"Old" Monitor 7 any good? (paper coned PR)
odcics2
Posts: 309
Talking to a guy about his 2 pairs of Monitor 7 speakers that he's thinking of selling in the future. Cabinets are fair, grills have the "odd attachment", not pegs.
They all have Peerless tweeters and paper passive radiators.
One pair has PRs the same size as the mid-bass drivers.
The other pair has the more common larger PR, but again, both pairs are plain old paper, not coated like the mid-bass driver. The other thing I noticed is the inputs are old style clips, not banana plugs.
Anyone have these? Sound good? What changes in bass response due to the different size PRs??
Thanks for any insight.
They all have Peerless tweeters and paper passive radiators.
One pair has PRs the same size as the mid-bass drivers.
The other pair has the more common larger PR, but again, both pairs are plain old paper, not coated like the mid-bass driver. The other thing I noticed is the inputs are old style clips, not banana plugs.
Anyone have these? Sound good? What changes in bass response due to the different size PRs??
Thanks for any insight.
Comments
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One pair has PRs the same size as the mid-bass drivers.
Not Polk Monitor 7's or someone has screwed them up.The other thing I noticed is the inputs are old style clips
Not original.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
They probably made the changes in the passives for a reason. For a while they had the 8" paper in the 7 and the 10" paper in the 10. At some point they changed to the 10" plasticized passive in the 7 and 10 with the plateaued center region. Quoted freq. responses of the early model were 40 - 21kHz +/- 2dB and in the 7B were 33 - 20.5kHz +/- 2 dB. There is an anomolous year before that where in Audio they printed 26 - 25kHz +/- 2 dB but I'm skeptical of that one (It was the 7A and Audio Oct 1978 and 10" passive) . I believe @mhardy6647 may be an original owner of a 7A? It would be awesome to see one of the pre 7B Polk sales brochures if any actually even exist. @JayCee ? All I have been able to find and go on are the Audio Magazine yearly buyer's guides.George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
I’ll see if I can get the guy to send pics.
Also, any history he knows about them.
Just had a guy tell me about a 69 vintage Allied receiver and speakers. The original owner is his dad!!
I find it pretty cool to buy vintage electronics from the original vintage owner! -
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Just had a guy tell me about a 69 vintage Allied receiver and speakers. The original owner is his dad!!
I find it pretty cool to buy vintage electronics from the original vintage owner!
They don't have the 1969 annual catalog, but there are a few 1969 Allied seasonal (sale) catalog scans available at https://worldradiohistory.com/Electronics_Catalogs.htm They do have the 1970 catalog -- but the year to year "churn" was pretty substantial in those days on receivers, at least. In those days, most of Allied's receivers (branded Knight) were made by Pioneer and differed very little from the corresponding Pioneer models. The Allied/Knight (and Knight-Kit) loudspeakers were all over the map; some of them were pretty respectable, although they tended towards the bland. Some used very good quality drivers (Electrovoice, Jensen) but many used second or third tier manufacturers' drivers (Utah, maybe even Oaktron).
There used to be a comprehensive site for Allied catalogs, alliedcatalogs dot com, but it is, sadly, moribund.
FWIW, I do have the '69 Allied catalog (as well as... umm... a few others).
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@mhardy6647 Do you by any chance have a sales brochure for the 7A or earlier?George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
Earlier, yeah.
The one from which this image comes -- from my speaker shoppin' days (1976)
earlypolkfamilyportrait by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
I don't have a 7A brochure per se AFAIK -- My 7As are boxed up -- but I have been doing some reorganizing organizing downstairs so I could disinter one
It's a cool, drizzly day here -- good day for scannin', so, maybe, if I get my act together*, maybe I can finally dig that brochure out & generate some better quality scans thereof.
__________
* Yeah, right...
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That would be great! Same weather here. Quite a relief from 102.5F a couple days ago.George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
Pics of the early Monitor 7 speakers.
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Very cool! Interesting that the 8" paper passive is rabbeted. Later models like my 7B didn't have the rabbet. I would love to see what that crossover looks like and if there are any dates. I guess you have to unscrew the crossover from inside with the passive removed. That is a super early serial #.George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
The Ur-Monitor Series Model 7 configuration, indeed.
Looking at the great photos above -- I just today realized that, since my 7As were bought as demos, I have no way of knowing if the boxes they came in were "their" boxes or not!
DSC_5417 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr -
What $$ should I offer the guy?
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Here’s his other pair of 7s.
They are clearly marked “7A”.
Larger PR.
Banana plugs.
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Maybe I could make a package deal.
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Maybe I could make a package deal.
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The PR is larger than the mid-driver.Pics of the early Monitor 7 speakers.
I've never seen that screw terminal on any vintage Polk speaker.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
10" uncoated PR.
That's a crazy early 7A
Yeah, the early "Monitor Series" used the terminal strip screw connectors -- I have a pair of Model 9A and a pair of Model 10 in the basement that are so equipped. Actually, I am not 100% sure about the 10s -- I am sure about the 9As (which have the speaker connectors inconveniently located on the bottom of the cabinets, in the space under the risers:) ).
Pics anon -- and, yeah, I know, I still owe this forum a re-scan of the old brochure I mentioned earlier (or was it in another recent "old Monitor Series" thread?).
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I've never seen that screw terminal on any vintage Polk speaker.
I've seen them. My example had a simple bread board built XO.
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I guess the guy was comparing the two sets of speakers to each other.
Certainly, at a glance, one pair has a LARGE PR and the other is close to mid-woofer size.
Be interesting to see if his other banana plug speaker has the red/black inputs in the same orientation or not.
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mhardy6647 wrote: »The Ur-Monitor Series Model 7 configuration, indeed.
Looking at the great photos above -- I just today realized that, since my 7As were bought as demos, I have no way of knowing if the boxes they came in were "their" boxes or not!DSC_5417 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
Pretty sure the 10b's I bought new in the mid 80's had the serial numbers stamped on the boxes. Earlier models, perhaps not. Or my memory is fuzzy. -
Just noticed, there's no hole in either of the Peerless tweeter pics.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
InterestingYeah, the early "Monitor Series" used the terminal strip screw connectorsPolitical Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
My early 7B's boxes (Oct. 1979 purch. date, MW drivers date 9/19/79, crossovers 9/20/79) definitely have the serial #'s on them. Yeah they look pretty ancient.
George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
Just noticed, there's no hole in either of the Peerless tweeter pics.
No holes in the Peerless(es) in the 10s here, either, my guess is that it wasn't done on the earliest ones (although they could, of course, be replacements not sourced from Polk).
P1020559 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
I actually don't remember whether the Peerlesses of the 9A pair here are wholly holey or not -- I can check, though.
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Oh no, we can't have unholy tweeters.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
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Did the hole cure a ringing issue at a certain frequency?
Certainly, added cost for no reason would not be justified!
Or, perhaps, it helped cooling?
Apparently, it was a band aid, but why?
I can’t say I’ve heard of any other tweeters with a hole in the middle.
But, I’ve only been around 65 years! -
From what I remember it was done to prevent damage to the tweeter when the speaker was shipped via air freight. It enabled the air pressure underneath the dome to equalize with the air pressure outside the dome.
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SeleniumFalcon wrote: »From what I remember it was done to prevent damage to the tweeter when the speaker was shipped via air freight. It enabled the air pressure underneath the dome to equalize with the air pressure outside the dome.
Certainly seems plausible.
I always assumed (FWIW) that it was some sort of tweak applied to reduce standing waves or to change the break-up behavior of the cone
In other news: well -- I did, finally, deliver on one of my "deliverables" related to this thread (and maybe others, too!) on early Polk loudspeakers
https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/194442/my-earliest-and-most-prized-bit-of-polk-audio-ephemera-ca-1976-monitor-series-brochure/
Polk Monitor brochure 1976 p1 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr -
I believe it was done with the tip of a soldering iron. I think that brochure was created by Al Ballard.
