Monitor 7 Polk Audio. It does not have to break the bank to restore a set of nice speakers!

VSAT88
VSAT88 Posts: 1,367
in Vintage Speakers
What is the kitchen table good for? Hell, I ain't got no family! My wife stays with the "grand-kids" in her Class A school bus conversion in Tallahassee a lot of the time. The daughter, she is grown so its usually just me here! Why not do something fun! A set of Polk Audio Monitor 7's are a good start! Found on Marketplace. Went and picked them up and stuck a new set of binding posts in em. A set of oil filled Jard brand name HVAC oil filled 35uF caps for the M.W. section. Two Silver Dragon 12uF 400V Poly Pro's for the tweeter. The lil blue polyswitch had to go. The old resistor too. Put in a wire wound non inductive there. Green Dragon! 55.00 US in parts including shipping. No treatment of the MW or Passive were done. No special bolts or anything else for that matter. It took only a few minutes to do it all up. I did not get fancy bending everything (cap leads/resistor leads) to look beautiful either. This was for fun just to see what could be done for nearly nothing and quick! They sound fantastic and look fantastic! Of course they got the James worked on them Polk Audio Gold Badge treatment. I took a red marker to em. Guys I ain't even clean them up yet. I know, there will be a few here say why? That is just not right. Not using Soni Caps, not using Mills resistors, Not using BH5, not using hurricane nuts, not using Cardis solid copper binding posts, not using Dynamat... Oh man. Fact... Some do not want to mortgage the house to upgrade a set of speakers. Some folks just will not spend that kind of money on them. Some can't. Some do not want to spend all that time! Feel like I ruined them? Come by and listen to them... LOL. If you don't like em I will refund your money! HA HA HA!! @xschop you better be watching my thread!
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Comments

  • skrol
    skrol Posts: 3,474
    They certainly look nice. I do wonder about the HVAC start-up capacitor though. I have heard of using then in power supplies but that us much higher voltage than the audio signal. Appropriate oil filled caps do have their place in audio level applications and apparently perform well. I am interested to hear why you selected this type of cap.
    Stan

    Main 2ch:
    Polk LSi15 (DB840 upgrade), Parasound: P/LD-1100, HCA-1000A; Denon: DVD-2910, DRM-800A; Benchmark DAC1, Monster HTS3600-MKII, Grado SR-225i; Technics SL-J2, Parasound PPH-100.

    HT:
    Marantz SR7010, Polk: RTA11TL (RDO198-1, XO and Damping Upgrades), S4, CS250, PSW110 , Marantz UD5005, Pioneer PL-530, Panasonic TC-P42S60

    Other stuff:
    Denon: DRA-835R, AVR-888, DCD-660, DRM-700A, DRR-780; Polk: S8, Monitor 5A, 5B, TSi100, RM7, PSW10 (DXi104 upgrade); Pioneer: CT-6R; Onkyo CP-1046F; Ortofon OM5E, Marantz: PM5004, CD5004, CDR-615; Parasound C/PT-600, HCA-800ii, Sony CDP-650ESD, Technics SA 5070, B&W DM601
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  • VSAT88
    VSAT88 Posts: 1,367
    Excellent performance in a cheap form. Paul Klipsch used them for years. I think they still do in their legacy designs. Low ESR, Accurate uF rating. Easy to install.
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  • xschop
    xschop Posts: 5,561
    Can't knock bang for buck performance. Nice work. But do have to ask...

    Where's the Wuhans!?
    Don't take experimental gene therapies from known eugenicists.
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  • Toolfan66
    Toolfan66 Posts: 18,258
    edited May 18
    Better then that Van Halen build that guy did that used to hang here, till F1 and his cronies ran him off..


    Make Audio Great Again..
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  • VSAT88
    VSAT88 Posts: 1,367
    What did the Van Halen dude do @Toolfan66 ? Use a 5150 in the bottom of the cabs?
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  • VSAT88
    VSAT88 Posts: 1,367
    Wuhans! Did not need a set for these : ) They came with very good condition SL-2500's that sound fine! 0198 could be in the future? Who knows. I am never finished with a set of speakers... Not really.
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  • xschop
    xschop Posts: 5,561
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    Don't take experimental gene therapies from known eugenicists.
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  • chandler9a
    chandler9a Posts: 887
    This is encouraging me. Listening to my monitor 7 series 2 as we speak. Only thing I did was put new tweeters in, would love to have the crossovers done
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  • xschop
    xschop Posts: 5,561
    Polk definitely should have back-chambered their 198's. B)
    Don't take experimental gene therapies from known eugenicists.
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  • VSAT88
    VSAT88 Posts: 1,367
    edited May 19
    @chandler9a do not let anything or anyone stop you! restoring a set is an awesome project! Everything you need tool wise can be bought at a local home improvement store or on line. It need not be terribly expensive and it is not a hard assignment!
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  • VSAT88
    VSAT88 Posts: 1,367
    Hey @xschop, I said these tweeeters were SL 2500's I do not know why I typed that. They are SL-2000's! My ears are breaking in to the crossover capacitors real good here with the Silver Dragons in the 12uF position!
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  • chandler9a
    chandler9a Posts: 887
    I’ve modded many Polk speakers in my day but crossovers I’ve always had someone else do. These seem easier than SDA’s though. I still have Larry’s rings and gimpod’s boards in storage for future projects
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  • SIHAB
    SIHAB Posts: 5,645
    I'm more interested in the JBLs I see there B)
    Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears
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  • VSAT88
    VSAT88 Posts: 1,367
    edited May 22
    @SIHAB I run JBL L7's in that room or the SDA 2b's with most all of the mods. Of course the two B&K Ref. 4420's one on each speaker and Audio Research LS3 preamp have a lot to do with all that. Those JBL 4312's do not have a chance. They look pretty an that is the only reason I still have them. Do not get me wrong they are a fantastic speaker but the L7's can make a joke out of just about any speaker and those 2b's are almost impossible to beat. The community here showed me the way with my Polk speakers. @Gardenstater , @VR3 @Toolfan66, @pitdogg2 , @F1nut , and of coarse my bud @xschop all kicked in. (Not necessarily in that order) I know I missed mentioning some folks and for that my apology as that list came right off the top of my head. Everyone has been so helpful.
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