rare bird or spotted polkenstein?

[Polk65]

....

[nadams]

Hmmm... this might actually be something from POLK AUDIO's very early history. Or just a bastardization of some other design. Does appear to use common POLK AUDIO design elements, such as the peerless tweeter and a passive radiator. Does anyone know anything about these supposed POLK AUDIO speakers?

[nadams]

I emailed the seller regarding these, and got this response-

"Thank you Noah, I will try to get some serial numbers of them and provide detailes. if you can help identify the set, that would be greatly appriciated. Best regards, Joe"

[ESAVINON]

I remember reading about these in stereo review back in 1982-83...

[nadams]

If these really are a very early Polk speaker, someone should grab these from eBay. Maybe another forum chip-in to donate to Polk's Hall of Fame? If I had the money, I'd grab them myself, but I'm strapped for cash right now.

[nadams]

I see Doro's got a bid in...

[RuSsMaN]

They are the original Mini Monitor. Very rare.

[nadams]

Awesome!

[Polk65]

Doro got some booty.

[Tour2ma]

Yeppers... Those are unlike any of the mini-Mon's I've seen before. Set up like a true stage monitor with the angled backsides. Very cute. Very collectable. Very museumable.

But wazzup with this multiple snipes stuff??? :p

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5861158063&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

EDIT: Here are "the other" Mini-Mon's...

[RuSsMaN]

The ones you posted Bruce are the MKII.

[audiobliss]

Very interesting looking design, for the ones in the auction, that is. Though the others are just as interesting if for nothing else but because of their size.

[Tour2ma]

For a Polk that small to use a PR is just cool...
... and the cabinets on the MK I's (thanks, Russ) add an extra helping of CF...

They just look like something the band in a flea circus would use...

[George Grand]

Find a pair of the small Polk Monitors that had a surround circuit built into them for a real rare bird. I think they were S-400 or something like that. Almost bought a pair new in 1990 or 91. If my foot could reach around to my ass......

All you had to do was hook them to the "B" terminals on a receiver with "A" and "B" speaker capability. They were discussed here a long time ago, and I think it was a combo SDA/Hafler DynaQuad thing. Ken?

[RuSsMaN]

SDS-400

Rare, sure. Significant, not really.

It was all SDA, from Ken S:

"That is the SDS-400 speaker system, an early surround sound speaker system providing SDA retrieval of ambient information and producing it from the rear or side locations. This is the grandpa of today's home theater surround sound. "

[dorokusai]

I won them, although they went higher than expected :)

They will be donated to the Polk Museum in Baltimore.

[George Grand]

It was significant to me. Nobody else matters.

And I don't want to break Ken's chops, he probably just forgot that Hafler "DynaQuad" predated that speaker and SDA by a tad. The great-grandfather?

[RuSsMaN]

I'm sure Ken and his big audio brain knows that, they just didn't use the circuit.

I matter.

[George Grand]

I was going to say before, that I think you are significant. Significance my young friend, is in the eye of the beholder.

Bravo Doro!

[Tour2ma]

...they went higher than expected :)So are you accepting donations?

[gata]

Hey fellow polkies! I'm new to this forum, and this is my first post. I wanted to contribute some info about these mini monitors.

My father-in-law once gave me an exact pair as the ones pictured above--15 in. by 6.5 in., five-sided back, a peerless tweeter, 4.5 in. driver, and 4.5 in. passive radiator. I've had them for years and finally decided to find out more about them, so I emailed Ken Swauger (Polk customer service who I've seen is active on this forum--great guy and very helpful) and described them. They turned out to be the first version of the original mini-monitors manufactured. Quick replies came back to Ken from Stu Lumsden, head of engineering, and Matthew Polk himself. Very cool to know that these guys will still field queries made by some regular dork like myself sending an email. See their responses below:

Stu L.
Circa 1977. This was essentially the original Mini-monitor. The cabinet is a 5-sided back grooved to fold around a baffle and end-caps are added to complete to assembly. Peerless K010DT tweeters, 4 in. driver from Matrix or CTS [I think] and 4 in. passive radiator made by us - our first driver assembly. All drivers doped by us. The crossover probably has my name on it in grease pencil from QC.

Matt P.
. . .the dimensions sound about right for the mini-monitor. There were 3 versions. The original had the v-grooved 5 sided back. Then there was a --wonder-schmutz-- molded version in the same shape and finally, a rectangular version with a conventional drop in back and baffle. All had the peerless tweeter, a 4.5 in. driver and a 4.5 in. passive radiator. Originally the drivers had foam surrounds which deteriorated. Later ones had treated cloth surrounds. I still have a pair of these that work just fine. As I recall the drivers were a 1 inch voice-coil with BL around 6 and free-air about 65Hz. The passive radiator had a cardboard disk added to the front for extra mass. You could replace the PR with a driver having the correct amount of added mass and not connected.
-msp

Ken S.
Figure a frequency response of 60Hz to 20Hz an impedence of 6 Ohms recommended amplifier from 5 to 60 Watts/channel.

So there it is--the basic skinny. Very cool that you also have a pair Polk65 and I hope this helps. :D

I'm by no means an audiophile but I like quality vintage gear that doesn't cost more than my car. My system right now consists of a Marantz 2252B, a Marantz 6350Q, Sansui fr-3060, Kenwood KX-1030, a Polk PSW100, and the Polk mini monitors. Currently on the hunt for a decent CD player to replace my run-of-the-mill-TEAC and some Polk Monitor 7s.

[Polk65]

Welcome to Club Polk Gata.

Thank you for sharing that with us. That email gives you an idea of the enthusiasm generated by both those that work at Polk Audio and those of us that enjoy listening to their products.

Member dorokusai won the auction for these and they are being donated to Polk Audio headquarters in Maryland.

Stick around, you will like it here.

[gata]

Thanks! Glad to be here.

[Tour2ma]

Ditto on the welcome...

Always nice to have another self-professed Polkageek join the fray.

[dorokusai]

Sorry for the delay. I will create a Reference thread later, but here are some pictures.
The speakers arrived in excellent condition, sans a busted up Peerless tweeter. I always have spares so it's replaced and the speakers are again 100% operational. The PR surrounds are cloth and the mid-bass drivers look to be refoamed or a replacement, as the surrounds are amazingly fresh and the cone is undoped. I may be wrong, just an observation.

Look closely at the gut shot.....notice the initials?

[Tour2ma]

Look closely at the gut shot.....notice the initials?Nice little bonus... :)

My Series 3 Mini-Mon's had shot surrounds on the woofers. Madisound had replacements.

[joelll]

*sigh* I want a pair of these lots and lots... :)

Note the binding posts on the back shot aren't quite in line with everything else. I'm guessing hand-drilled...

Also, are there any serial numbers on these speakers?

[dorokusai]

Thanks to Polk65, Tour2Ma and Russman for chipping in on the speakers. I'll make sure you get some Polk hit points added to your name from the big boys this week :D

Joell - No external serial numbers are present. The 12/14 inside is either a date or possibly the serial numbers, but I haven't confirmed that yet.

[speakergeek]

Wow! A true peice of Polk Audio history. What a find. How do they sound?

[gata]

Thanks for posting pics dorokusai. It's prompting me to take mine apart as well have another look. If I recall correctly, after my correspondence with Ken S, I did find Stu L's initials inside.

Although mine have traveled around quite a bit and show a little more wear, they still sound sound great. I would describe the sound almost dry like nearfield studio monitors and very accurate. Not so surprising, they lack in the bass department (easily recouped with my Polk PSW100), yet the highs are clear and brilliant.

As synchronicity would have it, last night at Goodwill, I found a later pair of Polk Mini monitors. These are the shorter squat black ones that I think evolved into the RT10. They look the same, but these do have the older Polk sticker on the back that says Mini Monitor.

Tonight I do the mini monitor side-by-side challenge. I'll post pics of my originals soon too.