virgin post: Early Polk history question

mhardy6647
mhardy6647 Posts: 33,634
edited June 2004 in 2 Channel Audio
It's hard to believe that after ca. 26 years as a Polk owner (Monitor 7A's in charming rosewood vinyl, as well as one of the world's few LF14 subwoofers) it's hard to believe I never visited Polk's website, or forums, unitl yesterday.

So, I decided to look around for some information on early Polk history. I didn't find much, so I'll ask you all one question. When I was an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins in the 1970's, the on-campus student pub (the "Rat") had a pair of white-cabineted speakers which were reputed to be the original Polk production model... the Polk Model 9. They were tall thin towers with a bunch of drivers in them.

Can anyone tie the JHU Polk 9's with Polk reality?
Post edited by mhardy6647 on

Comments

  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,987
    edited June 2004
    They were Polks, that's for sure. 4" drivers if I recall correctly, and an Audax tweeter. Should have had forward and rear firing drivers.

    I talked with Stu Lumsden @ Polk about them, the prototype they had mentioned calling it the 'Bozo', because of what Bose was doing with direct-reflecting back in the day. He brought a picture of them to the Texas Polk Gathering back in January.

    Obviously, the name didn't fly.

    Cheers,
    Russ
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,634
    edited June 2004
    yup, I heard the Bozo story too... actually the story as I heard it (late-1970's) at JHU was that Polk was going to make Bose knock-offs, but that they received a 'cease and desist' letter from The Mountain (or wherever Bose was at that time... probably Cambridge rather than Framingham), which led Matt et al in a slightly different direction.

    Gratuitous aside. Bose's US sales manager goes to our church... guess what kind of PA system (speakers, at least) we have?

    BTW... guess I just should've asked at AK :-)