Ouch, me personally I could never buy a speaker with part of it not working. It's too hard to find OEM replacements, what are the chances any other person would find those tweeters the way you did? I paid $100 for these Polk R50s, the same price I paid for a pair of KLH T-5 main speakers. These are easily much clearer and crisp than the KLH speakers were.
I agree, BB is a horrible place to buy audio equipment unless it's a Magnolia. The plain jane BBs carry nothing but shrill Klipsch speakers, JBLs, and I think they had Yamaha and Sony didn't they? Nothing worth writing home about in any case.
No offense but I don't see what the obsession with tubes is. From what I've been told they color the image and that reduces the accuracy of the sound. I'd rather accurate sound than pleasant - if the source is pleasant it will sound as such. I want the best as well, but I still don't believe it's necessary to hunt down an old set of speakers in mediocre condition and pay a premium for them. It's sort of like the old car folks, good for some but I can't see the sense in it. Money is much better spent on newer cars that are still great and far more easy to locate and maintain than the older alternative. But some people will pay the extra price even given the extra effort and work to get the same result a newer car would provide at a lower price with no real effort.
Some find that enjoyable, some don't but both groups could be said to be auto enthusiasts. In the same, I would say there are audio enthusiasts who think with either mindset as well. I fall with the latter, but there's nothing wrong with liking the old stuff. In the same that old car owners respect some newer car owners though, don't diss the newer stuff just because you personally don't like it. Plenty of people do even if you don't. No need to bash the entire Polk lineup just because it isn't to your liking since it clearly is for many people. In the same regard, plenty of people like the older stuff such as yourself.
But we're taking this thread a bit OT, tbergman if you can get ahold of the guy and listen to them and you like them go for it. If I might ask, what is the selling price of his RTi 70s? Like I said, I paid only $100 for my R50s in mint condition with no signs of wear or tear and everything flawless on them including the original boxes (Which I stupidly threw away since they were getting in my way - oh well...) and manuals. The big benefit of the RTi series is the fact they're real wood. Recently though, it appears Polk changed their lineup as I am not seing the R50 for sale there anymore nor the normal RTi models I had previously seen.
