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Bookshelf speaker choice conundrum

DangerBoy

DangerBoy

Active Member
Hello,

I just joined and this is my first post.

I am helping my friends' 12 year old girl who is really into retro music and audio put together her first sound system on a shoestring budget. I found her a good working Technics SL-Q200 turntable with the stock Technics cartridge for a good price. I put that together with a pre HDMI era Yamaha AV receiver and a pair of old 2 way speakers that I had kicking around and now we're all set to surprise her with her first sound system when she gets back on Monday from her summer holidays. She's been buying up old Queen and other classic rock LPs and has been jones'n to play them. She's going to be so surprised...

I'd like to eventually upgrade the speakers in this system as I think the ones I gave her are the weakest link in the system. I am not adverse to re-capping or doing other modifications like replacing tweeters and/or crossovers to improve whatever speakers I manage to get for her.

I have an opportunity to buy a second hand pair of Polk R20s or a pair of Dalquist PDQ-607s for about the same price. The Polks are close by so easy for me to go over and sound test. The PDQs are a bit of a drive to get out to.

Can anyone recommend one of these over the other or are they roughly the same quality? Has anyone modified either of these speakers by replacing tweeters and/or crossovers or re-capping? If yes, what did you do and what were the results?

Other used bookshelf speakers that are available locally in the same price range are ProLinear PL3.5B, Sony SS-CCP1, Yamaha NX-E300 or Polk Audio Monitor Series II Bookshelf. Should I be going after any of these?
 
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The Dahlquists are Canadian made and were supposed to be fairly decent. They are pretty uncommon, but more common up here in Canada than anywhere else.

If I can find a pair of EPI M100s cheap, would you recommend re-capping or modifying them in some way to improve them?

I thought I had a line on a pair of working RFT BR-26 Classics for a little less than $40 USD but it turns out the kid who owned them threw out one of the speakers because the foam surround broke on the woofer when he tried playing them. Darn! :mad:
 
MCM_Fan said:
You will get more meaningful replies if you tell us your budget and your location.
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I'm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and my budget is less than $100 CAD which is about $80 USD. That sort of budget doesn't give one a lot of choices but I'm hoping I can find a cheap pair of bookshelfs that I can make a whole lot better by re-capping with modern audio-grade capacitors or whatever. I don't want to spend a lot of money on the upgrades but I would consider the cost of the upgrades outside of my budget because it's fun for me to get in there and modify something to make it better. All of the speakers I mentioned in my first post are in the $80 CAD (so ~$60 USD) range give or take a bit.
 
DangerBoy said:
I'm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and my budget is less than $100 CAD which is about $80 USD. That sort of budget doesn't give one a lot of choices but I'm hoping I can find a cheap pair of bookshelfs that I can make a whole lot better by re-capping with modern audio-grade capacitors or whatever. I don't want to spend a lot of money on the upgrades but I would consider the cost of the upgrades outside of my budget because it's fun for me to get in there and modify something to make it better. All of the speakers I mentioned in my first post are in the $80 CAD (so ~$60 USD) range give or take a bit.
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First, I know nothing about your local market, or the Canadian market in general. My first though was to look for something vintage (which may still be your best option), but given your desire to perform some DIY mods to improve the sound quality of the speakers, you may want to consider this little project:

Dennis Murphy Pioneer SP-BS22-LR DIY Modifications

Depending on a few factors, this project may exceed your intended budget. Does Amazon offer free shipping to Canadian customers? Is there a Best Buy near you. Those items are key to getting a good deal on the unmodified Pioneer SP-BS22-LR speakers. Amazon periodically has them on sale, occasionally for as little as $59.99 USD with free shipping (for US customers with a Prime account). Best Buy will also price match Amazon. I have a Best Buy less than 3 miles from my house, so when I saw them on sale at Amazon, I swung by and picked up a pair for $59.99.

The other option is to try to find a used pair locally.

As far as the mods go, again affordability will depend on things like shipping costs and local (or at least domestic) suppliers. If you do go this route, you don't have to use the exact same parts I used. Any brand of decent, affordable MKP film caps of the correct values will work in place of the Audyns I used. Audiokarma sponsor PartsConnexion is a Canadian company, and even though I'm in the States, I buy from them frequently. They have a very wide range of caps available from many manufacturers. Plus, they have frequent sales, often 25% off your entire order. If I'm not in a hurry, I watch for these sales and stock up on parts for planned future projects.

Now that Radio Shack is out of business, it may be hard to find the Radio Shack Universal PCBs I used in that project. Not a big deal, you can build the crossovers by mounting the parts on a small piece of masonite using point-to-point wiring.

In any case, one option to consider.

Another one to consider, if you can find a pair of Polk Rti28 speakers locally is another Dennis Murphy mod:

Fixing the Polk RTi28

About five years ago, I found a pair of these at my local Goodwill at a very favorable price. They were in great shape. These are very well built speakers (as Dennis mentions) and actually sound pretty good in their stock form. I did the mods and gave them to my girlfriend about four and a half years ago. Her place is small and we only have the one system there, but we continue to enjoy these modified Polk RTi28 speakers. Given that I picked them up at Goodwill for a song and the mods were less extensive and less expensive (used the stock Polk tweeter) than the Pioneer mods (which include replacing the stock tweeter), they were one heck of a bang for the buck.
 
Thanks MCM_Fan. Those look like interesting options for sure.

We do have Best Buy here but they don't carry Pioneer products. Amazon.ca does offer free shipping on some products. The cheapest I can find those speakers right now in Canada is $140 CAD (~$105 USD) with free shipping. I haven't priced out the stuff I need for all the mods yet but I will do that soon. I will talk to her parents or grandparents and see if they'd be willing to go in with me on the project for her Christmas gift. It would be a lot of fun for me to build the crossovers and do the mods. I looked for the Polk RTi28s on-line and haven't been able to find any for sale, at least not in Canada. Certainly not locally.
 
I just came across a set of Polk Monitor Series 7 speakers that I might be able to get for about the same price as the Pioneer SP-BS22-LRs. Assuming they work well, would those be a better speaker for the $ after modding?
 
If you're talking about these speakers (below), and they're in good condition, then it's almost a no brainer. The only mods I would make would be to recap them and any required cosmetic touch-ups. You should be able to find plenty of info on them here on AK.

Polk%20Monitor%207.preview.jpg
 
My suggestion for speakers would be the Polk Monitor series circa 1985. I have a pair of monitor 10B's which are not book self speakers, however there are Monitor series 4, and 5 that are bookself class just a little on the Large size of the class. With recap'ed crossovers these speakers are awesome. My 10B's continue to impress me after 30+ years of ownership. I would suggest the later model Polk Audio Monitor 5jr with the passive radiator. You can crank these speakers to mind bending volume levels, easy to for amps to drive. You will find that once you do the crossovers you will realized you would have to spend a great deal of money to get something that sounds better. Polk has replacements for both the midwoofer and an superior replacement for the Tweeter. The lower "speaker" in the photo below is the passive resonator it gives you the efficiency of a ported speaker, with the controlled bass of an acoustic suspensioned speaker. It was the Polk Monitor speakers that ended my AR (Acoustic Research) snobbery.



IMG_1751.JPG
 
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swechsler said:
If you're talking about these speakers (below), and they're in good condition, then it's almost a no brainer. The only mods I would make would be to recap them and any required cosmetic touch-ups. You should be able to find plenty of info on them here on AK.

Polk%20Monitor%207.preview.jpg
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I have asked for the seller to send me a picture of the front of the speaker with the grills off to verify but I think those are the speakers they're selling although the cabinets may be black. They only included a picture of the front of the speakers with grills on and a pic of the label on the back which simply reads "Polk Audio Monitor Series" and then "7" followed by the serial number.
 
The Polk Monitor 7 series is considered by many the best of the Monitor line. They are not a bookself speaker but if you make room for a pair. With recapped crossovers your search for a good set of speakers will have ended. You will get nasty calls from the USGS for screwing up their seismographs.

Polk has the replacement for 6.5" midwoofer and the RDO-194 which is a superior replacement for the SL2000 Tweeter, if it has the Peerless you are home free.

IMG_1752.JPG
 
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I'm definitely interested in them now. What is a reasonable price to pay for a pair in good original condition?
 
There are several pairs on eBay and they are all going for about $100 USD. I Would not pay much more than that. You would have to spend well over a $1000 bucks a pair for something that would come close the the sound of a property working Monitor 7, and 10.

Incidentally My 10B's are blasting the ether with my new Yamaha AVR and the 10B's are even more impressive.
 
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Any speaker system you end up with check into how easy it is to get it's drivers. I have a set of W35 Wharfdales which I purchased new in 1972, these are a great acoustic suspended speakers which have the British sound. Mine where demolished by an Onkyo's failing PA's I have been collecting replacement drivers for the last 5 years. I need the midrange speakers to complete the restoration. When the Polk 10B's were creamed by a similarly failing Sony AVR. It was just a e-mail note to Polk and I had everything within days.
 
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And no one asks what speakers are being replaced before recommending "upgrades"?

Would he still need these upgrade speakers if he's giving her Dynaco A25s?
 
teal'c said:
And no one asks what speakers are being replaced before recommending "upgrades"?

Would he still need these upgrade speakers if he's giving her Dynaco A25s?
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They're just a pair of 2-ways that were on a junked JVC CD stacking ghetto blaster I haven't managed to get rid of. They're not horrible but they're not very good either. Definitely not worth attempting to mod/upgrade.
 
BTW, she just got home from her summer holiday tonight and got her surprise. I just "happened" to be there visiting her father asling to borrow something when she and her Mom arrived. It took a minute or two before she walked into her bedroom and found her first turntable and stereo system all set up for her. There was also a few old LPs there that I bought from the guy who sold me the turntable. She was so surprised!! Absolutely ecstatic. :banana:She couldn't wait to be shown how to load the album on the turntable and drop the needle and squealed with absolute joy when she heard the first sounds come out of the record albums she'd been collecting and hadn't been able to play yet. Very happy moment in a young girl's life. I videoed the whole thing with my phone for posterity.

At Christmas I hope to surprise her again with a much better set of speakers which that system sorely needs. It will be fun to get into a pair and do some modding to make them better for her.
 
DangerBoy said:
At Christmas I hope to surprise her again with a much better set of speakers which that system sorely needs. It will be fun to get into a pair and do some modding to make them better for her.
Click to expand...

One of the advertisers on this forum is based in Canada. It is a very good source for the cap's and resistors for crossover works. I used Axon Truecap's not expensive and after about 300 hour burn in made my 10B's sound better then when they where new.
http://www.partsconnexion.com/capacitor_film_axon.html
 
I aquired a set of Infinity Primus 150 speakers at a yard sale a few years ago. They were very impressive for their price. Much better bass than most speakers their size and pretty darn good clear full engaging sound. They can be had on the bay in your budget.
 
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