What ARE they? :-/

beemer
beemer Posts: 155
edited December 2007 in Vintage Speakers
They are Polks.

Cabinet has a top sock with a frame. Remove the top sock lifting upwards. Peerless tweeter and crossover mounted on the top of the speaker, NOT the front face.

2 6.5's and a 12" passive down below. No provision for SDA cable on speaker cable input plate which is on the rear center.

Any Ideas guys? They sound GREAT!........But WTF model are they?


Best,

Paul :D
Main system: Levinson Reference 32 Preamp/30.6 DAC/31.5 Transport/Sony SCD777ES/VPI Aries w/SDS JMW 10.5 arm/Van den Hul Frog/Levinson 33 Monoblocks/33H Monoblocks/Transparent reference XL interconnect & Speaker cable/Nearfield Acoustics Pipedream Reference 18 Line Array.
Bedroom: Levinson 390S/380S/ML3/Sony SCD 777ES/McIntosh MC2000/Infinity IRS-Beta
Post edited by beemer on
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  • Ricardo
    Ricardo Posts: 10,636
    edited December 2007
    Rta 12?
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,964
    edited December 2007
    They are RTA 12s or "Monitor 12s" of some sort.
    Are you the Beemer I think you are? :-)
    See what there is at:
    http://www.polksda.com
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  • beemer
    beemer Posts: 155
    edited December 2007
    mhardy6647 wrote: »
    They are RTA 12s or "Monitor 12s" of some sort.
    Are you the Beemer I think you are? :-)
    See what there is at:
    http://www.polksda.com

    Hi Mark! Boy we sure get around don't we!

    Best,

    Paul :eek:
    Main system: Levinson Reference 32 Preamp/30.6 DAC/31.5 Transport/Sony SCD777ES/VPI Aries w/SDS JMW 10.5 arm/Van den Hul Frog/Levinson 33 Monoblocks/33H Monoblocks/Transparent reference XL interconnect & Speaker cable/Nearfield Acoustics Pipedream Reference 18 Line Array.
    Bedroom: Levinson 390S/380S/ML3/Sony SCD 777ES/McIntosh MC2000/Infinity IRS-Beta
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  • beemer
    beemer Posts: 155
    edited December 2007
    mhardy6647 wrote: »
    They are RTA 12s or "Monitor 12s" of some sort.
    Are you the Beemer I think you are? :-)
    See what there is at:
    http://www.polksda.com


    Nah, they ain't any of those pics. The xover is wide open on the TOP of the speaker, covered by a cloth covered frame. These are early, as they have Peerless tweets with the little "hole" in the middle of the dome.

    Best,

    Paul
    Main system: Levinson Reference 32 Preamp/30.6 DAC/31.5 Transport/Sony SCD777ES/VPI Aries w/SDS JMW 10.5 arm/Van den Hul Frog/Levinson 33 Monoblocks/33H Monoblocks/Transparent reference XL interconnect & Speaker cable/Nearfield Acoustics Pipedream Reference 18 Line Array.
    Bedroom: Levinson 390S/380S/ML3/Sony SCD 777ES/McIntosh MC2000/Infinity IRS-Beta
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  • BlueMDPicker
    BlueMDPicker Posts: 7,569
    edited December 2007
    As mhardy said, they are RTA-12 series. Are the posts that hold the hats over the crossover/tweeter assembly metal or plastic?
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  • danger boy
    danger boy Posts: 15,722
    edited December 2007
    RTA 12's :p

    the RTA12's had all kinds of crazy things going on with them. sometimes the tweeter was mounted horizontally, sometime vertically. sometimes a refelector was used.. and sometimes it wasn't. some had SL2000's. some had Peerless tweeters.. there are so many combination to the RTA 12, but i'm pretty sure you are describing an RTA 12 of some version.
    PolkFest 2012, who's going>?
    Vancouver, Canada Sept 30th, 2012 - Madonna concert :cheesygrin:
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  • beemer
    beemer Posts: 155
    edited December 2007
    BlueMDPicker wrote: »
    As mhardy said, they are RTA-12 series. Are the posts that hold the hats over the crossover/tweeter assembly metal or plastic?

    LOL a bit of searching reveals they are indeed RTA12x.

    heritage2.jpg


    I found this pic. The posts are steel on mine.

    Best,

    Paul :D
    Main system: Levinson Reference 32 Preamp/30.6 DAC/31.5 Transport/Sony SCD777ES/VPI Aries w/SDS JMW 10.5 arm/Van den Hul Frog/Levinson 33 Monoblocks/33H Monoblocks/Transparent reference XL interconnect & Speaker cable/Nearfield Acoustics Pipedream Reference 18 Line Array.
    Bedroom: Levinson 390S/380S/ML3/Sony SCD 777ES/McIntosh MC2000/Infinity IRS-Beta
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,964
    edited December 2007
    Somewhere on this site, there's a collection of photos of the top of various versions of the 12... the search function (like the one at AK) won't allow a two-character search (i.e., "12"), so I haven't managed to find it.

    The original 12s were pretty good, but I never preferred them to the original 7 and 10.

    Just my NSHO, of course... doesn't mean I'd turn down a pair if I found 'em at the dump :-)

    cheers, Paul!
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  • danger boy
    danger boy Posts: 15,722
    edited December 2007
    here they are again. RTA12's early version @ POLK HQ's

    238_14_big.jpg
    PolkFest 2012, who's going>?
    Vancouver, Canada Sept 30th, 2012 - Madonna concert :cheesygrin:
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  • Systems
    Systems Posts: 14,873
    edited December 2007
    those pics are absolutely fabulous! nice to see the "line-up" like that!
    Testing
    Testing
    Testing
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  • schwarcw
    schwarcw Posts: 7,341
    edited December 2007
    mralpha wrote: »
    those pics are absolutely fabulous! nice to see the "line-up" like that!

    I think that picture was taken at Polk headquarters during Polkfest '05.
    Carl

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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,964
    edited December 2007
    I thought that was a picture of Beemer's upstairs hall! :-)
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  • John in MA
    John in MA Posts: 1,010
    edited December 2007
    Looking at that photo reminded me of something. There used to be some interesting Polk ads put out in various publications or flyers. Other than the stuff on polksda.com are there any scans of some of these?
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  • beardog03
    beardog03 Posts: 5,550
    edited December 2007
    schwarcw wrote: »
    I think that picture was taken at Polk headquarters during Polkfest '05.


    Yes it was..!

    I was standing in that very spot !!

    :D:D:D
    Cary SLP-98L F1 DC Pre Amp (Jag Blue)
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    Cary Audio V12 amp (Jag Red)
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    Magnum Dynalab MD-102 Analog Tuna
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  • cpsolo2
    cpsolo2 Posts: 6
    edited December 2007
    thats what my living room is starting to look like
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  • capecodder
    capecodder Posts: 613
    edited December 2007
    I have wondered why Polk wanted to expose the tweeter and xover like that as opposed to putting it in the cabinet. Was there some technical reason? It looks odd, and exposes the xover and tweeter to more potential damage??

    ps. There are a pair of these for sale on the local Craig's list on Cape Cod.

    http://capecod.craigslist.org/ele/492201354.html
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  • BlueMDPicker
    BlueMDPicker Posts: 7,569
    edited December 2007
    capecodder wrote: »
    I have wondered why Polk wanted to expose the tweeter and xover like that as opposed to putting it in the cabinet. Was there some technical reason? It looks odd, and exposes the xover and tweeter to more potential damage??

    See below
    |
    V
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,964
    edited December 2007
    HF travels faster than LF
    Umm, no.

    The wavelengths are different though. The idea AFAIK is to try to keep HF and LF waves in phase. The problem with that idea is that the backset for the tweeter is only "right" relative to the woofer for one frequency (realisticially, probably "close enough" for a narrow band of frequencies) for each driver.
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited December 2007
    Monitor 12's had 4 MW's, and one tweeter;)
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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