LSi7 sample

[schnottus]

A while back I got an amazing deal on craigslist for some polk lsi7's. Today I got curious and opened them up and saw this:



Before going any farther I should say that I dont see any serial number on the back, just the barcoded Polkaudio Lsi7 sticker below the input pins and sticker above them that says "Polk Audio Engineering Sample No. 00-xxxx". Where xxxx are some numbers I will leave undisclosed for the moment.
Don't get me wrong, they sound awesome and I am terribly pleased with their performance. I just didn't expect to see such a careless applying of glue on such a high end speaker, perhaps because they were a sample set? Also the top gloss black section sits about 1/3rd of a millimeter lower than the surrounding bevels making a noticeable lip around the top of both speakers and one of the 4 wood side panels has a lot of chipping on top.

Lip (The flash on my camera really highlights it, it's not very noticeable in person):



Chipping:


I'm mostly posting because I am curious if other people have noticed things like this with their polk speakers or if it is just because I acquired a research sample. I love the sound of them so much I will certainly buy some lsi9's and an lsic to make a 5.1 set regardless of small manufacturing flaws. :)

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[nguyendot]

Looks like you got an engineering sample. That's how they usually go - they're hand made not on a production line so the quality usually is very rough. I have many components like that and while they perform 100%, sometimes aesthetically they do not look right because they are pre-production.

[schnottus]

Good to know, thanks. Still extremely happy considering I paid 150 for the pair.

[nguyendot]

thats one hell of a deal.

[danz1906]

Good to know, thanks. Still extremely happy considering I paid 150 for the pair.

Welcome to the Club-Great deal!

[skrol]

I picked up a pair of Monitor 5A's a few months back and when I carried them in the house I noticed something rattling inside. It turned out to be a bunch of pieces of glue from when they were built in 1983. It was comical how much glue was in there. But they are built incredibly solid.