Model 7A Like I've Never Seen

skrol

I have never seen Model (Monitor) 7A's like these before.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Polk-Audio-Model-7A-Stereo-Speakers-7-A_W0QQitemZ170336943989QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSpeakers_Subwoofers?hash=item27a8df7f75&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A10|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A2|294%3A50

What year do you suppose they were made?

danger boy

nice pair of monitor 7A's. just a guess.. but i would think they were from about late 70's early 80's.. more likey 70's. for some reason.. I"m thinking 1977, or 78. but that's just a guess. 7A were built from 1977 to 1982

nadams

Yep, an early model. All of the early monitors used the velcro pads for the grills. They then switched to the more common plastic posts somewhere along the line. I'm surprised those 7a's have the coated drivers. Usually when you see the velcro, you also see uncoated paper drivers.

comfortablycurt

I'm guessing those were made in 1977-early 1978. My 7A's were made in 1978 and have the plastic posts for the grilles.

As Sal said, those aren't the original passive radiators.

mhardy6647

They look to be identical to mine (although mine are in a simply lovely rosewood vinyl!), if they have two fuses. Mine date to 1977-78 (I bought them as demos in 1978). I can check the S/Ns at home tonight if anyone is really interested.

cnh

Ok.

Here's the question....peerless tweeters precede SPL1000, 2000, 2500, 3000. Is the peerless the 'superior' tweeter. If so, then why the SPLs? If not, why does everyone around here foam at the mouth when they hear 'peeeerlessss'? Excuse the emphasis. But I've been trying to unravel this tweeter labyrinth--then of course we have the tri-laminates? And the 'return' of the silk dome in the M series which 'somehow' Polk 20+ years later managed to make inferior to the peerless? What's that about. Good marketing? Technological regression...?

cnh

comfortablycurt

Peerless tweeters are badass. I absolutely love mine. They're generally considered the best tweeter that was put into the Monitor series.

The Peerless tweeters weren't made by Polk, which could be part of it, they were made by Peerless. It seems that Polks in house tweeters from that era lacked in some certain areas, which is why you see so many people updating their vintage speakers with the RDO replacements.


I don't really know the technical reasons for them being better, but these tweets have a very distinctive, smooth, airy sound quality.

mhardy6647

cnh wrote: »

Ok.

Here's the question....peerless tweeters precede SPL1000, 2000, 2500, 3000. Is the peerless the 'superior' tweeter. If so, then why the SPLs? If not, why does everyone around here foam at the mouth when they hear 'peeeerlessss'? Excuse the emphasis. But I've been trying to unravel this tweeter labyrinth--then of course we have the tri-laminates? And the 'return' of the silk dome in the M series which 'somehow' Polk 20+ years later managed to make inferior to the peerless? What's that about. Good marketing? Technological regression...?

cnh

Listen to one sometime.

cnh

I'll try to of course. But the question remains...why aren't current Polk silk domes up to peerless quality? That seems a bit negligent to me.

cnh

ben62670

Those are the original PR's.

comfortablycurt

ben62670 wrote: »

Those are the original PR's.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all of the 7A's I've ever seen(mine included) have the gray paper gasket around the outer edge of the MW and the PR.

These speakers have the gasket around the MW, but not the PR's. They're probably the same model of PR though, so I doubt it makes much of a sonic difference.

mhardy6647

This is one of my 7As, FWIW.
S/N on the one in the photo is 04900.

comfortablycurt

Nevermind...I've found a few pictures of the older 7A's, and they all look like that one. I guess the earlier ones didn't have the paper gasket around the outer edge of the PR's.

danger boy

the rubber surround on the passives from the OP do not look original to me either. the rubber seeems to robust if you ask me. I could be wrong.. but they don't look original

Hawking821

yea i think danger is right they dont look original.. i would check first before you buy