Tweeter Confirmation and Questions 5b's

MrBuhl

Hey All - finally joined the Polk Club with some Monitor 5b's.

I am wondering if I could get some information/confirmation on:

a. I believe these to be the SL1000 Tweeters due to no hole and silver face plate? (& do those mid drivers look original?)

b. Is it worth the difference (sonically) to be looking around for the old Peerless Tweeters?

c. Can anyone tell me the difference between the Monitor 5, 5a, 5b, 5jr?

I heard these Monitor 5's a long time ago (and loved them) while buying my first set of speakers in college, but I made the choice (bad) to get more watts in a reciever and less speaker... you know how it was... I really wanted to try the Monitor 7's or 10's this time but I thought size-wise these would be more easily slipped by the Mrs.

Anyway - looking forward to trying these out as my new fronts - (I have an inexpensive BIC 10" powered sub w/variable crossover to handle the really lows) and 8" two way vintage (re-coned w/new crossovers) AR's for the rear.
Running a little HK AVR20II for reciever with a Carver Sonic Hologram Generator for sounds.

Thanks for any info - this is a great site with lots of information - I just got confused with all the tweeter talk ... foam surround, silver dome, silver face, etc...

best,
Ed

nadams

Welcome to Club Polk! To answer your questions-

The silver-faced tweeter is the SL-1000. They are comparable to the original Peerless tweeter, and there's no reason to change them. The difference among the models is as follows-

Monitor 5jr- Four different revisions of the 5jr exist. The first revision had the SL1000 tweeter with no bass radiator (only the active drivers and a port). The second revision had the SL2000 tweeter (most consider this tweeter to be inferior in sound quality due to construction materials) and also had no bass radiator. The third revision was called the 5jr+, and it had the SL2000 tweeter, but had the midrange driver coupled w/ the bass radiator. The Fourth and final revision of the 5jr was the 5jr+ series two. It had the improved SL2500 tweeter, and a bass radiator.

Monitor 5b had the SL2000 and a bass radiator

And there was a monitor 5 Series 2 that had the SL2500 and a bass radiator.

There may be some information missing, but all this came from the following link- http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/service/models/modelpartslist.php3?model=monitor

You can find out a lot about your speakers by knowing what drivers it has in it. One of the biggest signs is what tweeter it has. That's why I started this thread a while back- http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25377&highlight=identifying+vintage+tweeters

Enjoy your Monitor 5's! They were an excellent speaker . I had a pair of 5jr's w/o the bass radiator, so I'd imagine that your 5's have a better bass response than mine did...

MrBuhl

Thank you for the great information and links! I can't wait to come here and get support when I decide to move up to Monitor 10's...