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Polk Monitor 7c

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ScooterMcTav said:
Thanks brlybob.

Confirmed the cabinets have flat fronts, and checked their labels. They were marked as 7B, but the B was blacked out and a C was written in. Serials are 60326 and 60368 if that has value to anyone.

Listening to Dire Straits Brothers in Arms right now, and think these modest little guys absolutely destroy a set of Klipsch Forte (with a Crites upgrades) that I recently demoed.

For those who find the SL1000 bright, the tweeters on my Soliloquy 6.2 would make you cry. There is certainly lots of HF there, but is nowhere as fatiguing as my Sols, or the Klipsch (I was fatigued about 60 seconds into the demo).

Never actually noticed the cowbell in "Money for Nothing" until now. Rather impressive.

Possibly they really like the EH KT88 output tubes I'm running. Regardless, on initial listen, I do like them quite a bit. In fact, the sharpness of the tweeter gives cymbals and sax the kind of bite they have when heard live, but not to the detraction of the overall sound.
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From the cabinet description and tweeters I'd have to go with them being 7B's. Who knows who wrote the C.
 
darkblue94 said:
Some folks are knowledgeable about the subject and then there are those who are just being obtuse. o_O
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Johnny, I guessed what the GIF was anyways. Apparently, that skit was voted something like the 6th best SNL skit ever.

F1, yes, for all intensive purposes they appear to be Bs, though my understanding was that Polk didn't quite have a clean cutoff on the different series.

Of note, I did manage to get the tweeters to sound a little rougher - by using the volume knob. In a quest to protect my ageing hearing, I usually listen at 80dB or lower. At these volumes, the SL1000 sounded pretty good.

Actually thought "Stay out of my Heart" by George Strait was superb, as was "The River" by Michael Sweet.

However, when I turned Michael Sweet up to 90-95dB, you could hear the tweeter strain and harshen up. Vocals started thinning out, the soundstage started to narrow, and audible mid distortion increased.

Funny enough, this was exactly the same phenomenon I witnessed with my low budget M20. The poly dome tweeter sounded good at low volumes, but had some limitations when fed more power.

"Beautiful Life" by Ace of Base was almost unlistenable at 90-95 dB, though the speaker seemed to struggle overall with the huge amount of LF info it was being fed. Looks like these may not be my first choice for dance party speakers.

Not that I host dance parties, or actually parties in general.

So to reset my brain, I listened to "Dickeye" by Jerry Cantrell on my Jolida/Polk combo, then immediately brought the disc up to my living room to listen to it on my Musical Fidelity a3.2/Wharfedale Diamond 10.6 combo. Aimed for 80 dB on both systems.

Not even sure how to compare the two. One system has the huge presence and superb dynamics you would expect from tubes combined with American speakers. The other has the full, rich, laid back and listenable character of an all-British system.

In some ways, the Polk/Jolida combo is too much. The MF/Wharf combo isn't enough.

And I am now of the opinion the speakers may be worth the tweeter upgrade. However, the struggle with the dance bassline does somewhat concern me - in Canuck dollars with shipping to Canada, the tweets will likely cost me 75% more than they would cost one of my US friends.

Hmmmm, decisions, decisions.
 
Well, been a Club Polk member since 2007, so sent Polk an e-mail this AM to inquire about replacement tweeters....we'll see what they come back with. Midwest Stereo in the US will send me a pair for the low price of $185 CDN, plus I'd likely pay duty and taxes on them, making the replacement tweeters officially more than the speakers themselves.

This being said, I did have a couple of questions:
- On eBay, I had noticed a few sets of RD0202-2, which have a similar front shape to the SL1000. I am guessing these have not been overly used as drop ins for some reason, but am curious as to how they differ from the RD0194?
- Parts Express sells what looks to be a nice selection of peerless tweeters in the $15-$25 range. Anyone had any success with any non-OEM offerings? If so, which ones?

Again, I have no issues with trying a different tweeter, but at over $200/pr landed in Canada, the RD0194 are a heck of a risk to take based on the value of the speakers. I am also able to mod the X-overs, though with my ham-fisted soldering skills, a drop in replacement would be best. That being said, my physical modification skills are good, so I can make whatever modifications are needed to help a different shaped tweeter fit into the cabs.
 
Your sig says it all F1. I'm trying to avoid the piss poor planning part here.

Just not sure I want to be $400 deep in these guys, and wanting to know if there were options.

Will wait to hear back from Polk - hopefully they come in a little cheaper than Midwest Stereo. Hope the dollars are OK, as I am somewhat excited to make a winter project out of these, including veneering and replacing the grille cloth.
 
ScooterMcTav said:
Your sig says it all F1. I'm trying to avoid the piss poor planning part here.

Just not sure I want to be $400 deep in these guys, and wanting to know if there were options.

Will wait to hear back from Polk - hopefully they come in a little cheaper than Midwest Stereo. Hope the dollars are OK, as I am somewhat excited to make a winter project out of these, including veneering and replacing the grille cloth.
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Like I said, you have to buy Polk parts from the Canadian rep in Canada. I believe his name is Walter Moser.
 
Great speakers. Leave them as they are. Nothing wrong with the tweeter. Polk surely would have caught tens of thousands of speakers going out the door with an evil treble spike. Never seen a FR graph of the speaker with the spike.
 
nclh77 said:
Great speakers. Leave them as they are. Nothing wrong with the tweeter. Polk surely would have caught tens of thousands of speakers going out the door with an evil treble spike. Never seen a FR graph of the speaker with the spike.
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It's not a graph per se but I'll take Polk Audio's engineering dept. word over yours that there's a problem any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Do you suppose they'd go through all the problems of redesigning a tweeter if there wasn't a spike in the SL2000?:idea:
 

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nclh77 said:
Great speakers. Leave them as they are. Nothing wrong with the tweeter. Polk surely would have caught tens of thousands of speakers going out the door with an evil treble spike. Never seen a FR graph of the speaker with the spike.
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That's funny, in earlier posts you've claimed that millions of these Polk speakers were sold. So now it's only "tens of thousands?"
 
motorstereo said:
It's not a graph per se but I'll take Polk Audio's engineering dept. word over yours that there's a problem any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Do you suppose they'd go through all the problems of redesigning a tweeter if there wasn't a spike in the SL2000?:idea:
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Thank you motorstereo, you rock!!!:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown: :king:
 
darkblue94 said:
That's funny, in earlier posts you've claimed that millions of these Polk speakers were sold. So now it's only "tens of thousands?"
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Ok, billions. You are BFF with Polk. Have them cough over the numbers. Also ask them how the *uck their engineering department missed a treble spike on billions of speakers spld to the public, who also never caught it. Then have them give you a FR graph of the 7 showing the spike. Certainly they have a FR of speakers they sold. Money talks and BS walk, cough over proof on the 7's.
 
motorstereo said:
It's not a graph per se but I'll take Polk Audio's engineering dept. word over yours that there's a problem any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Do you suppose they'd go through all the problems of redesigning a tweeter if there wasn't a spike in the SL2000?:idea:
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The same engineering department that designed a tweeter with an evil spike, then sold billions of them to the public without disclosing it, now wanting to profit??
 
nclh77 said:
Ok, billions. You are BFF with Polk. Have them cough over the numbers. Also ask them how the *uck their engineering department missed a treble spike on billions of speakers spld to the public, who also never caught it. Then have them give you a FR graph of the 7 showing the spike. Certainly they have a FR of speakers they sold. Money talks and BS walk, cough over proof on the 7's.
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You do realize that there are quite a few folks here on the forum that are quite amused by the ridiculousness of your antics and are having a nice laugh at your expense, don't you?
 
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