Monitor 7---Not bad at all

WastelandWand'r

I recently scored a set of fairly good shaped Monitor 7B's with Peerless and snuck them out to the homestead. I hooked them up and retired the 10's and found that the sound was pretty fair for home theatre and music.

Not to be outdone, I found a CS1000P in Anchorage (crap that thing is heavy!!) and the price was right so I picked it up as well. Got it home and replaced the tiny Paradigm center I have been using for the last 10 years and found that the CS1000 made the 7's look like Bose minis sitting there, so out came the 10's. They made a much better match visually and sonically. I didn't think anyone had home theatre in mind when they designed the 7 and would have cried if I had damaged one of the tweeters watching Transformers.

The 7's were stacked in a closet without any thought of additional use. (Room is tight in this place)
Today I got the bug and dug them out and since I am inherently lazy I set them on the kitchen table, hooked up to a Denon 3910 along with the integrated amp from the HCT i-pod combo. I popped in an SACD and great sound came out. It sounded so good I actually broke out an HDCD recording of Willy Nelson, and I was able to listen to 3-4 songs before I snapped out of it.

All kidding aside, these things sound great. I believe I will wait and hold off on doing any upgrades to them.
Even in the non 'stereophile' placement they really sounded fantastic.
Best $80.00 I have spent in a while.
Happy Trails,
Nathan

WastelandWand'r

One question I did have. I have read here, in the esteemed pages of PF, that to test 'airtightedness' you should push in the Passive and watch the mid driver move out in unison. My question is how fast should the return be?
Slowly return or timed with the passive? I only ask because I did it on these 7's and they seem to go in and out as fast as they want with no hesitation.
Nathan

jimbo1421

WastelandWand'r wrote: »

One question I did have. I have read here, in the esteemed pages of PF, that to test 'airtightedness' you should push in the Passive and watch the mid driver move out in unison. My question is how fast should the return be?
Slowly return or timed with the passive? I only ask because I did it on these 7's and they seem to go in and out as fast as they want with no hesitation.
Nathan

Nathan,

What a great deal. I just picked up a pair of beat up Monitor 10s for $75.

To test the airtightness, gently press the bass radiator in and hold. The mid range will be pushed out and then slowly return. It should take about two seconds, three seconds with a very good seal. I got this from a good discussion about airtightness and sealants here:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74524&highlight=mortite

Regards,
Jim

comfortablycurt

I love my M7A's...I doubt I'll ever get rid of them. I've heard a lot of people say that they prefer the 7's over the 10's actually. A lot of people think the 10's have a somewhat smeared midrange due to the side-by-side MW's. I'd love to get a pair of 10's to compare to my 7's sometime.


Jimbo is right about the airtight test. Push in the PR and hold it in, the MW will extend, and should stay extended for a moment, then start slowly retracting.

bluecomet

I have the 10A's and 7A's. I would say the 7's are a little light in the base. They sound awesome with a sub. They are very well balanced speakers. The 10's are not smeared in the midrange with the peerless tweeters and proper amplification. You don't need a sub with those bad boys. You can't go wrong with either and when you hear them you can't believe these speakers are 30 years old. Enjoy.

WastelandWand'r

Thanks for the clarification on the test. I just checked both the 10's and the 7's. The tens respond much faster. The 7's, if you weren't looking closely, don't appear to be returning at all. But after a while I realized it was slooowly doing it.
Gives me something to do, resealing the baskets on the 10's. Much cheaper then most of the other mods recommended here.
Well, off to listen to music.
Someday, I will have a respectable room to listen to them in with a proper setup, until then I will enjoy them as is.
Nathan

skrol

The 10's will retract faster just because they have 2 MW's instead of one. When the cabinets are well sealed, the air will seep through the spider, voice coil and through the dust cap.
Stan

WastelandWand'r

Learn something new everyday. I did have the 10's apart to do a XO upgrade and noticed that the foam sealer had become extremely compressed. It appeared to be like paper.
But since it does seem to be fighting a pressure column inside the enclosure, I guess all is well.
They were bought new in 1986 by me and have moved from Idaho to Alaska, and 6 moves since then so I guess I should cut them some slack. They have traveled well.
Nathan

ben62670

Go to your local HD, or Lowe's and get some Moretite weather caulking. Roll it a little thinner than what it is and try to press it down fairly flat on the driver. This stuff works great to seal and also works very very well to dampen the drivers steel baskets. Don't try to screw one screw in at a time, or even screw them all the way in in one day. Use a criss cross pattern, and take your time. Come back a few days later and tighten them up some more. Then come back again in a week or so to tighten them all the way. You can deform the driver baskets if you get heavy handed with the screw driver. Do not tighten them with a screw gun.

skrol

On my RTA11TL, also having 2 MW's, the pressure would bleed down in about 1 second. After the Moretite and calking all interior cabinet seams, it takes ~3 sec to bleed down. My Monitor 5A's take considerably longer with the original foam seals.

Vette C6.r

I love my 7's. I have 17 polk speakers. They kill any of them. I too have heard the 10's. Don't have the inteliigent wording for it but it just wasn't the same sound as the 7's.

Best $100 I've ever spent.

WastelandWand'r

Everyone,
I will be headed into Anchorage this weekend to visit the evil dentist for another crown. I know they are needed (dentists) but I really don't like them.
Back to the thread at hand.

I have attached a link for the nearest Home Depot, or store for that matter, just so everyone can appreciate the idea of roads, box stores and restaurants.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=61.459771,+-159.916992&daddr=anchorage+alaska&geocode=&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=61.93895,-156.950684&sspn=4.871211,19.6875&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=6

If it doesn't work I tried, but am not a computer whiz.

When in town I will definitely look for Moretite and give it a shot.
I appreciate all the ideas, and especially when they are on the cheap side of things. Ben, I will focus on the systematic approach to tightening the screws.

Happy Trails,
Nathan

(Note: I tried the link and it shows the map but no Aniak. Aniak is 304 air miles due west of Anchorage. No there are no roads.)