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Polk Monitor 10 RESPECT

MadcapLaughs

MadcapLaughs

Active Member
Haven’t posted in a while but I just picked a set of these Polk monitor 10s of craigslist for next to nothing, and I am quite honestly shocked at the sound these beasts put out. I’ve been playing my Wharfedale w90s for a year now with a sherwood s 5000 ii tube amp powering them with no complaints, love that combo and won’t ever sell the w90s but honestly these polks are right at the top of anything I’ve heard. They easily beat out my previous JBL 4312s, and Altec boleros. My sherwood s 5000 ii is pushing them nicely, but I can tell that these are begging for a monster amp, those woofers aren’t flexing much with the sherwood. Still, they hype is quite real with these polks IMO. I have them on metal stands right now about 2-3 from the back wall and toed in slightly. Anyone else here loving their Polk monitors???!!!

I think the original tweeter were upgraded with vifa softdome ones, apparently a pretty common upgrade these.
 
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The Monitor series are heavy hitters. The 12's not so much, the 10's and my favorite the 7's with the Peerless soft dome tweet. They will never be sold, if I have to downsize in my old age I will be happy with them. Like the OP said, for the money they bring they are not worth letting go.
 
Ya I’m based in St. Louis, and I am curious as to why the 7 is considered better than the 10s? One of the main reasons I love the 10s so much is their bass punch and total output for rock, metal, etc.
 

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MadcapLaughs said:
why
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Many think the 7 is the most balanced of the series. One case that bigger is not always better. IMO the 10's crush the 12's, the 7's just barely nudge out the 10's, and if all you listen to is rock n roll then the 10's would probably suit the listener better. Then there is the tweeter thing, they came with different ones.
 
Are the Monitor 10’s also affected by the dreaded magnet shift problem? I had a pair of Monitor 4’s that got ruined by that.
 
MadcapLaughs said:
Ya I’m based in St. Louis, and I am curious as to why the 7 is considered better than the 10s? One of the main reasons I love the 10s so much is their bass punch and total output for rock, metal, etc.
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I believe some feel the single midwoofer, in the 7's, offers better/tigher imaging than the dual midwoofers, of the 10's. The dual horizontal drivers offer a bit of comb filtering than diminishes their sound. But, if you lay the 10's on their sides, the now vertical placement of the midwoofers improves the sound of the 10's.
 
MadcapLaughs said:
. My sherwood s 5000 ii is pushing them nicely, but I can tell that these are begging for a monster amp, those woofers aren’t flexing much with the sherwood. .
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Woofer cones should not "flex" at all which would result in distortion. Ideally a woofer should act like a perfect piston. The lack of apparent visual woofer movement is actually a good thing. When evaluating speakers, it's the ears that should be used, not the eyes. :)

And yes, the performance of Polks - especially the in the low frequencies - rivals some of the best speakers I've heard for a small fraction of the price. @SA7I may have more to contribute on the subject.
 
In my experience, most larger woofers flex much under normal, or even "spirited" listening conditions, unless I have the loudness on and the bass cranked, or when playing a warped dubstep record on an old idler-wheel changer. Smaller woofers tend to be more hyperactive, but even then those are usually very low excursion by nature.
 
Larger woofer cones inherently flex more than smaller ones resulting in sloppy, less defined bass, especially at higher input levels. Dividing input power among multiple smaller LF drivers provides many advantages of bass response that is tighter, cleaner while being able to accept higher levels of input with lower distortion that what was achievable with loudspeaker designs of the past utilizing large single LF drivers.
 
62caddy said:
Larger woofer cones inherently flex more than smaller ones resulting in sloppy, less defined bass, especially at higher input levels. Dividing input power among multiple smaller LF drivers provides many advantages of bass response that is tighter, cleaner while being able to accept higher levels of input with lower distortion that what was achievable with loudspeaker designs of the past utilizing large single LF drivers.
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We talking poorly designed "Larger woofer cones" caddy?
 
No I understand woofer flex isn’t a preferable characteristic you want in your speakers, I really can just tell the sherwood as good as it sounds, isn’t commanding the polks with a ton of authority. Really I love using subsonic filters when available on integrated amps to filter out some of the dinosaur stomping at the sub 20hz level especially since I do have a lenco l75 idler drive table usually running.

I’ve been using horn speakers over the past several years (valencias, m14s, boleros), and loved the efficiency, but even with tube sources the listener fatigue sets in, I really love the smooth presentation of the polks and they just have incredible dynamics, I really don’t know if the crossovers or caps were ever updated in these, but I’m leaving them be for the time being. What do you all run your polks with? I assume mostly solid state amps with 70wpc on up.
 
Actually if I could pick my magical pairing for these polks, I’d say they would really shine with my yamaha a-1000 integrated amp I had sold a while back. I don’t plan that well for the future, after having the Wharfedale w90s in my main system so long i just didn’t need the Yamaha powering speakers like that as they worked much better with low watt tube amps. Now I’m in need of a muscle amp again, it never ends.
 
MadcapLaughs said:
Actually if I could pick my magical pairing for these polks, I’d say they would really shine with my yamaha a-1000 integrated amp I had sold a while back. I don’t plan that well for the future, after having the Wharfedale w90s in my main system so long i just didn’t need the Yamaha powering speakers like that as they worked much better with low watt tube amps. Now I’m in need of a muscle amp again, it never ends.
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Belles will give you the grunt while retaining the magic. One of is early amps, simple design to get out of the way of the music.fd2aa93d76dcfeabaabf88eb455aceeb (2).jpg20160817_235316.jpg
 
MadcapLaughs said:
No I understand woofer flex isn’t a preferable characteristic you want in your speakers, I really can just tell the sherwood as good as it sounds, isn’t commanding the polks with a ton of authority. Really I love using subsonic filters when available on integrated amps to filter out some of the dinosaur stomping at the sub 20hz level especially since I do have a lenco l75 idler drive table usually running.

I’ve been using horn speakers over the past several years (valencias, m14s, boleros), and loved the efficiency, but even with tube sources the listener fatigue sets in, I really love the smooth presentation of the polks and they just have incredible dynamics, I really don’t know if the crossovers or caps were ever updated in these, but I’m leaving them be for the time being. What do you all run your polks with? I assume mostly solid state amps with 70wpc on up.
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The listener fatigue you describe is do to the midrange emphasis a number of horn models exhibit. I've also experienced this in a pair of speakers with 811B horns that I had, especially with certain types of music; with other music they could really shine. If I had to live with one type of speaker exclusively, it would probably not be a horn model but ask me when I've heard them all. :)

The equipment I use with my Polks is shown in my signature below which is 120 wpc or greater however I've also tried them with more modestly powered tube equipment with equally satisfactory results.
 
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