I had both Polaris and Polaris II (that's my pics on the Chroma site) and yes the white M I've only seen on the II. The only real difference is the paint job and the handy lower function chart on the front panel of the II. The II actually had earlier firmware than the original. I think it may have had a different power supply but can't recall.

Doug
synthparts.com

--- In chromapolaris@yahoogroups.com, Chris Ryan <chris@...> wrote:
>
>
> On 2012-06-14, at 1:47 PM, Paul D. DeRocco wrote:
>
> > > From: Harvey Peekar
> > >
> > > hello all, i was wondering if anyone could give me some
> > > information on the chroma faceplate. i've notice in a lot of
> > > pictures that the"m" in chroma (for the polaris) is painted
> > > red, where as mine is just white. was this a production
> > > thing? is it an earlier or later model? are there major
> > > differences in hardware? I'm curious....
> >
> > It's actually not the entire M, it's just the left side of it, with an
> > oval below it so that the red is in the shape of an eighth note. I don't
> > know the history of this, but my guess is that yours is earlier, because
> > it's hard to imagine that they'd have removed that clever decoration.
> >
> > There were more meaningful design changes along the way--improved power
> > supply, switch to the faster CPU, revised firmware, better sliders--but
> > I doubt any of them were synchronized with the graphical change.
> >
>
> I always thought that this was the difference between the Polaris (model 2121 and 2123) and Polaris II (model 2123B). See for example Polaris Rev's from the Chroma mailing list in 2003.
>
>
> Chris
>