Legend of SR6500

[simsekm]

Hi Folks,

I'm from Turkey. I read a lot od forums and articles about SR6500 component speakers. I can't find this components
because of certain reasons.

Unfortunately i don't have any chance to listen polk audio speakers in Turkey. So i want to ask that is there any new
Polk Audio component speakers which is good as well as SR6500? I will buy it from ebay .

Regards,

Murat

Edit : Grammer

[arun1963]

Hi Murat,

Unfortunately none of the current Polk offerings are at par with the SR 6500. They do pop up from time to time on eBay, see if you can snag a pair that way. Currently the MM 6501 is the best from the Polk stable.

[MacLeod]

Yeah when Polk got bought out by DEI, one of the first things they did was ax the high end car audio stuff. Not enough profit margin in them I suppose. So if youre looking for high end speakers, youll have to look elsewhere. Polk is still the king at the $300 and below pricepoint but anything above that and youll have to try another brand. Damn shame too. Those were some of the best speakers ever. The 6500 mids are as good as any driver on the market at any price.

[simsekm]

As a result, i should follow ebay to buy second hand SR6500,right?

[MacLeod]

I'm a little scared of buying off eBay. Speakers are very delicate pieces of gear and I don't like buying used. The MM series of speakers are very good. They'd still be a very good option and could save you a few bucks that you could spend towards proper amplification.

[simsekm]

@MacLeod i'm completely agree with you. It's very easy to find a good subwoofer or a good head unit or an good amplificator. But it's not easy to find good components speakers. It was first time that i read very well comments for a component speaker almost from everybody. I will search MM 6501 . But SR6500 will be in my mind :(

When did production of SR6500 finish exactly?

[MacLeod]

The Morel rep was telling me about it at 2009 finals and that was the first I heard of it.

[Vital]

Wait, Polk is one of DEI's brands?? Wow......

[simsekm]

I don't know have any idea about DEI but also i can't understand their policy!

[brettw22]

The issue with the 6500's death is more about suppliers that went out of business where they couldn't just swap in another manufacturer to buy the cones from so they were basically going to have to start from scratch from the R&D side.

I have 2 pair of the 6500's that for whatever reason both started to crackle last year so I've got to swap them out with the MM's.....probably sometime this week....

[Vital]

The issue with the 6500's death is more about suppliers that went out of business where they couldn't just swap in another manufacturer to buy the cones from so they were basically going to have to start from scratch from the R&D side.

I have 2 pair of the 6500's that for whatever reason both started to crackle last year so I've got to swap them out with the MM's.....probably sometime this week....

Please post back with feedback on how you think SR and MM compare when it comes to performance.
Are you replacing entire sets or just woofers or just tweets?

[brettw22]

replacing the whole set.......woofer, tweet, and crossovers......

[the88thpianoman]

replacing the whole set.......woofer, tweet, and crossovers......

If it's just the woofers crackling, I would highly suggest replacing just those. I know the SR crossovers are huge, and the tweeters pretty much unbeatable. Just a thought if you want to retain the highest sound quality possible. I would at least keep the SR crossovers.

On the other hand, if you don't, let me know how much you'll sell them for.

[brettw22]

Parts don't exist for the SR line, so where would I be replacing the woofers from?

Vital has already expressed interest in parts, but we'll see what's happening with them first to make a determination......

[the88thpianoman]

I mean if I were you, I'd use the MM woofers since that's the best available, but keep the tweets and crossovers if they're good, instead of downgrading from the SR to MM. The MM's are good no doubt, but the SR stuff is definitely better.

[brettw22]

I thought that replacing all would be better than frankensteining the two lines........no?

[the88thpianoman]

Honestly I think you'd get much better sound if you retained the higher quality crossover and tweeter. The MM woofer honestly won't be too bad of a substitute for the SR, but the other components I would think would be more noticeable.

There are definitely people with WAY more hands on experience with both lines than I have, but I would be shocked if retaining the SR crossover and tweets did not yield significantly better sound quality than replacing them with MM components. Not that the MM line is bad, just that the SR line is phenomenal.

[Vital]

frankensteining the two lines

Hahaaa!!! haha!! Oh man, good one :)

And to answer your question - yes and no.
In most cases it doesn't hurt to use tweets of one set and woofers from other as long as cut off points are what those speakers were originally made to work with. I'm sure there's cases/combos that actually improved overall sound by swapping some parts of the set up.
In case of MM and SR on the other hand - SR crossovers are made for 4 ohms while MM's woofers are 2 ohms. I do not know how SR crossover will react to 2 ohm speaker and/or MM's crossover to 4 ohm but i'd assume that alone could complicate things. Then there's crossovers points. I do not know what they are on MM's crossover but i'd look into it if i were you.

BTW all this can be avoided by getting an external active crossover aka going fully active. This way you avoid using passive crossovers and you set your own points but yes, you now need additional unit in your set-up unless you headunit already has one.

[the88thpianoman]

^Now that is a good catch, though I'm not entirely certain that the MM resistance of 2.7 ohms would present a problem. On the other hand, I'm not sure if that specification is for the whole setup going into the crossover and may be different for the individual component... Give me ten minutes, I'm going to put the multimeter on the MM woofer component and see what the resistance of that alone is.

[the88thpianoman]

My multimeter could probably use a calibration, but it appears that the woofer alone presents a 2.0 ohm load, rather than the 2.7 that the whole setup is rated for.

Ok after that I got curious, so the tweeter has a steady 2.1 ohms, the whole setup from the crossover input has a steady 2.2, and the woofer gives me a fluctuating reading between 1.6 and 2.3 ohms.

If these numbers are different from the SR woofers, then it may be advisable to add an inline resistor of 2 ohms to the woofer. I'm not sure what this will do to overall sound quality, though.

As Vital mentioned however, the ideal solution is bi-amping.

[Vital]

From what I've read some time ago on either this forum or diyma MM's woofer is 2ohm and tweeter is 4ohm which somehow meets in the middle of 2.7 (middle would be 3 but apparently it's deeper then that lol). Basically it's the crossover that needs to work with these ohms making MM's xover one of a kind.

I suck at technical things like that so what I said above could either "off" a bit or even a complete bs lol but i def remember seeing this explanation of 2.7 ohms.

[BeefJerky]

The issue with the 6500's death is more about suppliers that went out of business where they couldn't just swap in another manufacturer to buy the cones from so they were basically going to have to start from scratch from the R&D side.

I have 2 pair of the 6500's that for whatever reason both started to crackle last year so I've got to swap them out with the MM's.....probably sometime this week....
That sucks. I hope this doesn't end up being a problem with the SR5250's since that's what I have.

As for replacing the woofer, you might look around at some places like Parts Express and see if you can find a woofer with similar specs and the same impedance as the SR6500.

[simsekm]

How much does SR6500's cost at second hand market?

[arun1963]

About 300-350 used and ~5-600 bnib. The main problem though is finding a pair.

[simsekm]

Sorry but i don't understand what "~5-600 bnib" is :biggrin:

[MacLeod]

Around $500-600 Brand New In Box

[simsekm]

I want it very much..But it seems impossible for me :(((

[MacLeod]

Look for some MM's them. Should be more readily available and have a lot of SR characteristics. Very nice speaker system for $300.

[simsekm]

MMs is for SQ?

[bbmxta]

I just installed DXI6500 components in all four doors of my Chevy crew cab and they sound pretty good. I haven't compared them to the MM series but I am happy. As far as pricing you can look on Amazon for some good deals to but still check the actual seller's website because I have found items cheaper (rare occasion) straight from them. Mainly because Amazon was charging double shipping.

[MacLeod]

MMs is for SQ?

Absolutely. They're not the best speakers in the world but as is the case with most Polk speakers, they're about the best at their price point.

[simsekm]

It's male bovine excrement but amazon.com doesn't ship to Turkey! And Polk Audio doesn't have distributor firm(for car auido) in Turkey. So i don't know why do i still try to find SQ at polk audio...But i believe that it will rocks my dreams. Because i listened Polk Audio home cinema system and it was really amazing...

[simsekm]

Absolutely. They're not the best speakers in the world but as is the case with most Polk speakers, they're about the best at their price point.

In general i listen R&B,trance and house. What do you think about it? MM can do what i need? I search MMs seriously now...

[Vital]

Yes, MM will do great for r'n'b, trance and house. You can get MM6501 off Ebay for around $200 + whatever shipping to Turkey will be.

[simsekm]

Thanks for great answers ;)

[simsekm]

I found this video at youtube and its sound really amazing .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF02EB8wQ-w