Can You Identify These Polk Speakers?

kcoc321

Great score. Patience paid off.
Post some pics once you have them cleaned up.

As far speaker wire, use a good quality, min 14ga.
Audioquest on up to MIT...and beyond..depends on your budget.

Alot of ppl recommend Blue Jean Cable or Signal Cable for a 'mid-fi' solution.

Freak When C

Thanks, I'll try and get some pics up soon (no daughter pics, sorry).

Speaker wire by Audioquest and other respected companies are all going to have factory termination, no? Besides bare wire, what type or connectors will work with these speakers?

Freak When C

dbl post

Freak When C

sorry, dbl post.

Freak When C

You guys, I'm grinning ear to ear. I just had to hook them up to make sure they worked. Currently have them connected to my Parasound Zamp v.3 that's being fed by my Parasound Zpre2 preamp with my Rotel tuner suppling the music source. These things sound fantastic! So clear yet very liquid smooth and very nice tight bass. Damn, they rival my Paradigm Export Monitors. I'm amazed. Turning up the volume just makes em sound even better.

These speakers are 28 years old (according to the receipt). The ironic part is they will soon be serving duty to my computer's music server which will be sending a signal via S/PDIF to my Citypulse DAC DA7.2x II (that I recently ordered from Audiomagus.com with a 20% off coupon-code) that will be sending the signal to my Parasound gear to which my Polk Monitor 7B speakers will be connected. The latest new method of sending signal source material mated to vintage gear. Can't wait.

comfortablycurt

Bananas will work with these speakers...not sure about spades. I've got my 7A's hooked up with nanners, and they use the same binding posts.

The fuse is a tweeter protection circuit. If the tweeter gets overloaded, the fuse will trip and prevent any damage from occurring to the tweeter. You might want to check the fuses to make sure they're in good shape.

Freak When C

Well I'll be, nanners do work. Thanks. Spades will too, I'm sure. What kind of speaker wire are you using?

comfortablycurt

Freak When C wrote: »

Well I'll be, nanners do work. Thanks. Spades will too, I'm sure. What kind of speaker wire are you using?

I'm just using some 14 gauge Stinger Audio zip cord, terminated with monoprice nanners. Decent cables...but nothing special.

I've also used Audioquest Type 4's with my 7's...sounded very nice.

Freak When C

I think I'm going to have to make some custom cables. I have a 5ft pair of Kimber Kable 8TC I was planning on using with my desktop system. The DAC and Paradigm gear, along with the speaker wire was all selected with desktop system in mind. But since the seller didn't accept my offer for that pair of Monitor Audio speakers, and then snagging these Polk 7B's today, well plans have changed. By the way, am I an official "Polkster" now? (it says so under my user name) Would be kinda hypocritical if I didn't actually own any Polk speakers. Guess these 7B's were calling me.

So instead of having speakers on my desk I have the 7B's sitting on their stands about ten feet behind me seperated about 12 feet apart. Saved me money and desk space and sounds incredible. Gonna need 15ft to maybe 20 ft speaker wires now. But that's OK, I'm digging this setup rather than near-field monitors on my desktop.

ben62670

Glad to see they are off your desk. I had 7's running desktop duty, and they just did not sound good at all. As for wire get some AQ type 4 bulk, or get a set of used ones cheap.
Ignore most of the hype about gage. It is the quality of the wire, and the insulation.
Enjoy:)
Ben

comfortablycurt

I just got done with a listening session with my Monitor 7A's...damn these things sound fantastic!! I absolutely love these speakers...especially for the $20 I paid for them.;)

Gotta love the way these Peerless tweets sound!:D

Freak When C

Rocking "Crazy Babies" by Ozzy right now. Freak'n sweet!

Aint no way I'd wana have my 7's running desktop duty, that's crazy Ben! Thanks for the AQ type 4 bulk suggestion. And you were right, Ben. My Parsound amp has plenty of clean power and the 7's are happy.

Curt, I never knew what Peerless Softdome tweets were until today. Damn fine sounding.

ben62670

I like the 7's over the 10's. They both have their pluses, but the 7's image a little better. IF you think you like them now wait till you do the XO's. They will really open up then, and have tighter bass.

Freak When C

ben62670 wrote: »

IF you think you like them now wait till you do the XO's. They will really open up then, and have tighter bass.

Um.... What? XO's? What the freak is that?

ben62670

Freak When C wrote: »

Rocking "Crazy Baby" by Ozzy right now. Freak'n sweet!

Aint no way I'd wana have my 7's running desktop duty, that's crazy Ben! Thanks for the AQ type 4 bulk suggestions. And you were right, Ben. My Parsound amp has plenty of clean power and the 7's are happy.

Curt, I never knew what Peerless Softdome tweets were until today. Damn fine sounding.

HeHe I love when you guys get into some old outdated vintage speakers. Puts a huge grin on my face. My first vintage Polk's were 4.6's. I knew they were bottom of the line, but from listening to those glorious mids, hearing the fingers slide on the guitar strings, and when Allison Kruas's lips would part while breathing I just had to get some better vintage Polk's!

ben62670

Freak When C wrote: »

Um.... What? XO's? What the freak is that?

It is what sends the highs to the tweeters, and the lows to the mids. Those speakers are real old, and the caps they used in the first place weren't that great. Those caps do not age well. Search the tags for XO upgrades. If you can solder you can do it yourself. If you want to peek at the XO's just remove the 4 screws that hold the speaker terminal cups in. The XO is actually part of the terminal cup.

Freak When C

XO's = crossovers... duh, OK. Just replacing the caps is what you're saying helps, or replacing the whole crossover? And what do you mean by "Search the tags for XO upgrades"

Freak When C

I was denied access to search the tags here on Club Polk (not sure why). Perhaps I've not attained true Polkster status, after all. I seen a Polk Audio Monitor 5, 7, RTA 8T Upgrade Kit on eBay, but it already sold.

I did a little digging and read that Sonicap Capacitors from Sonic Craft is a nice upgrade. But is that all I should do?

Thanks for all the help. These speakers are 28 yrs old. If I do the XO upgrade thing, I wana do it right. Any help y'all can offer on which caps to get and what other parts should be replaced and/or upgraded would be appreciated.

comfortablycurt

ben62670 wrote: »

I like the 7's over the 10's. They both have their pluses, but the 7's image a little better. IF you think you like them now wait till you do the XO's. They will really open up then, and have tighter bass.

I've heard that from quite a few people. I've never heard the 10's before...I wouldn't mind picking up a pair of Peerless 10's for comparison, sometime down the line.

Freak When C wrote: »

I was denied access to search the tags here on Club Polk (not sure why).

The tag feature got disabled a while back. It's a useful feature, but a lot of people were abusing it...so they did away with it.

I've found that the best way to search Club Polk is through google...Just type Club Polk in the search bar, followed by whatever topic your searching for.

ben62670

Well that pisses me off. A bunch of retarded cowards abused a good feature of the forum. The search feature sucks here, and the tag feature worked very well if you could get past all the BS. I certainly don't blame Polk for ditching it. I wish they could have modified it so people could have been held responsible for their tagging. Hopefully they can get the search feature to work better. Other forums that use the same forum software as ours have very little problems with their search feature. I don't get it. I google the Polk forum too. Really they should ditch the search feature if they an't figure it out, and use the google search engine within the site.

concealer404

Freak When C wrote: »

Damn, they rival my Paradigm Export Monitors. I'm amazed. Turning up the volume just makes em sound even better.

What Paradigms are those? Haven't heard of those....

I have a list of everything needed for the crossover rebuild/upgrade at home. I'll try to find it after work and post it up tomorrow for you. Then the experts can chime in and tell you if it'll work for your 7Bs, since my list is for 7Cs.

Freak When C

concealer404 wrote: »

What Paradigms are those? Haven't heard of those....

Yeah, they're quite old but sound very nice. The Monitor series used to be higher up in their chain and that's when the Export Monitors were in production. Now Paradigm has done away with their Performance line and thus, their Monitor series is the lowest on the totem pole. (I think I got that right).

concealer404 wrote: »

I have a list of everything needed for the crossover rebuild/upgrade at home. I'll try to find it after work and post it up tomorrow for you. Then the experts can chime in and tell you if it'll work for your 7Bs, since my list is for 7Cs.

Thanks, I appreciate that. I have a buddy that has exoerience with this kind of stuff, Sounds like if I had the parts I could just remove the 4 screws that hold the speaker terminal cups and take it all to him. Have him install the parts for me then put it all back together and I'd have upgraded XO's. Being 28 years old I bet these 7B's could use it.

concealer404

Freak When C wrote: »

Yeah, they're quite old but sound very nice. The Monitor series used to be higher up in their chain and that's when the Export Monitors were in production. Now Paradigm has done away with their Performance line and thus, their Monitor series is the lowest on the totem pole. (I think I got that right).



Thanks, I appreciate that. I have a buddy that has exoerience with this kind of stuff, Sounds like if I had the parts I could just remove the 4 screws that hold the speaker terminal cups and take it all to him. Have him install the parts for me then put it all back together and I'd have upgraded XO's. Being 28 years old I bet these 7B's could use it.

Ah gotcha. I just looked them up. Look vaguely like 7ses or something. Learn something new every day i guess.

I hope i can find that list for you.... i just moved, so things are kindof hectic. If i can't, i can find it for you tomorrow at work, i'm about to get out of here.

But yes, it's really easy. Remove those screws, take the sucker out, and you should be able to do the install yourself, actually. I'm not exactly REAL technically-oriented, but it looks easy enough that i wouldn't have a problem doing it.

Freak When C

Yeah, knowing which parts to order would be a great help. I'm assuming its just a few capacitors but knowing which values and a list of exactly which parts to replace is what I need. I thought perhaps such a list would be posted here on CP but I haven't found it via the search feature. I'm thinking of going with Sonicap as I read they are the best. But I wonder if I really need "the best" for these speakers or if just new caps from a competent company will get the job done.

kcoc321

Freak When C wrote: »

Yeah, knowing which parts to order would be a great help. I'm assuming its just a few capacitors but knowing which values and a list of exactly which parts to replace is what I need. I thought perhaps such a list would be posted here on CP but I haven't found it via the search feature. I'm thinking of going with Sonicap as I read they are the best. But I wonder if I really need "the best" for these speakers or if just new caps from a competent company will get the job done.

Freak WC,
You are best to pull your cross-overs and see shat you have in there. I can tell you from having several pairs of vintage speakers, there are numerous changes that have been made, even to the same series.

I would definitely recommend going with the SonicCaps on the High end. (At least from what I have read) They are not really that much more, especially if you figure the cost over the next 20 years. It is also recommended to replace the resistors, but you should not have to worry about the inductors (the big wire coils).

Have you looked and compared the wiring diagrams to what you have. They are also a good resource. Just go down to the Monitor section.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38755

It's fun huh

Freak When C

Yeah, that's a good idea; pulling the crossovers and seeing what exactly I have in there.

I've been listening to my stereo and noticed on some tunes when there's heavy drums in rock music ala ACDC Highway To Hell, that the drums sound kinda of flabby and distorted. Then another song comes on and it sounds fine. I did buy these off CL and they're 28 yrs old. Does this sound like something a XO upgrade will remedy or might these 7B's be developing other issues?

comfortablycurt

ben62670 wrote: »

Well that pisses me off. A bunch of retarded cowards abused a good feature of the forum. The search feature sucks here, and the tag feature worked very well if you could get past all the BS. I certainly don't blame Polk for ditching it. I wish they could have modified it so people could have been held responsible for their tagging. Hopefully they can get the search feature to work better. Other forums that use the same forum software as ours have very little problems with their search feature. I don't get it. I google the Polk forum too. Really they should ditch the search feature if they an't figure it out, and use the google search engine within the site.

+1 Ben. It was a useful feature, but you can't blame Polk for eliminating it.

Leave it to the childish whiners to take advantage of a good thing.:rolleyes:

concealer404 wrote: »

I have a list of everything needed for the crossover rebuild/upgrade at home. I'll try to find it after work and post it up tomorrow for you. Then the experts can chime in and tell you if it'll work for your 7Bs, since my list is for 7Cs.

The XO's will most likely be different. The Peerless equipped 7's used a different design in the high frequency circuit. They have two resistors in the signal path, rather than 1 with the SL-2000 equipped 7's.

I'm just going off the top of my head, but I believe the SL-2000 M7's had a 2.0 ohm resistor, and the Peerless M7's had 2.7 ohm and 4.5 ohm resistors...or maybe it was 2.5 and 4.7... One of the two...

That's what my Peerless 7's have anyway. You should definitely look at the crossovers in your own speakers first though, as kcoc mentioned. Polk changed the design several times, and you want to make sure you know exactly what you need before purchasing anything.