Polk Mini-Monitor II's

cleure

I bought a bunch of vintage Polk Audio speakers at a garage sale. Among them are two Mini-Monitor II's, complete with manual. Unfortunately, they need to be re-foamed, but other than that, they are in great condition.

My first question is, is it worth it to re-foam these? If so, what's the best way to go about this? I've heard about re-foaming kits that you can buy, however, I'm a little bit uneasy about doing it myself.

I'd love to have these things hooked up in my bedroom. Picture of one attached.

comfortablycurt

Peerless tweeters=Score. Those are some VERY nice sounding tweeters.

Those are the original Mini Monitors, which are kind of hard to come by.

I'd say it's worth it to refoam them.

I've never refoamed a driver myself, but those kits are supposed to be pretty easy to use. If you're not comfortable with doing it yourself, there are companies you could send the drivers to and have them redone.


By the way, welcome to Club Polk!:)

What are you going to be driving those speakers with?

So, you bought a bunch of vintage Polk's at a garage sale? What else did ya get? We need details!

madmike

If you are not comfortable doing this yourself you might want to talk to Bill at http://www.tributeaudio.com/

cleure

Thanks for the quick replies! I heard a couple people in other forums being critical of the Mini-Monitors, so I wasn't sure if they would be worth the effort. I'm definitely going to look into getting them refoamed now.

I picked up those two Mini-Monitor II's, a pair of original Monitor 4's, and two RM10's (which are much newer). All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I managed to find, although some Monitor 7 or 10's would have been nice.

Urg, right now I'm driving them with a crappy Logitech amp until I get something better... I have a second apartment, and the setup there is rather lackluster right now. I'm open to suggestions though!

zarrdoss

I thought the same thing years ago but finally decided to try and have done many over the years, If you don't get in a hurry and follow the instructions you will be fine, and for the foam, I have ordered from here with great success.

http://www.simplyspeakers.com/2doityourself.htm

comfortablycurt

cleure wrote: »

I picked up those two Mini-Monitor II's, a pair of original Monitor 4's, and two RM10's (which are much newer). All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I managed to find, although some Monitor 7 or 10's would have been nice.

Urg, right now I'm driving them with a crappy Logitech amp until I get something better... I have a second apartment, and the setup there is rather lackluster right now. I'm open to suggestions though!

Monitor 7's are some great sounding speakers. I've got a pair of Monitor 7A's, with Peerless tweeters...the same tweeters that you have in those Mini-Monitors. They sound fantastic. Excellent imaging, very natural, realistic sounding mid-range, very nice bass response given their size/design. The highs have a very sweet, laid back quality to them. I love them.

There are plenty of affordable options out there to drive them with. Adcom gear goes great with Polks on the cheap. I've got an Adcom GFA-545 that sounds wonderful driving my 7's. The 545's can be had for less than $200 all day long.

cleure

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Monitor 7's are some great sounding speakers. I've got a pair of Monitor 7A's, with Peerless tweeters...the same tweeters that you have in those Mini-Monitors. They sound fantastic. Excellent imaging, very natural, realistic sounding mid-range, very nice bass response given their size/design. The highs have a very sweet, laid back quality to them. I love them.

There are plenty of affordable options out there to drive them with. Adcom gear goes great with Polks on the cheap. I've got an Adcom GFA-545 that sounds wonderful driving my 7's. The 545's can be had for less than $200 all day long.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm definitely looking into something to drive these. They sound great, even with a crappy setup. I've been really impressed by the sound vintage Polks put out.

comfortablycurt

Yes, the vintage Polk's have an excellent sound. Very natural sounding...especially the mid-range. If you've never gotten your ears on SDA's, you really need to.;)

concealer404

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Monitor 7's are some great sounding speakers. I've got a pair of Monitor 7A's, with Peerless tweeters...the same tweeters that you have in those Mini-Monitors. They sound fantastic. Excellent imaging, very natural, realistic sounding mid-range, very nice bass response given their size/design. The highs have a very sweet, laid back quality to them. I love them.

There are plenty of affordable options out there to drive them with. Adcom gear goes great with Polks on the cheap. I've got an Adcom GFA-545 that sounds wonderful driving my 7's. The 545's can be had for less than $200 all day long.

Pshaw... anything will drive mini monitors, or M5s. My M7s get driven to hell and back easily with a Onkyo M-5150 that i picked up for $75.

Just bustin' balls.... M7s are easy to drive, though. Not that tough of a 4ohm speaker.

kcoc321

concealer404 wrote: »

.... M7s are easy to drive, though. Not that tough of a 4ohm speaker.

Are you saying the 7A's with the Peerless tweeters makes them 4ohm?

Cuz all of the specs I have seen say the 7's are 8ohm.
http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/specs/recent/monitor7/

comfortablycurt

concealer404 wrote: »

Pshaw... anything will drive mini monitors, or M5s. My M7s get driven to hell and back easily with a Onkyo M-5150 that i picked up for $75.

Just bustin' balls.... M7s are easy to drive, though. Not that tough of a 4ohm speaker.

Actually, Monitor 7's are 8 ohm speakers, as are most of the Monitors. I believe some of them are 6 ohms though. They can dip down to 4 ohms from time to time, but they're 8 ohm nominal.

Regardless, they are very easy to drive speakers. They don't require tons of power to sing.

leroyjr1

Driving my monitor 10's with a 30 watt rotel integrated amp.

comfortablycurt

leroyjr1 wrote: »

Driving my monitor 10's with a 30 watt rotel integrated amp.

Exactly...they don't take a lot.

When driving my Monitor 7A's with my Adcom 545, which is 100 wpc, my ears run out of room LONG before the speakers run out of headroom.

IMO, the vintage Monitors are some of, if not THE best speakers you can get for less than $150.

I need to get my ears on your 10's sometime Lee. I've yet to hear a pair of 10's. What kind of tweeters do yours have? We may have to do a Monitor 7 vs. Monitor 10 shootout sometime.

leroyjr1

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Exactly...they don't take a lot.

When driving my Monitor 7A's with my Adcom 545, which is 100 wpc, my ears run out of room LONG before the speakers run out of headroom.

IMO, the vintage Monitors are some of, if not THE best speakers you can get for less than $150.

I need to get my ears on your 10's sometime Lee. I've yet to hear a pair of 10's. What kind of tweeters do yours have? We may have to do a Monitor 7 vs. Monitor 10 shootout sometime.

Peerless

comfortablycurt

leroyjr1 wrote: »

Peerless

Nice. We definitely need to have a shootout sometime then. I've been wanting to compare my Peerless 7's to some Peerless 10's for a while now.

concealer404

comfortablycurt wrote: »

Actually, Monitor 7's are 8 ohm speakers, as are most of the Monitors. I believe some of them are 6 ohms though. They can dip down to 4 ohms from time to time, but they're 8 ohm nominal.

Regardless, they are very easy to drive speakers. They don't require tons of power to sing.

My bad.... mine are 6ohm. Was way too late last night.

danz1906

cleure wrote: »

I bought a bunch of vintage Polk Audio speakers at a garage sale. Among them are two Mini-Monitor II's, complete with manual. Unfortunately, they need to be re-foamed, but other than that, they are in great condition.

My first question is, is it worth it to re-foam these? If so, what's the best way to go about this? I've heard about re-foaming kits that you can buy, however, I'm a little bit uneasy about doing it myself.

I'd love to have these things hooked up in my bedroom. Picture of one attached.

Welcome to the Club!-Nice score on the speakers.

stvans1957

I have a pair of these speakers and one of the passive radiators just stoped working after 30+ years.

Any ideas on how to either fix or replace the passive radiatos.

Thank you in advance.

Steve

nhhiep

it uses the same woofer as the Bose 901 series. I know, weird uhh?

but that is another option, if you don't want to refoam.

gmjungbluth

How did it stop working? Did you lose bass and you still have mids and highs?

A few things I can think of:

1. Your midbass driver (6.5" speaker) has seized. The result will be no bass and a tinny sound out of the driver. You can test this by pushing in on the speaker - if it doesn't go in the magnet has seized and the driver is toast. I've had this happen with a Polk Monitor 7 and a 5 - one happened when it fell over and one 'just like that'. Replacement drivers are not hard to find.

2. You have an air leak - the cabinets need to be sealed tightly to push the passive radiator efficiently. push in on the driver (carefully) and confirm that the radiator is pushing out equally. If there is a good seal you should be able to hold in the driver and the passive radiator won't return to its original position for 1-5 seconds. If there's a leak you can re-seal all the drivers and radiators to the cabinet with mortite.

Good luck!

stvans1957 wrote: »

I have a pair of these speakers and one of the passive radiators just stoped working after 30+ years.

Any ideas on how to either fix or replace the passive radiatos.

Thank you in advance.

Steve

stvans1957

Thanks for your reply. I though that a woofer and passive radiator were quite different, were by the woofer had a magnet, voice coil, etc and the passive radiator did not.

How do you refoam the speaker to make it air tight?

Thank you.

Steve

nhhiep wrote: »

it uses the same woofer as the Bose 901 series. I know, weird uhh?

but that is another option, if you don't want to refoam.

stvans1957

Thanks for your reply

There is no sound / vibration coming out of the passive radiator. Have not used in a few weeks and just noticed it. The speaker are over 30 years old and would like to fix if possible. I am the original owner.

gmjungbluth wrote: »

How did it stop working? Did you lose bass and you still have mids and highs?

A few things I can think of:

I have the Mini Monitor speakers. The divers are no biffer than 3 or 4 inches across. The mid bass driver is working. The bottom driver the passive radiator (flat driver, not a cone) does not vibrate or make any sound.

1. Your midbass driver (6.5" speaker) has seized. The result will be no bass and a tinny sound out of the driver. You can test this by pushing in on the speaker - if it doesn't go in the magnet has seized and the driver is toast. I've had this happen with a Polk Monitor 7 and a 5 - one happened when it fell over and one 'just like that'. Replacement drivers are not hard to find.

What is mortite? Where could I find it and how would I reseal the cabinet?

2. You have an air leak - the cabinets need to be sealed tightly to push the passive radiator efficiently. push in on the driver (carefully) and confirm that the radiator is pushing out equally. If there is a good seal you should be able to hold in the driver and the passive radiator won't return to its original position for 1-5 seconds. If there's a leak you can re-seal all the drivers and radiators to the cabinet with mortite.

Good luck!

stvans1957

My passive radiator looks very similiar to the one in the picture in the first post in this thread. I assume that it is a passive radiator.

Steve