Monitor 4 tweeter upgrade
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Bigfunky
Posts: 4
Does anyone know if it fairly easy or possible to upgrade the tweeter on the Monitor 4 from the tri star to silk dome (sL1000/2000 or peerless)?
Background is I have a Monitor 5s (original owner from 1989) in one room and due to size constraints I have monitor 4s in the other room. I have a true A/B comparison. The 5s sparkle and sound incredible. The 4s sound dull. I was thinking giving them the silk dome tweeter would better match the tone between the rooms and give the 4s some life.
Background is I have a Monitor 5s (original owner from 1989) in one room and due to size constraints I have monitor 4s in the other room. I have a true A/B comparison. The 5s sparkle and sound incredible. The 4s sound dull. I was thinking giving them the silk dome tweeter would better match the tone between the rooms and give the 4s some life.
Answers
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The very early Monitor 4 had the silk dome Peerless tweeter and MW6500 midwoofer. That's the one you want. I see them for sale every now and then. Pretty sure we don't have the schematic for the early one in the archive but if you had that it would be a place to start but you're basically talking about building a speaker from the ground up. SL1000 and SL2000 were not silk domes. I think they were polyimide, basically plastic.George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
Would be a neat project to convert one of those to a silk dome. What woofer is in there?Don't take experimental gene therapies from known eugenicists.
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You mean this?
You can't use a Peerless, SL1000, SL2000 or RD0194-1 in those speakers.
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Tri star? Post a pic please.
That is what folks call that little square tweeter with the 3spokes. It may be a mylar tweeter.
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You mean this?
You can't use a Peerless, SL1000, SL2000 or RD0194-1 in those speakers.
A fresh set of wet-market Wuhans will drop right in.Don't take experimental gene therapies from known eugenicists. -
Looks like some ebay seller had the same idea lol:
Somebody else on ebay is selling the tweeters you don't care for. Looks like they are 4 Ohms:
Same seller is also selling the midwoofer which apparently is a MW6502:
Crossovers also from same seller. Much simpler than Monitor 5 or Monitor 7 design:
Another ebay seller is selling the early Monitor 4 crossover. If you feel adventurous you could purchase these and then get Peerless and MW6500 and modify the cabinet to fit everything and you may have something sounding like the early one:
George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
Found this too... I'd suggested rebuilding your crossovers first then add silk domes if you're not happy.
Don't take experimental gene therapies from known eugenicists. -
You mean this?
You can't use a Peerless, SL1000, SL2000 or RD0194-1 in those speakers.
Thank you for your input. I am curious to learn what the limitation is. Is it the crossover specs? Would it be a mismatch of resistance between the new tweeter and existing woofer?
I don’t have any speaker building experience (but I did serve as janitor as a teenager in an audio store in the 80’s and remember the SRS’s coming in. It left an impression!!) thanks! -
1) That should be in the "you're doing it wrong" thread.
2) I would do something like that.
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Thank you Gardenstater for your input. I appreciate it.
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Found this too... I'd suggested rebuilding your crossovers first then add silk domes if you're not happy.
That jives with the earliest schematic in the archives which is for a Model 4A:
George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
So it sounds like a total rebuild to improve the sound. (Which might be worth it if it would actually get closer to the 5s). Before I go off on an ebay hunting expedition, can anyone suggest a good sounding bookshelf model from Polk for 2 channels? How are the Tsi100? Monitor 40 Series II? I would love to add another pair of 5s but I don’t have space for them.
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Pretty sure that those later Monitor 4 variants used the once-ubiquitous, very cheap, and rather awful Audax mylar dome tweeters - as in the Cambridge SoundWorks Model 17s in the photo below.
The early Monitor 4 used the Peerless silk dome and was/is a very decent sounding little loudspeaker. As such, the original morph is well worth seeking out, I'd opine.
If the box size is the same (which I reckon it is), the later ones could be reverse engineered back to the originals, but it would be neither inexpensive nor particularly easy (although not quite onerous, either, other than sourcing drivers) -- not worth the effort, except for audio masochists (and I realize there are a number of them, umm, I mean, us.
).
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Yes Doc, I couldn't remember the manufacturer but yes Audax is correct. Terrible little buggers.
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And then there was the last iteration which was the M4 Series II that had the Polk SL1500 tweeter
George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Crown D150 amp
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform
