New Polk Monitors

[J A]

Finally, after much patience and searching I've gotten a pair of Polk Monitor 7b's with peerless tweeters and the little hole poked in the center to replace my 7c (with the sl-2000). No real point to this post except to share.

 

[Dswankey]

Congrats!!!!!, the Monitor 7 series is a great all round speaker.

 

[Lavane]

 

[grillebilly]

I could live with those.

 

[J A]

Thanks guys! For whatever reason i just could not get my hands on the one's with the Peerless, and then to get the ones with the little hole poke is just a bonus for me.

 

[doctorolds]

Since you posted, I'm curious if you like the sound of the 7b over the 7c. Most people prefer the 7b.

 

[J A]

I do prefer the 7b I think. It's always hard for me to tell the difference in short listening spurts. Typically what I do is listen for 2-3 weeks to one, and then go back to the old one and see if I feel like anything is missing.

Having said that, my initial impression is that it's a little more gentle at the top of the spectrum (in fairness could be some placebo because that's what I read that it should be...but I think that's what I hear). I'll let you know definitively in a couple of weeks.

I recently bought some KEF Q35's to compare with and I definitely prefered the Monitor 7c's. I also have some AR93s that I used for a bit, but when I hooked the Monitor 7c's back up after my couple of week listening period, they stood out immediately as more clear to me.

I need to start clearing up some space!

 

[Dswankey]

I do prefer the 7b I think. It's always hard for me to tell the difference in short listening spurts. Typically what I do is listen for 2-3 weeks to one, and then go back to the old one and see if I feel like anything is missing.

What are you using for equipment?

 

[J A]

I'm using an NAD 1700 monitor series pre and an HK 870 main amp. Turntable is a Rega RP1 (I also have a Kenwood kd 5070 I periodically put in rotation). And for a DAC I'm using the Allo Boss 2 Pi DAC hat.

I think it's decent in the mid-fi region. There's obviously a lot better out there but I haven't been into this that long.

 

[Dswankey]

That amp should be plenty for those speaker

 

[J A]

They were sounding a little muffled to me, popped open the crossover and the caps were swollen. Just replaced them with Dayton's and they sound much better now.

 

[Lavane]

I don't think I've ever run into swollen caps in a crossover. Out of spec, yes.
That's a new one for me. I used Audyn and Dayton's in my Monitor 10's. A couple of the old caps were out of spec along with the poly switches and even a resistor.

 

[J A]

Well, I'm a beginner so I could be misinterpreting what I'm seeing also. Here's a pic of them. The red ones appear to be bowed out at the ends. I did buy resistors to replace the existing ones but I ended up leaving them. Primarily because the vendor only had one of each and the others were on backorder. Guess I'll replace them when I get the balance.

 

[F1nut]

That's the way that brand of black caps looked when new.

 

[J A]

Ah, good to know. I suppose I know for future cases now. They do actually sound better but nothing objective to indicate they're bad off-hand then.

 

[F1nut]

Well, they were crap to start with and due to age I guarantee they were out of spec.