Model 10?!

Quagh

Newbie to Club Polk here.....:D

I picked up a pair of these today in rosewood or cherry vood veneer. They appear to be in excellent condition. They have 1 single buss type fuse in the rear. They look like they have 10" woofers, (2) 4" mids and a soft dome tweeter. The paperwork claims they are good to 200 watts RMS. Is that correct?! Compared to my HPM-100's, they are comparable in size. Are they similar in performance and what is their sensitivity rating?

I'm familiar with AR's, Advents, etc but know absolutely nothing about vintage Polks.

I'll post pics later but was looking for info on these. Any specs are appreciated.

Peace,

Mark

comfortablycurt

Welcome to Club Polk!:)

The 10" "woofers" are actually passive radiators. They aren't powered by the amplifier, but are driven off of the back pressure of the 6.5" mid-woofers. Definitely get some pics up. The 10's had several different tweeters, some of which are more desirable than others.

The rating of 200 watts is probably correct. All power ratings should be taken with a grain of salt though. You could easily drive the 10's with a 500 watt amp and not damage them, assuming that you don't get crazy with the volume knob. You're far more likely to damage a speaker by under powering it than over powering it.

The Monitor 10's are some great speakers. Congrats on the new toys.

McLoki

Probably 6.5" woofers. Shoot a pic with the grills off and lets see whatch'a got...

Bobsama

I'd be about 95% sure that they're 6.5" midwoofers. Monitor 10's are nice. The fuses on the back are for the tweeters, btw. Check them--it's easy to blow the fuse.

Quagh

Ok here are some pics then......

Haven't even had a chance to hook them up yet. (getting kids ready for back to school stuff. Yeah I know, my priorities aren't in order):rolleyes:

LMK what you all think. The bottoms of these things are even sweet. The tops are better and I haven't even cleaned them up yet!

kawizx9r

Welcome to Club Polks and congrats on your Polks! Very nice looking, peerless tweeters too!

Quagh

Any ideas on what these are worth? I may keep them but I already have like 12 pairs of speakers.........and a wife.

JohnLocke88

Quagh wrote: »

Any ideas on what these are worth? I may keep them but I already have like 12 pairs of speakers.........and a wife.

Those are SL1000s, no?

Maybe it's just the angle, or the way the pictures are cropped, but they look narrow for 10s...

dane_peterson

Quagh wrote: »

Any ideas on what these are worth? I may keep them but I already have like 12 pairs of speakers.........and a wife.

They're worth KEEPING. Great looking speakers... you won't be disappointed.

Bobsama

JohnLocke88 wrote: »

Those are SL1000s, no?

Maybe it's just the angle, or the way the pictures are cropped, but they look narrow for 10s...

They're 10B's. And yes, that looks like SL1000 tweeters. And those look to be in very good condition. Want to trade tweeters? I've got some SL2000 tweeters around.

j/k

Quagh

What is the DB rating on these? I got the "instruction manual" with them also but no mention of efficiency.

Bobsama

I think it's 92dB, 6Ω, 10-200Wpc

Quagh

92 is pretty good. I could live with that. I knew about the 6 ohms. Never really knew much about Polks this far back. These are from what? early 80's era?

Bobsama

Quagh wrote: »

92 is pretty good. I could live with that. I knew about the 6 ohms. Never really knew much about Polks this far back. These are from what? early 80's era?

1979 for the 10B's, actually. The 10A variation was from '79-'84. There was actually an M10-S2 produced in 1990, as well.

You'll have to double-check my numbers though. Most Polk speakers of that era are 90-92 dB.

F1nut

Those are not Monitor 10B's, they are Monitor 10A's, which came with the SL1000 tweeter and the fuse on the back. The 10B's (late 1980's) came with the SL2000 tweeter and used a polyswitch mounted on the crossover board for the tweeter protection.

Bobsama

F1nut wrote: »

Those are not Monitor 10B's, they are Monitor 10A's, which came with the SL1000 tweeter and the fuse on the back. The 10B's (late 1980's) came with the SL2000 tweeter and used a polyswitch mounted on the crossover board for the tweeter protection.

Check the attached pictures in his earlier post.

"SERIAL 10B- 126420"
A fuse is also shown on there. And according to polksda.com, the 10B's were discontinued before 10A's.

Hamatym

Agree with F1nut! looks like those original sl1000 tweets were replaced by the later version that sound more like the SL2000...I think they offered in the ninties as SL1000 replacements, but not 100%

Bobsama

Hamatym wrote: »

Agree with F1nut! looks like those original sl1000 tweets were replaced by the later version that sound more like the SL2000...I think they offered in the ninties as SL1000 replacements, but not 100%

That's a possibility. The domes themselves look very similar to the SL2000 domes, though the magnet and metal plates are different sizes I think. I'll have to take another look later.

Quagh

How does one explain the 10b in the serial then? These have clear dome tweeters with no hole.

Also, how do you diecern the sl-1000 from the 2000?

Newbie here remember!

Did I tell you guys I got the stands too? Dusty but should clean up well.

If I keep these I'll have to lock the door to my room for a few years until my kids get older. Otherwise I would hate to take the chance of them or one of their friends dinging something while being kids.

Hamatym

1000 soder marks go at an angle to the bottom, also has a black dome. The SL2000 soder marks go directly to the side (straight) and have a yellowish done color.

I have 10B's and they also have a gold Polk Emblem on the front grill. Yours have the Silver Polk Emblem on the wood (silver was used on the fused versions) the 10b also no fuse..not sure why it's i nthe serial number, they get crazy

F1nut

Bobsama wrote: »

Check the attached pictures in his earlier post.

"SERIAL 10B- 126420"
A fuse is also shown on there. And according to polksda.com, the 10B's were discontinued before 10A's.

Yeah I saw it, but they are configured as 10A's, which came before the 10B's, so polksda.com is wrong.

Polk often mislabeled speakers and in this case I'd venture to say that they were changing production from the A's to the B's and ran out of A labels.

F1nut

Hamatym wrote: »

looks like those original sl1000 tweets were replaced by the later version that sound more like the SL2000...I think they offered in the ninties as SL1000 replacements, but not 100%

The silver faceplate is a dead give away that his tweeters are SL1000's. The other tweeter you are thinking about was the SL2500, which had a black faceplate as well as a black silk dome.

Bobsama

Hamatym wrote: »

1000 soder marks go at an angle to the bottom, also has a black dome. The SL2000 soder marks go directly to the side (straight) and have a yellowish done color.

I have 10B's and they also have a gold Polk Emblem on the front grill. Yours have the Silver Polk Emblem on the wood (silver was used on the fused versions) the 10b also no fuse..not sure why it's i nthe serial number, they get crazy

Easiest way to discern the tweeter is by dome color and the plate used. That particular plate has the lines at a ~110 degree angle to each other. I just yanked a tweeter out of my SDA-1's and they're identified as SL1000's. They have a similar yellowish dome as the 2000's, but these are definitely 1000's. The SL2000's are common even now (thanks to longer use and SL3000 upgrade kits), with the line straight across the plate. But yeah, the faceplate itself is a big indicator. Peerless and SL1000's used a flat shiny plate with the marks at an angle. SL2000's and later had the edges of the plates taper, and often "Polk Audio" was sunk in. The style and positioning can help tell what tweeter it is, in addition to dome color. Best identification is the sticker, however.

Quagh wrote: »

How does one explain the 10b in the serial then? These have clear dome tweeters with no hole.

Also, how do you diecern the sl-1000 from the 2000?

Newbie here remember!

Did I tell you guys I got the stands too? Dusty but should clean up well.

If I keep these I'll have to lock the door to my room for a few years until my kids get older. Otherwise I would hate to take the chance of them or one of their friends dinging something while being kids.

Probably an early-production 10B then. Polk used parts as they were available. Most of the first models Polk produced used older components. My pair of SDA-1's, for example, have a 3-pin female interconnect cable. The speakers themselves use two of those pins, but the pins themselves are on the speakers. If memory serves, only Monitor series speakers ever had Peerless tweeters.

Start pulling them apart a bit--Polk components all had a sticker on the back identifying the part at the very least.

F1nut

Yep, just looked thru polksda.com, it's full of date errors and those auction prices are useless. IMO, the site should be taken down.

Bobsama

F1nut wrote: »

Yep, just looked thru polksda.com, it's full of date errors and those auction prices are useless. IMO, the site should be taken down.

True, but it's a rough guide none the less. They mistake a lot of models (my favorites are "Polk Model ___" being called "Polk Monitor ___") but some of their data is actually good. None the less, having actual hardware in your hand is, hands down, the best way to identify it.

Quagh

Do they look better on the stands?! Actually these stands are in pretty sweet shape too. Although I did notice other Monitor stands were made entirely of mdf. These have stamped top plates. Super shape for being 37 odd years old.

And yeah, even though they haven't made it in the house yet; they sound very sweet so far!

Noticed the autographed grills by the builders I'd assume. Neat touch. Too bad the serials are 150 or so numbers apart. Hey whaddya want for $150 bucks?!

comfortablycurt

I'd have to agree with F1.

Those are definitely 10A's...with SL-1000 tweets. The 10B's never came with the SL-1000's...they had the SL-2000's.

As Jesse mentioned, those particular speakers were probably produced in a transitional period when they were moving from the 10A's to the 10B's. That would explain the 10B nomenclature on the back. Polk is infamous for having a lot of transitional models.

polksda.com's dates are wrong. The 10A's definitely came before the 10B's. That site is a very useful guide...but some of the information isn't entirely correct.

Bobsama wrote: »

True, but it's a rough guide none the less. They mistake a lot of models (my favorites are "Polk Model ___" being called "Polk Monitor ___") but some of their data is actually good. None the less, having actual hardware in your hand is, hands down, the best way to identify it.

That's just what they're generally referred to as. They're technically the Polk Audio Monitor Series Model x, but everyone refers to them as Monitor 7, Monitor 10 etc. I believe the later models in the series actually dropped the "Model" designation, and were simply called "Monitor x".

McLoki

Just to show the different Polk Tweeters (shamelessly stolen from other Club Polk threads)

The Peerless. (have not heard them, but many think they are some of the best vintage tweets available...)


You have the SL1000


This is the SL2000 (with a silkdome replacement RDO below it - personally I am not a huge fan of the SL2000 as it always seemed quite brite to me, but others seem to tolerate it fine)


This is the Sl2500 (I have a pair of monitor 10's with this tweeter and like the sound of it quite a bit.)


There is also an SL3000 tweeter that was used on many of the TL-series SDA speakers. It has a gold cast to it and sounds quite good in its own right. I will let you look for a pic of that as it never (to my knowledge) made it to the monitor line....

Michael

Quagh

What is the model number of the drivers for these? One of them is making a small rattling noise and I'd like to replace it.

Bobsama

Quagh wrote: »

What is the model number of the drivers for these? One of them is making a small rattling noise and I'd like to replace it.

You have SL1000 tweeters. The problem is that SL1k's are uncommon, Peerless are rare in original condition, and SL2000 or higher (including RDO-194 & RDO-198) tweeters will need you to modify the cabinet a little bit to accept a larger tweeter. Current price on RDO-194's are $60 or so direct thru Polk. If you do go that route, I'd like to buy both (the good and the bad) SL1000 tweeters. PM me if you're interested. IIRC, SL1000 and SL2000 (as well as replacement RDO-194's) are electrically compatible (no need to modify the crossover boards). SL2000's are cheap on eBay too, but the point stands that they can be a bit bright. I never had a problem with them, actually. They sound quite good on SDA-CRS+'s.

Quagh

Sorry, didn't mean the tweeters, the larger woofers.

Mine say model 6600X but after swapping them out I have to now wonder if there may be a cross over issue as the rattling has now gone away and the static seems to be from the tweet. (could've just been that scratchy Marvin Gaye - What's Goin' On song too!) Bad choice but I was rushing.

Had seen an earlier post that showed these used MW6503 but that's not what I see in mine.

Thanks in advance for all the help guys! I'll be leaving tomorrow to spend weekend wi family before school starts. I'll be back here Sunday or Monday tho'! Just not enough hours in the day! Kids, bills, stereos. Crazy but fun!