More Vintage Polks in the house

billbillw

Its been just about 10 days since I scored a pair of RTA-11t from a local craigslist seller for dirt cheap. I'm still giddy about that and have been having fun with those.

Well, today, I couldn't resist again. I scored another set of Vintage Polk that I've been wanting to try out, even if just for a short time. Monitor 7B. SL1000 , not Peerless. Oh well. They are in great shape though and the tweeters are not as bad as I thought they would be. The do not seem nearly as offensive as the SL2000 did on those RTA last week. (I replaced them with RDO silks before the week was up). Very limited chance to listen tonight since the family is all asleep, but what I heard was nice. They didn't blow me away, but it was a familiar sound that made me think back to my Monitor 5A. The bass is much nicer with the 7B than the 5s though. By the end of a few albums, I was really enjoying them and found that the imaging was terrific.

The stands came with them, but they are not original Polk stands. They seem to do the trick though.

Some pics.

danger boy

those look really nice and clean.. and in great condition. but i've never seen a pair of monitor 7B's with SL1000's as tweeters.. very interesting.. if anything.. they should have come with SL2000's or Peerless one's. if we're talking about the 7B

billbillw

danger boy wrote: »

those look really nice and clean.. and in great condition. but i've never seen a pair of monitor 7B's with SL1000's as tweeters.. very interesting.. if anything.. they should have come with SL2000's or Peerless one's. if we're talking about the 7B

Yeah, who knows with these things. The owner said he got them from his uncle who ran a stereo shop. I pulled all the drivers to look at them and they are all dated 1991-1992, so it looks like they are all replacements, because otherwise, they should be early 80s(?). The grill fabric has been redone at some point too, but it looks like its been quite a while. Perhaps these originally had Peerless, but they were replaced along with MW6502s with whatever Polk had available in 1992. They did a good job though. All the connectors are nicely soldered, so no worry about loose fitting spades. They also added nice new sticky pads for all the drivers.

heiney9

billbillw wrote: »

Yeah, who knows with these things. The owner said he got them from his uncle who ran a stereo shop. I pulled all the drivers to look at them and they are all dated 1991-1992, so it looks like they are all replacements, because otherwise, they should be early 80s(?). The grill fabric has been redone at some point too, but it looks like its been quite a while. Perhaps these originally had Peerless, but they were replaced along with MW6502s with whatever Polk had available in 1992. They did a good job though. All the connectors are nicely soldered, so no worry about loose fitting spades. They also added nice new sticky pads for all the drivers.

Nice, clean looking M7's. I doubt Polk had too many sl1000's available in 1992, but anything is possible. Do they have a fuse or two on the rear? What's the date on the sl1000?

Enjoy them as they are and if the sl1000 is undesirable get a pair of RD0's.

Joe08867

Nice find. I always like the M7's.

H9, He might be suprised at the sound of the SL1000. A peerless it is not but I liked it more then the SL2000. I replaced them to try something new, and because I had a bad tweeter but would put them back in if I grow tired of the RDO's laid back sound.

danger boy

will the RDO 198 fit where a peerless used to be? I know the RD0 194 won't

heiney9

danger boy wrote: »

will the RDO 198 fit where a peerless used to be? I know the RD0 194 won't

Neither will fit without a slight modification to the opening. A dremel and about 5 minutes the RD0 will fit.

Face

I have a pair of 7C's with SL1000's. I also prefer the sound of the SL1000 to the SL2000.

As for replacing the SL1000, you would need RD0-194's. And you would need to use a router on the cabinet to get them to fit.

EDIT, I'm typing slow today. As H9 mentioned, a dremel would work fine too.

billbillw

heiney9 wrote: »

Nice, clean looking M7's. I doubt Polk had too many sl1000's available in 1992, but anything is possible. Do they have a fuse or two on the rear? What's the date on the sl1000?

Enjoy them as they are and if the sl1000 is undesirable get a pair of RD0's.

The drivers and the tweeters all have dates in the range from 1991-1992, so I guess they did still stock SL1000 as replacements. I really don't seem to mine the SL1000. Listened for a while this morning and again this evening. They are pleasant. When I get some time, I'm going to A/B them with the RTA11t and see how much better the RDO sounds.

nikolas812

Nice Score!!

I love mine.

The imaging is amazing!!

Quick question. I have a pair of 7B's and they came with peerless tweeters. If yours did to is the Sl1000 a direct replacement? Wouldn't there have to be crossover work done to accommodate anything besides a peerless?

I don't guess it matters either way if it sounds good. I was just wondering if you might be missing something if they wasn't a direct replacement.

Enjoy!

nick

george daniel

Nice snag Bill,, I was about 12 hours behind you.. Your 5's are well taken care of,, they currently reside in Woodstock with my oldest daughter and her husband,,fed by an adcom 535 and a dodd ELP,, you should have seen their faces at Christmas when they first heard em' :)

billbillw

george daniel wrote: »

Nice snag Bill,, I was about 12 hours behind you.. Your 5's are well taken care of,, they currently reside in Woodstock with my oldest daughter and her husband,,fed by an adcom 535 and a dodd ELP,, you should have seen their faces at Christmas when they first heard em' :)

Oh those 5s...they were nice...

I wish these 7s were in as good a shape as those 5s were/are, but the 7s can definitely fill a bigger room with sound much better than those 5s could. Not sure if I'm going to be able to keep these babies in the mix or not, but I just had to get them and give them a good listen.

If I keep them, I'll probably have to put them in the garage. Our garage stays pretty dry, so I don't think they will suffer too bad out there.

billbillw

Lasareath wrote: »

Bill I think you need to edit your first thumbnail, I can see a little areola.

That's Fox broadcast. If the FCC says its ok for them, then its ok for here. Besides, she's not a human anyway...she is a cybernetic organism. Living flesh over poly alloy exoskeleton.

Yes, I was watching Fox's Terminator-Sarah Conner Chronicles. I recorded that stuff on my DVR back in February and I'm just now getting around to watching it.