Polk Monitor 10 HELP - "passive woofers" am I getting ripped off?

Sonic_Clown

Member
Hi guys, dipping my toe back in the water, and decided to pick myself up a pair of Polk Monitor 10 speakers.

I admittedly know very little about all this and just want to make my records sound better. From the research I did, buying a used pair of Polk Monitor 10's off ebay seemed like the way for me to get the most bang for my buck with the sound I was looking for.

The speakers arrive, and one of them isn't working whatsoever due to a blown fuse. I use the fuse from the other speaker, and it still doesn't sound like what I was expecting from the videos and reviews I had read on these.

I open the speakers, with the seller's consent, and see that nothing whatsoever is connected to either woofer. No wires, no magnets, nothing. Seller tells me, "The woofers are made that way. They are passive, not active, so they need no wiring or power."

He then asks me to check out the mids and so on.

This doesn't make much sense to me, is he correct? Also what type of fuses should I buy if I need to replace on Polk Monitor 10? I just want to experience what all of you guys find so beloved about vintage setups, and I don't think I got anywhere near what I paid for these ($280 shipped)

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The largest woofer in the monitor 10's and others in the monitor series are passive, meaning they aren't powered, they just help the cabinets transmit the bass for the 6" woofers. It's part of the speaker design.

Have you checked to see all of the drivers are working? They could probably benefit from a recap as well. What tweeters do they have?
 
Yep, normal as far as the 10" passives go..even on the big SDA Polks the big bottom drivers are passive.
 
The largest woofer in the monitor 10's and others in the monitor series are passive, meaning they aren't powered, they just help the cabinets transmit the bass for the 6" woofers. It's part of the speaker design.

Have you checked to see all of the drivers are working? They could probably benefit from a recap as well. What tweeters do they have?

They have the black tweeters, not sure if they are the ones which are sought after or not.
I was not getting sound out of all the drivers to my knowledge. Will get speakers back together and check again.

Here are some more pics, does any of this look suspect? Looks like someone may have played around with the wires a bit.

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I'm gonna have to solder this black wire back together.

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Yes, someone has been in there before. That's ugly. I hope you can fix it.

Also yours are early 10s so who knows what the crossovers and components are or are supposed to be. However, various crossover diagrams are here: http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/38755/polk-audio-speaker-wiring-schematics-more-all-models-except-sda probably the "Schematic M10 orig" indicating a 1A fast blow fuse.

Some early 10s were double fuse: http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/168754/odd-monitor-10-crossover

What is the DCR of the drivers? Do they have any Polk part #s on them or no? Apparently some early 10s had drivers with no Polk markings that may have been made by a third party: http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/165906/early-monitor-10
 
Your Monitor 10A's use the early Peerless tweeters. They're considered the best of the early tweeters. Better than the later Silver SL2000 & SL1000 tweeters.

As to fuses, the 10A's should use 1 amp fast blow fuses. Don't go larger, or slow blow, as that could blow the tweeters.

Now, the 10" "woofer". It's correct that there's no connection to it, and that there's no magnet. It's what's called a 'passive radiator'. A passive radiator acts similarly to a port in a bass reflex design. But, a passive radiator augments the bass of the 2 6.5" dual mid woofers, without port noise. Also, if you need to correct any wiring, the 2 mid woofers are wired in parallel. Here's a schematic that might help. It's for the 10B, which uses 2 12uF and a 34uF caps. I 'believe' the 10A uses a single 6uF and 34uF caps.

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Plenty of info at the Polk Audio Forum too. Check it out here.

As to capacitors, that's a big question. Electrolytic's or poly's, which brand, and how much money? The Polk Forum guys like the poly SoniCaps and or ClarityCaps. Cheaper are the Parts Express Dayton poly caps. Any are better than original stock. No need to go crazy about it (like I usually do).

Good luck.
 
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The woofer pictured has a shifted magnet, check if there is voice coil rubbing or
if it is mooving freely.
Both woofers pictured, actually. Presumably the other 2 are working, or there's be no sound except the tweeters.
Not sure what's going on in the pic that looks like you have penicillin growing on the backside of the cone. Would say you have reason to be reconsidering the purchase.

BTW the polks are notorious for the driver magnets shifting during transportation, which is why one of the modifications people do is to epoxy them. This means they very well may have been making all the correct noises when they were packed up (rather than the seller misrepresenting the condition) - it also means they may still be repairable if you haven't tried to push too much juice through them. Either way, though, the seller is the one that should shoulder that burden unless you specifically want to take on the project.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/resetting-a-loose-magnet-with-pictures.202963/
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/163992/magnet-shift-repair-is-easy
 
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That's the plan at the moment. This is all just ridiculous.
What's ridiculous about the situation? You got yourself into it and you could get yourself out of it if you were willing to to do a little bit of learning and spend a little bit of effort fixing. Otherwise stick to buying brand new stuff with warranties, it's less fun and less rewarding but also less hassle for a lot of folks.
 
What's ridiculous about the situation? You got yourself into it and you could get yourself out of it if you were willing to to do a little bit of learning and spend a little bit of effort fixing. Otherwise stick to buying brand new stuff with warranties, it's less fun and less rewarding but also less hassle for a lot of folks.

I tend to agree, I'm always looking forward to rebuilding speakers. At $280 though, those are in poor condition. At that price I'd expect them to be in at least very good condition. That one woofer with terminal spun sideways, no way that tinsel lead from the coil is still connected. There is so much oxidation and corrosion on the inside. There is no way that kind of damage (woofer that looks like it went bungee jumping with the wires soldered to it) could happen in shipping. The seller either bought them and flipped them without really testing or has zero clue about speakers and how to verify the work.

Dan
 
What's ridiculous about the situation? You got yourself into it and you could get yourself out of it if you were willing to to do a little bit of learning and spend a little bit of effort fixing. Otherwise stick to buying brand new stuff with warranties, it's less fun and less rewarding but also less hassle for a lot of folks.

It's ridiculous that I can plop down $300 for a pair of speakers, and not even be able to enjoy them when they arrive. I didn't find these for $50 at a Goodwill, I paid market value. There should be no expectation of immediate tinkering just to get them working.
 
It's ridiculous that I can plop down $300 for a pair of speakers, and not even be able to enjoy them when they arrive. I didn't find these for $50 at a Goodwill, I paid market value. There should be no expectation of immediate tinkering just to get them working.

I hear ya. The sad thing is that you simply cannot count on your average ebay seller to understand that vintage electronic gear needs to be packed in a very particular way.
I have been burned many times by sellers on ebay so I try to buy local only.
 
It's ridiculous that I can plop down $300 for a pair of speakers, and not even be able to enjoy them when they arrive. I didn't find these for $50 at a Goodwill, I paid market value. There should be no expectation of immediate tinkering just to get them working.
It's clear you have no experience with vintage audio gear. To buy with the expectation that they will function flawlessly from day one is naive. Those with this mindset need to buy new audio gear. Those that buy vintage audio gear on eBay with the idea that nothing will need to be done to said gear, regardless of the description, need a reality check. The only thing that is ridiculous here is your expectations. Nobody buys vintage audio without expecting to perform some restorative work. I have yet to come across 1980 and older audio gear that is commercially available and is at full health.
 
Well hey, they are awesome speakers and we can figure them out. When they are working they will sound awesome and this ordeal will get chalked up as a good learning experience.

So, to recap so far:

The passive radiators - designed that way, normal, and yours look like they are in good shape.

The fuses - simple, 1A fast blow fuses that cost a couple bucks.

The mid-woofers - might be magnet shifted. Do they all push in and out smoothly without rubbing? Do all 4 voice coils test continuous? If the voice coils are good, re-centering the magnets is a pretty easy, straight-forward ordeal that will require some 4" PVC pipe (iirc), 6 screws, and some epoxy.

Tweeters - you got the good ones. I assume they work. Yes?

Crossovers / wiring - easy to tidy up. Crossover upgrades are well documented if desired, and yield rewarding improvements, but I assume they function properly as is anyway.
 
Sorry, but at $280.00 you over paid by $180.00. You could have bought a nice pair of SDA 2B's for that money and had a much better speaker.
 
It's ridiculous that I can plop down $300 for a pair of speakers, and not even be able to enjoy them when they arrive. I didn't find these for $50 at a Goodwill, I paid market value. There should be no expectation of immediate tinkering just to get them working.
Get a refund, send them back then go find something local that you can hear playing before you plop down your money. I really didn't mean to insult you but you have much to learn regarding vintage audio and eBay.
 
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