Vintage Polks, Large or small?

jakelm

Just a curious question here, I think its purely opinions related. In a HT system, some of you know what I'm running (7b's as mains, my frankinPolk as center and 4's as surrounds). What setting would you recommend, for movie watching? Large or Small? If small, would you all recommend 80hz xover or 60hz. This question could not only apply for movie watching but with use of a sub for music as well? Just was curious with some of you all's settings when using the vintage equipment. Seems like small setting would prolong the life of the speakers, or would it?

Jake

danger boy

the 7B's have pretty good bass response.. I would run them in large mode. since you have two subs.. i would think it should blend pretty well. only you can tell for sure though.

I'd cross them over at 80 or 100hz

jakelm

I was thinking of setting them to large and have sub + L and R. But for movies I have learned that the low Fr is much stronger than music (explosions, etc) , I didnt want to damage the speakers.

Jake

solidclub

Go large man! If only for the imposing look of these great things!

ben62670

For the setting go large they can take it no problem. More bass is also distributed in stereo that way.

As for speakers more drivers is like cubic inches in a car. Yeah the little speakers may perform well, but there is nothing like the power of multiple drivers to fill the air with music. More square inches equal more radiating surface. If you live in an apartment you may want to consider monitor 5's, 4.6's both are musical. I have rta15tl's with 4 mid basses, 4.6 with one, frankenpolks with 4 soon to be six. It also depends on how you are driving them. Your HK what you are driving them with? If so you may not want to use more than 2 drivers and a tweet. Also if you plan on listening to your music softly you may want to lean toward single drivers like the monitor 4.6 which I think sound nice without needing lots of power, but can handle 100 watts without any piston slap. I am running external amps for my system, all adcom (gfa 5400 gfa-555 gfa 7500 gfa-585 ) which combined puts out a little over 1500 watts very very clean with punch that I thought was unattainable. Check out this link if you desire. If you want to build something let me know. I have put lots and lots of time into experimenting with different crossovers and wiring. The cabinets of my latest speakers aren't finished yet the will get cherry veneer.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46448
Enjoy

ben62670

You have to scroll down to see the grainy pic, and obviously I am not into the TV seen yet. Thats next!

ben62670

Sorry I forgot to ask. Did you use a monitor 10 crossover for your center speaker? I have found that best for dual woofer, peerless tweet setup. If you need a link to get the crossover plan let me know it has all the values on the components.

jakelm

Yes Ben...My HK635 is what I'm using and I do have a monitor 10a crossover for my center...is sounds absolutly fantastic....the encloser is the 1cuft from parts express, piano black....I have some pics here soory they are terrible shots but..it gives you a look at what I have

What I found to sound best and not over drive my vintage 7b's during a movie, was set L, C, R to 60hz. I just wanted to get everyone's input on what setting you all thought sounded best.

Jake

RuSsMaN

For music, large for sure. Music needs no setting.

For HT, I'd go small, with around a 60Hz crossover setting. HT has LFE tracks that dig much lower than any music selection will, and I simply wouldn't task a treasured pair of 7's with trying to reproduce those low freq's and intense SPL's that seem to go hand in hand.

If you can't do separate settings, stick with small for all, and utilize your sub - but you better have a musical one to keep up with the 7's.

Cheers,
Russ

jakelm

Thats excatly how I have it set...60hz for both music and movies. I do switch it to large for when I want to show off my HK and 7's for music. But it mainly stays at 60hz. I found that at that setting it will still alow the 7's a good range and fullness to both movies and music.

Jake

ben62670

Very nice i am about to do a very similar project with seas tweets :-)