Whizzer cones?

NeilGabriel

I bought these Monitor 5s on ebay last night from a guy I have pourchased from before. Got a great pair of 7s from him a couple years ago. This was BIN and I hit it fast as it was new listing. I asked for total with shipping. I got a message back that another ebayer had told him that these have "whizzer cones" and Polk did not make such. Sure enough, the mids have some cone within a cone configuration. He is suggesting that I do not buy them. Obivously this must be a mod, but a bad one, dumb one...like drilling a hole to let your 10s breathe?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250116819251&indexURL=0&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting

engtaz

H9 what do you think??????

engtaz

Be nice. He already feels a pit in his stomach.

NeilGabriel

When I punched the buy it now last night after watching two movies, I didn't much focus on the mids....just the cosmetic mint and original boxes...and the last Polks I got from this guy were mint. He had some 10s recently that looked very good and no one even bid on them. I'll google whizzer cones and let you know what I find. I never heard the phrase, but that doesn't prove much.

NeilGabriel

The following refers to car speakers: "If you often find yourself reaching for the tone control to "sharpen" your stereo sound, you're likely to notice a big improvement when you install a pair of add-on tweeters to your system. Most factory speakers are "dual-cone" models — they use paper whizzer cones to reproduce high frequencies. You may be surprised to learn that even many of the premium or "name brand" factory systems we've seen rely on these little paper megaphones to handle the highs. The result is sound that's dull and lifeless."<---from Crutchfield. Don't know why you would need "whizzer cone" when you got tweets.

Our guy Mhardy has a couple of posts at audiokarma on whizzers that is way over my head.

RuSsMaN

Bottom line is the midbass are not Polk drivers. The original drivers were pulled somewhere along the line and replaced.

jcaut

Yep, someone cheaped-out on a repair. Whizzer cones are usually used on speakers that are intended to cover "full range", as they tend to extend the high frequency response a little bit. Pretty much what you already found out.

I don't know much about Monitor 5's, but they look nice otherwise-- I don't know if you can get original MW's for a low enough price to make those a good deal, though. Unlike drilling a hole for "airflow" this improper replacement isn't likely to have damaged the speakers otherwise.

schwarcw

Sal, MW6502 is the driver for the Monitor 5's. You can find out which speaker components are in all the vintage Polk speakers (except SDA's) along with the crossover schematics in the "Trouble Shooting" section of the Forum. There is a "sticky" on "Wiring Schematics" with all the information on the RT, RTi, CS, Monitor, LS, etc., etc. A lot of good information. Look Here!

Deadof_knight

whizzer cones that funny thats a two way speaker with out a seperate tweeter its just that funky looking exta cone in the center hahaha oh well if the cabinets are sublime than its still good deal easy to buy drivers impossible to buy a new cabinet !

NeilGabriel

the ebay seller, adickson, actually called the issue to my attention after I hit BIN. Someone had messaged him overnight. He told me that I should pass on them and I am. The shipping adds too much to the speaker price to then have to go buy mids to install. That's my story. Whizzercones...who knew?

mhardy6647

(Believe it or not...) there's a place for whizzers, but it's not on the mid/woofer of a Polk 5!

For the record: for those who think whizzers/twin cone drivers are of necessity as bland and banal as Crutchfield would have us believe... not all twin-cone drivers are low-end: check the pricing on Lowther's AlNiCo drivers :-O
http://www.lowther-america.com/




(actually I am not a huge fan of the Lowther sound, but you get the idea...)

engtaz

That's great to hear. Now we know why your trusted him.