Polk Monitor 10 Opinions?

Gunther16 · May 2016

Have a chance to pick up a pair of Monitor 10 (not A or B series) for what I think is a steal but know little to nothing about them. They are clean, sound good, Grills are in great shape, look lightly used, Cabinets are ok no major scratches/nicks. Heard them in not the best environment, stuck in corners about 4 inches from side walls and directly against the rear wall. Are these old vintage speakers any good? If you say yes or no please elaborate. Seller wants $100.00 for the pair. Any good?

voltz · May 2016

I have some 10's and really like them, but the 2 side by side drivers suffer from cross talk, so most will tell ya the Monitor 7's are the sweet spot.

But I like my 10's and for that price I would grab them up if it was me...I have some CRS+'s that i\I use more then the 10's as the SDA cable eliminates the cross talk but the 10's are still fun Speakers. I'm not selling mine anytime soon.

motorhead43026 · May 2016

I own some 10's and I liked them enough to rebuild the crossovers and update the tweeters. I am not using them right now, but I am keeping them. If in good condition $100.00 is a good price.

befuddle · May 2016

They're nice sounding speakers but they suffer from a condition called lobing which if i remember correctly is because of the identically timed snd dispersion of the side by side mids causes the imaging to be perceived as wider than it should be/I use a set for rear surrounds which works well with their wider dispersion

Gunther16 · May 2016

I was also contemplating on trying them as rear surrounds (at least comparing them to the FX I'm using currently or as a 7.1 setup). Thanks

westmassguy · May 2016

The 10s are great party speakers, and sound very good, but the 7s are better. They do everything the 10s do, without it's drawbacks. Very balanced from top to bottom.

Gunther16 · May 2016

Ha, Got the best "Party" speaker now thanks to you Dave. I think I just may get them for SAG. Not much to lose for $100. Can always relegate to the garage or something.

boston1450 · May 2016

At that price enjoy them & if you need-sell em off-get your money back. Great speakers. Good luck

xschop · May 2016

Anyone tried adding an inductor to one of the MWs to rid the lobing?

Jaybeez · May 2016

I bought a set for the same price and A/B'd them with my 7's.

To my ears, the 10's are a bit more "open" and seem to do better with Classical and some Jazz (like Big Band).

The 7's are more focused overall and do better on other types of music.

The difference is pretty small, so I say go with the 10's and enjoy them.

Gunther16 · May 2016

Thanks all for your input. It was a bust, shortest speaker buy ever, Went to pick them up and was informed by the lady of the house that they were not for sale. Seems that the speakers in question did not belong to the person selling them. Speakers were given to her when she graduated from college by her father, had sentimental value and that the man of the house had no right to sell them. I said that I completely understand and went back home. I bet there are fireworks in the neighborhood tonight.

lawdogg · May 2016

Well that's too bad - for them, yikes, and for you too. You may have liked the Monitor 10s. I really enjoy my Monitor 10a's, even completely factory original, although they aren't quite at the level as my recapped / hurricane nuts / sound deadened / RD0's Monitor 7 v2's. The peerless tweeter is lovely.

westmassguy · May 2016

xschop wrote: »

Anyone tried adding an inductor to one of the MWs to rid the lobing?

You could, that's what Polk did essentially with the RTA-12B & C. The outer woofers are rolled off above 600 Hz. You would need a 2nd order filter, an Inductor and Shunt Cap. This will throw off the voicing of the speaker however. The combined output of the two woofers relative to the output of the tweeter would be less.

JPete · May 2016

Monitor 10Bs are what brought me to this forum, so I thank mine for that. BUT, every other purchase I've made since just keeps moving the 10s further and further back in the rotation. As of this weekend, they are officially on garage duty. Looking good and doing a fine job there.

HzTweaker · May 2016

The Monitor series has always applied to me. Now that I have a pair of 10As I have been bitten by "the bug" and had been looking for a pair of monitor 7s since. Definitely wouldn't mind a pair of SDAs but I'm pretty sure I'll need a bigger house/listening space first.

TennMan · May 2016

JPete wrote: »

Monitor 10Bs are what brought me to this forum, so I thank mine for that. BUT, every other purchase I've made since just keeps moving the 10s further and further back in the rotation. As of this weekend, they are officially on garage duty. Looking good and doing a fine job there.

Before you give up on your 10Bs you should try putting the drivers, wiring and terminal cups from your CRS+ into your 10Bs to make them SDAs. (Keep the 10B passives in place.) You may find that putting your 10Bs in the garage was a mistake. I ran SDA 10Bs for a couple of years before I purchased my 2Bs. I preferred the sound of them over my CRS+.

HzTweaker · May 2016

TennMan wrote: »

JPete wrote: »

Monitor 10Bs are what brought me to this forum, so I thank mine for that. BUT, every other purchase I've made since just keeps moving the 10s further and further back in the rotation. As of this weekend, they are officially on garage duty. Looking good and doing a fine job there.

Before you give up on your 10Bs you should try putting the drivers, wiring and terminal cups from your CRS+ into your 10Bs to make them SDAs. (Keep the 10B passives in place.) You may find that putting your 10Bs in the garage was a mistake. I ran SDA 10Bs for a couple of years before I purchased my 2Bs. I preferred the sound of them over my CRS+.

Very interesting!. After reading this I immediately went onto ebay looking for a pair of SDA crossovers. I'd like to try this for myself. Any advise?

TennMan · May 2016

Very simple to do. The only modification to the 10Bs is drilling a hole in the brace in the center of the 10B cabinet to mount the CRS+ crossover board. I think I used the same bolt from the CRS+ to mount them. Then swap everything from the CRS+ into the 10B cabinets with the exception of the passive radiators. Leave the passives for the 10Bs in place. Swap the terminal cups plug in all the wires. It is about as plug and play as you can get. The best part is you swap it all back just as easy if you don't like it.

JPete · May 2016

TennMan wrote: »

JPete wrote: »

Monitor 10Bs are what brought me to this forum, so I thank mine for that. BUT, every other purchase I've made since just keeps moving the 10s further and further back in the rotation. As of this weekend, they are officially on garage duty. Looking good and doing a fine job there.

Before you give up on your 10Bs you should try putting the drivers, wiring and terminal cups from your CRS+ into your 10Bs to make them SDAs. (Keep the 10B passives in place.) You may find that putting your 10Bs in the garage was a mistake. I ran SDA 10Bs for a couple of years before I purchased my 2Bs. I preferred the sound of them over my CRS+.

I haven't given up on the 10s. The 10s are great for me in the garage. I spend a lot of time out there fiddling with the cars and whatever this time of year, so they're getting more use now than they were inside.

I have read mention of your SDA/10Bs before, and thought it was pretty cool. I'm sure they sound awesome. I fully upgraded my CRSs and haven't looked back. I like the look of the CRS in my room, with some custom built reproduction stands, everything else original(vinyl, grills, etc..). My next speaker purchase will probably not be Polks since I want to stray for a change. Old Infinity Kappas or Dunlavys.. Haven't decided or even started to search yet. Next good deal on some big SDAs around my area will be tempting though, and I'm always watching for them.

TennMan · May 2016

I just throw this out from time to time in case someone might want to give it a try. It's a fun project for a rainy weekend if you have nothing better to do. You can't hurt anything by doing it. No wires need to be cut and no modifications are made to the CRS+ parts. Some people may like the sound and some won't. Purist probably won't like making changes to the original Polk designs.

westmassguy · May 2016

TennMan wrote: »

I just throw this out from time to time in case someone might want to give it a try. It's a fun project for a rainy weekend if you have nothing better to do. You can't hurt anything by doing it. No wires need to be cut and no modifications are made to the CRS+ parts. Some people may like the sound and some won't. Purist probably won't like making changes to the original Polk designs.

You maniac....
Franken-Polk

TennMan · May 2016

westmassguy wrote: »

TennMan wrote: »

I just throw this out from time to time in case someone might want to give it a try. It's a fun project for a rainy weekend if you have nothing better to do. You can't hurt anything by doing it. No wires need to be cut and no modifications are made to the CRS+ parts. Some people may like the sound and some won't. Purist probably won't like making changes to the original Polk designs.

You maniac....
Franken-Polk

You know it Dave! You helped me take part in my delusional visions by installing those aftermarket parts on my crossover boards. haha!

I've still not given up on my idea of building a wider version of 2Bs that has the wide MW spacing of the CRS+ using all 2B parts. The only thing holding me back is not knowing how to build a speaker cabinet. Maybe one of these days I will be able to overcome that small obstacle. lol.

westmassguy · May 2016

Local Cabinet Maker should be able to help you.

HzTweaker · May 2016

TennMan wrote: »

Very simple to do. The only modification to the 10Bs is drilling a hole in the brace in the center of the 10B cabinet to mount the CRS+ crossover board. I think I used the same bolt from the CRS+ to mount them. Then swap everything from the CRS+ into the 10B cabinets with the exception of the passive radiators. Leave the passives for the 10Bs in place. Swap the terminal cups plug in all the wires. It is about as plug and play as you can get. The best part is you swap it all back just as easy if you don't like it.

Apart from the tweeters, What your saying is that the mid drivers from the 10As aren't compatible with the CRS crossovers?

TennMan · May 2016

HzTweaker wrote: »

Apart from the tweeters, What your saying is that the mid drivers from the 10As aren't compatible with the CRS crossovers?

I don't think the mid drivers in the 10As would be compatible. I think you would need to use 10Bs if you want to make a pair SDA 10s. The CRS+ parts that I used were all designed to work with each other. All I did was move them to a different cabinet. In my opinion you would be trying to mix and match too many electrical parts if you start with 10As. Dave might be able to give you a better answer about the 10As than I can.

voltz · May 2016

would the SDA -10's need to use 1 6510 driver & 1 6511 driver like the CRS+ uses? then what about making a crossover from scratch for them and new binding post with a speak-on for the SDA cable?

TennMan · May 2016

voltz, I think the key is using a 6511 for the dimensional driver. A 6503 would probably work for the stereo driver. 2Bs used the 6503, along with a 6511, and I'm pretty sure they have the same crossover circuit as the CRS+. I would avoid 10s that have the Peerless tweeter.

voltz · May 2016

I agree... I wondered what the other SDA used for stereo drivers and Dimensional drivers. was thinking that some early versions had 6503's and or 6510's then switched to the other.

TennMan · May 2016

Over the years the drivers used in the SDA models changed as can be seen in the electrical schematics posted above. What I can't tell is if the circuits changed to compensate for different drivers that were used. I'm just not that good at reading the electrical schematics.

westmassguy · May 2016

The 2A or 86 CRS+ crossovers are compatible with the 10's woofers. The 2B or 87-89 CRS+ would need two 6511s.

voltz · May 2016

thanks Dave!

I went to the SDA Speaker identification page and seen what drivers was used in the SDA you listed and now I know why those combo would work

http://www.gimpod.com/sda-id.html

Polk Monitor 10 Opinions?

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