frequencies. We don't really know what the deal is until somebody with the proper testing equip. sorts it out. I know when I had a 5514 in one speaker it was too bright sounding compared to my 7514 in the other speaker that was original equipment and that was probably due to the DCR being about 1 Ohm less. It put my system out of balance.

polklover656

I have American peerless tweeters, black rough face plate, they work perfectly, I was curious what the original Denmark peerless would sound like. I was planning on temporarily replacing both.

F1nut

Stop posting the same thing. One post in the Wanted To Buy section is all that is warranted.