Drivers

[burdette]

I'm curious about the drivers in Polk speakers of today and yesteryear. I'd always assumed that Polk designed and manufactured their own drivers. But in one thread or another here, someone mentioned that they thought the tweeter in an older Polk model (?) was a Peerless.

Of course I'm not looking for a year by year model by model breakdown.. just general information.. did Polk use purchased drivers for awhile? Do they now? Was a certain model # tweeter purchased and the next a Polk? Whatever you know about it..

[nascarmann]

I do not know this as fact......I think Polk out-sources all there drivers now and back then? They are built to Polk spec's, but Polk I don't think manufactures any of them there self? I could be wrong though?

[RuSsMaN]

Most of the Monitor series, all of the RTA series, and all of the SDA series used Peerless drivers, didn't they?

You can still buy a tweeter today from Peerless that looks to be the same deisgn, I don't have first hand experience here, so take it as hear-say at the most....

Cheers,
Russ

[burdette]

Madisound shows the DT115 at $29.50 and says it was used in older Polk models...

[RuSsMaN]

This is the one at PE.....Peerless 810665 Same as the Madisound offering....

http://www.partsexpress.com/images/277-400m.jpg

Cheers,
Russ

[nascarmann]

I think that's the last tweeter Polk used from Peerless? That was the Polk SL1000 i think? I believe the 2000, 2500 and 3000 tweeter were manufactured by another company? This is only a guess.....

[cturner]

I know this thread is a few days old, but maybe I have an answer. I was looking through a brochure from '89 and on page 3 it states that "unlike many speaker brands, Polk Audio operates it's own manufacturing facilities. We make our own drivers, crossovers, and cabinets in our 100,000 square foot facility in Baltimore. We even design and build our own high precision automated production equipment to insure that demanding Polk performance standards are rigorously maintained throughout the entire manufacturing process." They also have a picture of a machine assembling sl2500 tweeters. I can scan the page for anyone who's interested.

[rskarvan]

I'd like to the see the photo of the SL2500 tweeter being produced. Scan it in - please.

[brittan_farmer]

The tweeter used in the LSi series is, according to Doug Schneider of SoundStage!, not a Polk driver. I quote from his review: "The tweeter is called a Ring Radiator. Perceptive eyes will notice that it’s actually a Vifa-sourced unit with a Polk Audio faceplate." Just thought I would add this.

[burdette]

http://www.d-s-t.com/vifa/index.htm

Looks like the tweeter in the LSi...

http://www.polkaudio.com/home/products.php?category=25&speaker=164

Madisound shows 2 of these although Vifa page has only 1... oh.. one is shielded, one isn't... $80 and $60 respectively.

[cturner]

This afternoon I'll scan the brouchure page. Remember, it's from '89 so some things may have changed.

[bigsexy1]

Has anyone tried putting one of those Vifa tweeters in any of the RTi line of speakers? And if so, how did it turn out? Seems to me that would be a hell of an upgrade over those trilaminate dome tweeters!

[RuSsMaN]

Oh oh oh, I know I know, ask Hunter.....

[TroyD]

I was just WAITING for that.....

Don't you have some AR's to demo??

BDT