Polk mini-mon from early 90's

jawhog

No RT25i offers came up here and it's dry on ebay.

Just curious, anyone have these old minmons?

I have a pair and have always been curious to see what they'd sound like all arounds

Kex

I have the "New MiniMonitors" from May 1996 (manufacture date stamped on back of driver). I think these were first built from 1993. Are these the same ones that you have?

audiobliss

Wow. I misread the thread title as "Polk mini-moms". I was like....what?????

jawhog

Yeah, those are the ones. I was going to try and get 4 or 6 of those guys all around and give them a try. I originally bought them as rear surrounds in the early 90's and have never gotten rid of them because they're better than you'd think for small secondary systems. Anyway, when I couldn't find any a few weeks ago, I went back to the RM7500 system that I had stowed away. Them RM7500's have a way smoother mid-range, but the high end on those mini-mons is pretty good for theater applications.

jawhog

ps - Welcome to the forum Kex.

beardog03

I have the Rt15i`s, not the 25`s

I have a couple pairs just collecting dust

I was going to use them as the puter surrounds, but never got around to it


I think one pair is the plder rt and the other is the older rti

I sold a couple pairs already, awhile back..

I really like the little buggers..!

Kex

jawhog wrote: »

ps - Welcome to the forum Kex.

Thnx jawhog! I appreciate the sentiment!

Just in case you don't have them, these are the specs. from our "manual" (just a product sheet, really):

- 0.5" dome tweeter.
- 5.25" composite polymer driver
- 10.5"H x 6.5"W x 7"D
- Overall Frequency Response = 42Hz - 25kHz
- -3dB limits = 67Hz - 23kHz
- Recommended Amplification = 10-100 watts/channel
- Impedance = 8 ohms
- Efficiency = 90dB

And, if you open up the inside you get this:
Tweeter: SL 4000 (paper label) / RD0121-2 (stamped) / L51TND (stamped)
Driver: MW5505 / May 05 1996 (paper sticker)

I'm not sure what's important in any of that information, but there it is, FWIW!

Anyhow, here is our Polk Audio story. We had four of these guys (since new) with a Yamaha RX-395 for A & B speaker zones. Just recently, we decided to upgrade to 5.1 sound, so I wrote to c/s to ask about a center speaker match. They said these were "New MiniMonitors", made from 1993 to 1996, and suggested a CS1 (even though the FAQ page suggests CSi3 http://www.polkaudio.com/education/showanswer.php?question_num=63). A much revered (IMO) Polk Club member from AVS forum helped me find a CS245i on Craigslist for $40 plus some gas money (about $50 total). Our setup ended up being this:

- Polk Audio New MiniMonitor x4.
- Polk Audio CS245i.
- Acoustech H100 subwoofer.
- harmon/kardon AVR 147 5.1.

Anyway, we think the CS245i works wonders with these MiniMonitors and the new h/k 147. The harmon/kardon doesn't distort ever at the volume levels we have tested, but we think the Yamaha did distort some (somewhere past the 12 o'clock position, but we only tested it there once, just after getting the h/k, in a comparison test in stereo 2.0: we were worried about the modest watts per channel on the h/k "all channels driven", as they claim).

Movies have been wonderful, with very convincing effects, even though the subwoofer is set to about 2.75 on a scale of 0-10. When the effects stop, dialogue is clear and easy to listen to without being too loud or too soft.

For music also, we find the new setup has breathed new life into the MiniMonitors (using mostly h/k Logic 7 enhanced mode in 5.1). Even turning the sound up to -16dB, we find it powerful, but melodious and smooth, not just loud and "noisy". I don't know if that makes any sense technically, but that is how I can best describe it. Listening at low levels of backgroud sound still seems to fill the room more, even if conversation is easy at that point: around -33 to -35dB. We did several tests without the subwoofer and the conclusion was much the same as this (for music). We were very impressed without being sure how much of the credit was due to the MiniMonitors and how much was due to the center and/or the harman/kardon.

We have listened frequently to a Boston Accoustics satellite system (with center) powered by a Denon AVR and chosen with less budget concious decisions and we think ours is much better balanced. To be fair though, the BA system is in a large room with high ceilings and would be at a disadvantage from that point of view. Still, we have been surprised at how good these are in our new setup.

jawhog

Kex,
I took the minimons to our cabin this weekend and set them up with a CS300 (a center channel that is very close design to the CS245i). It's a good blend between these pieces. Enjoy! And you're absolutely right, those minimons will pretty much blow any little satellites away. I tried quite a few satellites for the WAF, and even she agreed that the minimons were far better sounding. I still have that cheesey "manual" too!

Kex

jawhog wrote: »

Kex,
I took the minimons to our cabin this weekend and set them up with a CS300 (a center channel that is very close design to the CS245i). It's a good blend between these pieces. Enjoy! And you're absolutely right, those minimons will pretty much blow any little satellites away. I tried quite a few satellites for the WAF, and even she agreed that the minimons were far better sounding. I still have that cheesey "manual" too!

Nice to have a cabin to take them too, you fiend! I really think they're a great little speaker, and as you point out, the match with the CS245i was surprisingly excellent, but we're still going to upgrade, methinks (or buy a cabin maybe, to put them in!).

Kex

I'm not sure how significant this is, but I also wanted to add that when I ran EzSet/EQ on my harman/kardon receiver, it measured the output from the CS245i and the MiniMons and set the X-over on all of them at 60Hz.

The reason I mention this is that I have read other posts elsewhere from people complaining their autocalibration set the X-over on their speakers to 80 or 120 and they can't hear dialogue well.