What exactly are the differences between a Polk Audio Monitor 70 series 1 and series 2 speakers?
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Question about Polk Audio Monitor 70 speakers...
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ferninando
Lunatic Member
post in speakers forum
I am just curious about them. I heard the original Monitor 70s at a good friend's home. They always sounded really bright to me, and then he had issues with a tweeter going bad. I currently have a pair of Monitor 7s, with rebuilt crossovers and silk-dome tweeters. Unfortunately, my listening room is a bit too large for these speakers it would seem. What are your impressions of the speakers in terms of sound quality, as in terms of expense they are an amazing deal.
faber12
Addicted Member
They are alright speakers, they don't do anything wrong really. Not very fatiguing to listen to. If you can get them for what you consider an affordable price, you will probably like them.
They lack clarity/refinement and very low bass. I have a good sub woofer, so low bass is not hard to supplement. I use them mainly for HT, and casual music listening, and I think with a better receiver I will like them even more.
I would be careful of the tweeters, as they can be damaged by too much power applied. That is why I needed a new one, my neighbor had them, and when I got them one tweeter was quieter than the other. I have not had any other issue, and I don't listen loud enough to damage one myself.
The grills are rather weak, you have to be careful of them when moving the speakers around, the speakers are kinda heavy.
I had a pair of Monitor 5 jr that I liked very well, I doubt that you would find much improvement with the Monitor 70 vs. Monitor 7. How loud do you listen? What amplifier are you using? How big is your room? Why do you say that the room is too large for them? I imagine the bass is a little lacking below 40hz or so.
They lack clarity/refinement and very low bass. I have a good sub woofer, so low bass is not hard to supplement. I use them mainly for HT, and casual music listening, and I think with a better receiver I will like them even more.
I would be careful of the tweeters, as they can be damaged by too much power applied. That is why I needed a new one, my neighbor had them, and when I got them one tweeter was quieter than the other. I have not had any other issue, and I don't listen loud enough to damage one myself.
The grills are rather weak, you have to be careful of them when moving the speakers around, the speakers are kinda heavy.
I had a pair of Monitor 5 jr that I liked very well, I doubt that you would find much improvement with the Monitor 70 vs. Monitor 7. How loud do you listen? What amplifier are you using? How big is your room? Why do you say that the room is too large for them? I imagine the bass is a little lacking below 40hz or so.
"Too large" was probably not the correct expression, but more so the room is large (16 x 18 feet) and has many sound absorbent items. In addition, I kind of like to listen to music loud. I love 80s music (something about the decade I was born in
), as well as stuff from the mid 1960s - mid 1990s. I don't do any home theater at all. I'm a two-channel girl! 
I prefer the heavier side of music... .some AC/DC, some Deep Purple, a pinch of Saxon, with some Focus from the early 1970s thrown into the mix 
In terms of my amp, ever since my Adcom GFA-545 failed, I have been using a Yamaha A-S500 integrated amplifier. I've been extremely happy with it. The only downside is that it has no provisions from hooking up an equalizer (tone controls are not that effective) which I think would really help with the speakers in my current listening room.
P.S.... the Monitor 5jrs I had a pair of those as well before I got my Monitor 7s. I should have never sold those speakers. It was a mistake.
faber12
Addicted Member
I would recommend trying a powered sub woofer to augment the bass. The Yamaha gear I have used did not have good authority in the bass region. This will also take the load off your amplifier somewhat, allowing you to play louder without clipping the amplifier, if you set it up to give all the low bass to the sub woofer instead of the Polks.
Or maybe you need a pair of Cerwin-Vega D9.
Also, it looks like that amplifier has tape loops. Are you sure an eq cannot be used?
Or maybe you need a pair of Cerwin-Vega D9.
Also, it looks like that amplifier has tape loops. Are you sure an eq cannot be used?
Your Yamaha should have no problem driving the Monitor 7's to fairly loud levels in your average sized room. In theory, somewhere around 108dB. If that's not loud enough you either need a more powerful integrated or more efficient speakers.
If your speakers have not had the crossovers upgraded, you should definitely look into that as it will result in a marked overall improvement. You should also perform the push test to check for air leakage.
Anyway, the Monitor 70 would be a significant step down in sound quality.
If your speakers have not had the crossovers upgraded, you should definitely look into that as it will result in a marked overall improvement. You should also perform the push test to check for air leakage.
Anyway, the Monitor 70 would be a significant step down in sound quality.
I have tried hooking up my EQ, but perhaps I was doing something wrong. Before, I just hooked between my preamp and poweramp. My Yamaha has no preamp outputs (or main inputs) and nothing like a "tape monitor" you would see on receivers. I does have record selector knob. I tried it through there before, but while the spectrum analyser in my EQ worked, it made no difference in sound. If you have any ideas, please do let me know as I would be grateful for any advise.I would recommend trying a powered sub woofer to augment the bass. The Yamaha gear I have used did not have good authority in the bass region. This will also take the load off your amplifier somewhat, allowing you to play louder without clipping the amplifier, if you set it up to give all the low bass to the sub woofer instead of the Polks.
Or maybe you need a pair of Cerwin-Vega D9.
Also, it looks like that amplifier has tape loops. Are you sure an eq cannot be used?
108db is way too much for me!!!
There is no air leakage, as I had already thought of that. I will continue to investigate, however, to see what is going on.
I have a pair of Monitor70s(series II) that I use for music.They're not really music speakers, and they like some volume, but they do open up and sound pretty decent. No, they don't really have the greatest bass, but they aren't bad. I don't feel the need for a sub-woofer. My amp is 120wpc@8ohm, and I drive them fairly loud. I don't find them overly bright in my room, but I have a couple of tubes in my pre-amp that might account for that. Hope you get it figured out.
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faber12
Addicted Member
Some tape loops are strangely hard to figure out. You would think it would be fairly simple.
Probably the PB jacks should be connected to the eq output, and the REC should be connected to the eq input, and then the record out selector should be set to the input you actually want to hear, while the input selector knob should be set to the tape loop/line # that has the eq. It looks like your amplifier has a tape loop capability on line 2 and 3. The PB is playback, and the REC is record.
Like I said, this seems like it should be simpler, but some of these take some fiddling to figure out.
faber12
Addicted Member
That was all I could find as well, but when I talked to Ken Kantor at Polk, he said that the tweeters were different, with different part numbers anyway. I did not ask about any other differences.
That is good to know, I know so many people had trouble with the series 1 speakers, especially the tweeters. Those that I have heard, have always sounded a bit harsh to me as well.
faber12
Addicted Member
I looked back, you are mostly correct.
Ken Carter is who I emailed, I am not sure now who I talked to on the phone. I will see what I can figure out. He was super nice on the phone, and knew his stuff.
Edit: Ken Carter was who I talked to when I called.
goodolpg
Just an old fart trying to help.
I have a Denon receiver, took me months to figure out how to use an EQ with it.
No pre/mains, nothing labelled tape monitor.
There was some combination of buttons to push including "rec out select".
After moving to a different power source I tried using the Denon a few months later for a test session on some new aquisition. Think I could figure out how to make the EQ work?
Not a chance.
I HATE the way that receiver is designed.
No pre/mains, nothing labelled tape monitor.
There was some combination of buttons to push including "rec out select".
After moving to a different power source I tried using the Denon a few months later for a test session on some new aquisition. Think I could figure out how to make the EQ work?
Not a chance.
I HATE the way that receiver is designed.
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