STEREO DIMENSIONAL SURROUND Speaker???

Tour2ma

Anybody know the story behind this old model?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3031350606&category=1499

dthomps

Wow, very bizarre..
At first I thought Monitor 4, but definitely not.

hotwheelman

Maybe it was meant to blend with the sdas for home theatre? Just a thought.

RuSsMaN

Very strange. A quasi SDA rear using a dvc midbass maybe?

I find it interesting that both left and right inputs (from amp) go to this speaker, then it has an RCA out to the 'left' SDS speaker.

We've seen these once before here, on ebay, maybe 6 months ago. That time it was a pair.

Cheers,
Russ

Tour2ma

Russ,
Good eyes... I really did not catch the writing and all earlier.

So it's some kind of matrixing scheme given the opposite channel inputs. And I think that's a jack like is used for headphones rather than the standard RCA we are used to seeing today.

I think we need Matt to tell us what this was all about... then har will probably want six of them.

Which reminds me ... is anything going to come of the on-line conversation with Matt discussed a while back?

RuSsMaN

All starting to make sense now Tour.

You are right, that does look like an 1/4" 'headphone' type jack. IF IT IS, that means they can send a stereo signal (left and right) to the other end of the cable.

Let me speculate even further, since the RIGHT speaker is getting both l&r inputs, and I'm going to guess it manipulates those signals somehow, and sends the info to itself AND the other (left) speaker... Starting to sound more and more like SDA.

Interesting, for sure. Obviously, it didn't take off though.

Cheers,
Russ

Tour2ma

Originally posted by RuSsMaN
Interesting, for sure. Obviously, it didn't take off though.

So you think har will only want four?

Dropped a note in a Ken S. thread (good read BTW) to hopefully draw a little Polk employee, or owner, attention to this thread.

George Grand

You guys are a scream. AGAIN, something discussed during the Ice Age. These are Polk speakers with the Hafler DynaQuad circuit aboard. I saw, and almost bought a pair for $50 brand new during the 1st Gulf Excursion. Somebody back then (Paul I think) said it was basically a Monitor 4 with the Hafler stuff. Collectors items. You blew it. File them w/Polk tonearms. The idea was to hook your front speakers up to your amps "A" terminals, and the rear speakers up to the "B" terminals. The speakers had the encoding circuitry aboard. This allowed the "front" signal to flow untouched and unchanged to the front speakers, quieting critics who speculated the front channel info would be "changed" when sent downstream after ambience extraction of the rear signal. The right speaker was the control speaker (contained the Hafler circuit), that's why the separate hook-up to the left speaker.

What else you need to know?

George Grand (of the Jersey Grand's)

Tour2ma

Thanks George,

So what we are seeing here is the right rear speaker? And the "headphone" jack supplied the signal to the left rear? Neat little bit of foreshadowing of the SDA's there...

As with the tonearm, where I still hope you will enlighten this mere audio mortal, the old info you mention is nowhere to be found. Ditched... deleted... el gono... I've looked and your oldest surviving post is 07/09/01... Wasn't the first Gulf War a little earlier than that?

TroyD

Maybe I haven't lost all my marbles, I actually remember that conversation.....

BDT

George Grand

The SDA series pre-dated these little speakers. I SAW them during the 1st Gulf War, in a audio shop outside Portsmouth, N.H.
The discussion with Paul took place two or three years ago. I should've bought those Polks for $50, but I spent the money on a passive Parasound woofer module (not about to use the term "sub" to describe something with two 5 1/4" woofs).

George Grand (of the Jersey Grand's)

[Deleted User]

Hello,
That is the SDS-400 speaker system, a very surround sound speaker system providing SDA retrieval of ambient information and producing it from the rear or side locations. This is the grandpa of today's home theater surround sound. If any reader would like, let me know a fax number or U.S. Mail address and I'll send a copy of the owner's manual, at no charge. My email address is kswauger@polkaudio.com.
Regards, Ken