Poly Planar

Poly Planar spa speakers and audio hardware

Audio fitted to a hot tub or a pool deck has to survive conditions that would destroy ordinary household equipment: constant humidity, splash, chlorinated or brominated vapour rising from the water, direct sun on the cabinet top and freezing nights in winter. Poly Planar is a name associated with speakers and audio hardware built for marine and spa use, where those conditions are the normal operating environment rather than an exception. Here you will find the spa speaker hardware from that range, intended as a replacement for a unit that no longer rises, no longer seals or no longer produces sound.

How a pop-up spa speaker works

A pop-up speaker sits almost flush with the spa shell or the surrounding deck when it is not in use. Press the top and it lifts on a sprung mechanism, exposing the driver so that sound projects across the water instead of being muffled under a cover. Press it again and it retracts, leaving a low profile that bathers will not knock and that the hard cover can close over. The mechanism is the reason these units are specified at all, and it is also the part that most often decides when a speaker needs replacing.

The MA7020G is the oval version of this design. The oval footprint matters more than it first appears, because the cut-out in the shell or deck is made to suit the body of the original speaker. An oval aperture will not accept a round unit without filling and re-cutting the acrylic, so the shape of the existing hole is usually the first thing to check before anything else.

Identifying the right replacement

Spa audio systems are assembled by the spa builder from bought-in components, so the brand on the control panel rarely matches the brand on the speaker. Work from the hardware in front of you rather than from the name on the cabinet:

• Cut-out shape and size — measure the aperture in the shell or deck, not the visible trim ring, since the trim overlaps the hole by several millimetres on every side.
• Clearance underneath — a pop-up speaker needs depth behind the panel for the body and the retracting mechanism, plus room for the cable to leave without being pinched.
• Model marking — codes such as MA7020G are often printed or moulded on the body or the back of the unit, visible once the speaker is lifted out from the service side.
• Wiring and connectors — note how many conductors run to the speaker and whether they terminate in spade connectors, bare tails or a plug, so the new unit can be joined in the same way.
• Pairs — most installations use two speakers facing each other across the tub. If one has failed through age rather than damage, the second is usually close behind, and a matched pair keeps left and right balanced.

What wears out and what you can do about it

Three things tend to end the life of a spa speaker. The sprung mechanism stiffens or jams, usually because scale, suncream residue and grit have worked into the sliding section; the cone or surround degrades after years of damp and UV exposure, which shows up as distortion or a dead channel; and water finds its way past the seal at the panel, which can corrode the terminals and, in the worst case, run into the cabinet below.

A little preventative care goes a long way. Rinse the exposed top with clean water now and then, keep the retracted unit free of debris so it seats properly, and avoid forcing a mechanism that has gone tight. When fitting a replacement, dress the cable so it cannot chafe on the shell edge, make the connections clean and tight, and check that the speaker drops fully flush before the hard cover is closed on it.

Poly Planar at PoolParthub.com

Here we list the Poly Planar spa speaker hardware we hold for repair and replacement work, including the MA7020G oval pop-up spa speaker. These are the parts people look for when an existing unit sticks in the down position, has stopped playing on one side, or has been damaged during a shell repair.

Because the speaker has to match an aperture that already exists, the model code and the shape of the cut-out are the two details worth confirming before ordering. If the original marking is still readable on the unit you are taking out, that is the quickest route to the correct part; if it is not, measuring the opening and the depth available behind it will get you there.