Polk 7A's Questions about them.

[MikeBAllen]

I just picked up a pair at Goodwill for $15. They work perfectly. Does anybody have any history on these? Are they rare? They are serial 3047 and 3056. Are these the first Polk speakers produced? I know I got a good deal they sound beautiful. I didn't know speakers this old sounded so good. Does anybody have pictures of what the passive radiators are supposed to look like because they don't look quite right.

Thanks,
Mike

{edit}
Thank you to everyone for their insight.
I'm letting my brother use these because relegating them to surround speakers would be a waste.
Looking through these forums I have gotten some great advice. And did a lot of drooling. I wasted the better part of work today looking around.

I'm going to make some stands for them to angle them back and raise them becaus I'm sure the originals would be harder than hen's teeth to find.

Does it look like these are the proper drivers especially the PR?

Thanks again,
Mike

Sorry for the cut and paste for the pictures

[url]http://photos.msn.com/Viewing/Album.aspx?PST=8nK2AN1B!1Lz91h!A0O*YAdUOEmhDqtWHp0 J1VzwM6*Z2ipNY7X7KkvjaI1clIVO5Q0tNrW8O7d5ryDleHl58 A%24%24

[dorokusai]

Nice score. Do they have velcro grill fasteners?

[danger boy]

dang. i wanna shop at your Goodwill store. :)

good speaker, good price. good work bud.

Oh yeah, welcome to Club Polk. where ever minute spent here feels like 60 seconds. :p

[RayChuang]

Originally posted by danger boy
Oh yeah, welcome to Club Polk. where ever minute spent here feels like 60 seconds. :p

But seriously, what's the difference between the various Monitor 7 models?

[mhardy6647]

Not the first Polks, nor even the first Monitor 7's. The first Polk speaker was the Monitor 9 "tower", the only pair of which I've ever seen were in the student pub ("Rathskellar") at Matt's alma mater (JHU) when I was an undergrad there in the 1970's.

The first Monitor 7 was the... umm, Monitor 7. The 7A's came later, and added a 10" coated PR (the 7 had an 8" uncoated PR) and had two fuses (tweeter and system). I bought my 7A's in 1978 (IIRC).

The PR should be shiny black, with a rubber surround and a big flat thingy in the middle to add weight to tune the passive. The rubber surround often looks greyish or powdery. What's yours look like?

[MikeBAllen]

They do have the velcro to hold on the grills. The grills do not say anything on them the only way I kenw was the label on the back.

The PR is a cardboard color but looks like it belongs.

I also picked up some Infinity studio monitor 120's for $10 a couple of weeks ago that was a total score they are real loud.
Goodwill is cool!! If you know what to look for because they don't.

I'll post some pictures tonight.

[dorokusai]

Sounds like you have the best Monitor 7's, rare and original. Have fun.

[Loud & Clear]

I've got Monitor 10s with velcro and the peerless tweets (tiny hole in middle). Are these then "the best" Monitor 10 iteration? They sound better than a pair of Monitor 12 (series 2) speakers that I paid about three times as much for. Ouch, wasn't happy to discover that.

[dorokusai]

LC - Yes.

[mhardy6647]

... of the original Monitor 7 and 10, from the brochure I picked up when I was first hi-fi shopping (in 1977!) at Soundscape in Baltimore. Soundscape was Polk's first dealer, and AFAIK still carries the brand. you can see that the original 7 had a smaller PR, and both speakers used uncoated paper PR's originally, even though the 6-1/2" woofer-MR's were always coated.

[mhardy6647]

From the same brochure. No hole in the center of the tweeter dome that I can see ?! My 7A's have the hole, FWIW.

[Loud & Clear]

Thank you, doro.