Vintage Bookshelf Speakers vs Polk Monitor 5b

[Uncle Choppy]

Greetings Gentlemen. I would be interested in your thoughts regarding a few pair of vintage bookshelf speakers compared with the Polk Monitor 5B. Basically, how do they stack up in terms of cabinet construction, quality of components, quality of sound, dynamic range, and listener fatigue value across various genres of music? The speakers are B&W DM4, Dynaco A-25, Harbeth Compact 7, and Proac Studio 1. Can any of these really beat the Polks for a great all around bookshelf speaker? Many thanks for your ideas. Best wishes. -UC

 

[teebee]

The Polks will have great bass for the size, good mids, but will be a bit bright on top.

 

[bhunter]

I like the Polks, but the DM4s, Proacs, and Harbeths are much better speakers in just about every metric IMHO.

 

[Bucky Badger]

I agree. Now if you were talking about the Polk 7's then.

 

[StuartB]

The Polks are pretty good speakers. A lot depends on which tweeter you have. If it is the black silk dome with a small hole in the middle, they have Peerless tweeters and they are very good. They also respond well to simple crossover updates.

I am with everyone else that I would strongly recommend listening to the Haerbeth and Proacs. I think the Brit speakers would be much more refined, but you might miss some bass.