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Polk Monitor 40 Series II Review (Speaker)

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One look at the cabinet structure and I thought of 'Paper Thin Walls - Modest Mouse.'
 

Rottmannash

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Rottmannash

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the wedges make sense if they are intended as additional bracing... but given they seem to be the only locations with wood glue on the front baffle, that is very curious construction indeed. they probably better off with just glue along the rabbets with no wedges entirely!
Learned a new word today- "rabbet". Thanks for that.
 

beagleman

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I might prefer the lower distortion of the Polk's versus these: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...a-airmotiv-b1-review-bookshelf-speaker.22366/

A little EQ and placement is often required for any speaker, that's easily fixed. Distortion...not so much.


As I said earlier, the low distortion and fairly decent on axis response, at least as far as measurements goes, seems better than quite a few higher priced speakers measured here in the past.

Not saying these will be great, but a site based on measurements being the holy grail, I see a lot of bashing of these, and not sure why.
 

Jdunk54nl

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This review sounds about like what I measured in my listening position with these. I bought them in college back in 2009. Bought the whole 5.0 set with Monitor 70's up front cs2 center and monitor 40 rears.

I am saving up for something better like revel, kef, focal (although the infinity reference series also peaks my interests for the price).

Here was what I paid back then:
Screen Shot 2021-06-12 at 09.00.28.png


Here are the monitor 40's with MMM measurement method
Screen Shot 2021-06-12 at 08.56.30.png



Here are the monitor 70's with MMM measurement method
Screen Shot 2021-06-12 at 08.56.39.png




Here is the cs2 center with MMM measurement method
Screen Shot 2021-06-12 at 08.56.45.png
 

Jdunk54nl

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Comparison to Amir's


Screen Shot 2021-06-12 at 09.03.50.png
1623513758198.png


With Pyschoacoustic smoothing in REW
Screen Shot 2021-06-12 at 09.04.48.png
 

bequietjk

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@beagleman It was a while ago and I cannot remember exactly which models. But I do recall some of the Polk bookshelf speakers to sound better than the floor standing cabinets.
 

mathman

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Never heard of Polk audio before. Their Legend L600 look interesting and are crazy cheap for a speaker company's top of the range product.
 

The Jniac

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This is pretty interesting. The midrange is pretty solid, so I bet with a sub and maybe some tweaking to the crossover it could be a decent performer. Out of the box though, it is uninspiring, and the fact that it managed to fall apart before Amir put it through the Gauntlet of Despair is definitely not going to get it any points.
 
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Jdunk54nl

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This is pretty interesting. The midrange is pretty solid, so I bet with a sub and maybe some tweaking to the crossover it could be a decent performer. Out of the box though, it is uninspiring, and the fact that it managed to fall apart before Amir put it through the Gauntlet of Despair is definitely not going to get it any points.

I am amazed that it fell apart. Mine were moved like 6 times in college, across country in U haul with just moving blankets and straps, multiple apartment / houses since. I didn’t take amazing care of them during any of that moving time (they are taken care of when set up, just not during moves besides moving blankets over them) and they still look fairly new with very minimal issues.
 
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If so many of the sub $700 speakers have such thin wiring from the crossover to the speakers, why do some people still spend so much money on speaker cables? If you got a pair of $200 cables running to $700 speakers that have $.96 worth of wire on the inside what's the gain from the cables? I think more consumers need to see what's inside their speakers before purchase or the front falls off.
 

Beershaun

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Well that review was an embarrassment for Polk. Once again we cannot rely on Brand to make our purchase decisions.
 

Xyrium

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Amir, I wonder if your sprinkler guy is related to the person who assembled this speaker?
 

Albrecht47

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@amirm , as you may already know, the tweeter near field amplitude response measurement isn't entirely correct. Would it not be more meaningful and less confusing to delete the data below, in this case, 1400Hz?
 

beagleman

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Well that review was an embarrassment for Polk. Once again we cannot rely on Brand to make our purchase decisions.


Embarrassment in what way? A cheap speaker, with very low distortion, fairly efficient, decent on axis response, and a somewhat hot treble response.

A 50 cent resistor could solve most of the treble issues. I see it as intentional, and fairly common at this price point, and audience it is intended for.

In the realm of entry level speakers, I see nothing embarrassing.

The shipping Damage is a red herring in this review.
 

Beershaun

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The shipping Damage is a red herring in this review.

Really?! Amir even goes on to explain that it was a poor manufacturing choice that could have been to easily addressed with a different approach. And you yourself said a $0.50 resister could fix the hot tweeter problem. So why didn't Polk do that instead? I love my Polk speakers but I don't defend them for bad decisions.[/QUOTE]
 

beagleman

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Really?! Amir even goes on to explain that it was a poor manufacturing choice that could have been to easily addressed with a different approach. And you yourself said a $0.50 resister could fix the hot tweeter problem. So why didn't Polk do that instead? I love my Polk speakers but I don't defend them for bad decisions.
[/QUOTE]


Since we have no real insight as to what caused the damage, we are only speculating. If it truly was "poor" manufacturing, I think we would hear about numerous similar issues.

I am not defending this particular speaker, but it is not new, we know no history, as to if it had been dropped or damaged and what caused it to come apart, but I can assure you, cabinet damage is not high on the list of Polk complaints at all.

The hot tweeter is an intentional choice by many brands, even many high end speakers. Not so much defending it, but it is a common thing, some like and some do not like so much.

In the end, we have a very low priced used speaker, that measured quite well distortion wise and other than a rising high end, actually better than many tested in the forum.
 

dtaylo1066

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For $200 I would not expect much in an MTM and the person who buys it is probably listening to compressed music to begin with, or has the speakers for use with TV home theatre. None the less, the cross-over design is a POS, and Polk could have, and knows how to, do much better.
 

norcalscott

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I’m in product management and I have to say, despite the obvious issues, it is quite impressive that Polk can make something like this that has a street price of under 200 bones for a pair - this is not an easy feat by any means. Personally, I wouldn’t buy them, but I am not the intended audience either.
 
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