Looking for info on speakers - monitor 7 ?

stevie

I couldn't resist a bargain and just came home with a pair of Polk speakers.
They look and sound pretty good and I'm pretty sure they're monitor 7 speakers based on what I've read so far, but I'd like to confirm and get an idea of their date of manufacture.

The speakers have a tweeter, and two cones, approximately a 6" frame and the other a 10" frame, so the cones are probably more like 5" and 8" respectively.

The label on the back of the speakers read Polk Monitor Series and the serial #s are 7 34380 and 7 34391.

There is writing on the tweeter that reads "Silver Coil Dome"

The speakers have a dark brown wood grain finish.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

danger boy

stevie,

yeah those are monitor 7's. I have a pair myself... they are good sounding speakers. Is this your first pair of Polks? The bottom speaker is a passive radiator, it is not powered or have any wires running to it.

If you have more questions.. there are lots of nice folks in here to help answer your questions.

Al

stevie

Thanks for the welcome and confirmation.

Yup, my first pair of Polks, not including the pair of 4" car speakers I had in my VW cabriolet back in 1986...(long gone).

Anyway, I hooked them up to an old Philips reciever I had sitting idle. I've got a pair of Infinity Qa speakers (owned since new) that are about the same size that I'd like to compare them to, but the Infinities are stored so I can't get to them.

I would still like to find out when this pair was built.

danger boy

The Polk Monitor 7's were built between 1977 untill around 1992 for the last monitor 7 series 2.

if you want to know a more precise date of manufacture on your set of 7's. remove the mid bass driver.. the center driver and on the back they were all stamped with the date of when it was assembled. it may say something like May 1986 or something similar to that. but i'd think your Monitor 7's are about 20 yrs old.

hope this helps.

stevie

Thanks - a big help actually. I'll pull the driver and check the date.

stevie

Well you were spot on for dates!

There were two dates on the driver; Nov 21, 1986 and Dec 8, 1986. My guess is that the earlier date is the driver build date and the later date is the install date.

Thanks again!

Shizelbs

Well, how do you like them?

stevie

I like them. It's probably been about 15 years since I did any serious speaker shopping comparisons and I recall liking the Polks back then. Although for my primary listening I definately prefer my Klipsch Forte speakers, these Polks will do nicely in the game room.
Considering what I paid for the pair, ($3) they're pretty hard to beat.

danger boy

nice score stevie,

you stole those from the seller.. go back and pay for them right now.

enjoy them.

stevie

Rummage sale. They were $6 for the pair and I didn't buy them. Two hours later I stopped by again and with only 1/2 hour left for the sale, everything was marked down to 1/2 price. They were still there so I just HAD to buy them.

hotwheelman

Shoot man, 6 bucks was a steal and 3 is just insane....I just can't believe that they were even still there when you stopped back in. I paid 5 for one pair I have that the cabinets need a rebuild and 20 for the other pair that sound fantastic and are more than likely some of the first ones out the door, or right next to it. I need to do a driver pull and check the man. date to see what year mine where built in.

BobMcG

POLK BROCHURE CIRCA 1991 wrote:

In 1972, Polk Audio created a new standard for high performance and affordability with its original Monitor 7 loudspeaker.

This speaker went through model variations from the original Monitor 7s through to the 7Cs and to the final Monitor 7 series 2.

They went through a number of different tweeters during their run. They've had soft dome tweeters ; moving coil tweeters ; polymer dome tweeters; Silver coil dome tweeters . The likes of Peerless tweeters ; SL1000 tweeters ; SL2000 tweeters; SL2500 tweeters .

I have information on some of the begining, some of the middle, and quite a bit towards the end but still haven't reconstructed a complete history on them.
As far as my records for the 7Cs goes, I have them in '87 and '88 listed with soft dome tweeters and in '89 and '90 listed with the SL2000 Silver coils.

Just curious, are your tweeters dated? If so do they match the dates on your mids?
Are they stock or replacements? Are the articles I have in error?

Just tring to connect more pieces to the puzzle.

stevie

Bob, I don't know the difference between a series 7, 7B, or 7C, but the tweeters in both of my speakers look original and have "Silver Coil Dome" inscribed. I only pulled the drivers from one of my speakers, but the date on the tweeter matches the date on the mid., which is Dec 8, 1986 for the speaker with serial # 7 34380. Hope that's helpful.

BobMcG

stevie wrote:

Bob, I don't know the difference between a series 7, 7B, or 7C, but the tweeters in both of my speakers look original and have "Silver Coil Dome" inscribed. I only pulled the drivers from one of my speakers, but the date on the tweeter matches the date on the mid., which is Dec 8, 1986 for the speaker with serial # 7 34380. Hope that's helpful.

Yup, interesting. Thank you, and welcome to the forums.

ND13

If those are a really nice pair, they could bring $200+, but the majority will fall between $50-$150 from what I've been seeing for Mon 7s going for all year. So in other words....YOU STOLE THEM!!!!!!!

Nice find. Welcome to CLUB POLK. Nice pair to start off with. Much better than starting off with the newer "R" or "Monitor" series that are available now. If they are really nice, then I'd say they can compete with the RTi series, with replacing that SL2000 tweeter with the new silks from Polk.

stevie

Thanks for the warm welcome. I've been playing pinball and listening to them most of the evening, connected to a classic Phillips 7851 receiver in my game room (aka basement). Except for cosmetic damage to a couple of the corners at the bottom rear, they're nice.

belleterre

Hello, I have a pair of vintage Polk 7s from the mid-1980s. I want to buy a new modern receiver for them. Do you have any recommendations for that new receiver?

F1nut

belleterre wrote: »

Hello, I have a pair of vintage Polk 7s from the mid-1980s. I want to buy a new modern receiver for them. Do you have any recommendations for that new receiver?

Budget?