New to me SDA-1C's and Parasound DAC2000 *PICS*

falconcry72

So I put an ad in the wanted section 2 days ago for a pair of 1C's. Mark (Emlyn) responded immediately, and less than 24 hours later I had a fantastic set of 1C's at home and setup. All they needed was a side-panel to be recovered and reatached, which is now done. (Mark gave me enough speaker cloth to fully cover several sets of speakers, much less one puny side-panel). While at Mark's, I noticed a Parasound DAC-2000 sitting around, and I went back to pick it up today. Mark gave me great deals on both purchases, and was a pleasure to talk with.

Here are some pics of the new speakers, new DAC (which just happens to be from the same vintage as my other Parasound gear), my whole setup, and my now lonely 2B's

I A/B'd the two sets of SDA's last night quite extensively, and they are very similar, but the 1C's do everything a little better.

Today I A/B'd the Parasound DAC versus the DAC in the Asus Xonar Essence ST sound card I had been using. The Asus is the best computer sound card on the market and uses a Burr/Brown 24bit up to 192khz upsampling DAC. The soundcard can output both an anolog and digital signal simultaneously, so I ran the analog output to one input of the preamp, and the SPDIF (Toslink) to the Parasound DAC and then to another input on the pre. This let me A/B with the push of a button on the remote, and the Parasound DAC won hands down. The Parasound DAC makes the Asus DAC sound flat. Compared to the Parasound, the Asus sounds like you're listening to a recording, whereas the Parasound sounds like you're listening to actual instruments.

This is the best my system has ever sounded! I'm stoked!

Thanks Mark!

zarrdoss

looks good! That sub wont play so good when its on fire though, lol

those 1 c's look minty, are the cross-overs done as well?

falconcry72

zarrdoss wrote: »

looks good! That sub wont play so good when its on fire though, lol

those 1 c's look minty, are the cross-overs done as well?

Yea that fireplace doesn't get much use.

The 1C's ARE minty. I can't imagine a cleaner set out there.:biggrin:

The crossovers are stock. I'm working on getting a set of Larry's rings right now, crossovers next. I had removed the polyswitches on the 2B's and loved the results, but I think I'm going to leave them in place on these.... so far the treble has been great... I guess having the tweets crossed over differently helps.

Oh and BTW that's a pool table under the black plastic sheeting. It makes a great drawing/painting/work table since the slate is so hard and flat!

zarrdoss

did the sda 2b's get brighter when you removed them? they add resistance and when you removed it they get brighter. If you don't remove the polyswitches definitely replace them. they degrade over time and will trip even at lower, non critical moments, and will affect the sound. if you ever trip them its best to replace them from my understanding. better off removing them and replace it with a resistor.

falconcry72

zarrdoss wrote: »

did the sda 2b's get brighter when you removed them? they add resistance and when you removed it they get brighter. If you don't remove the polyswitches definitely replace them. they degrade over time and will trip even at lower, non critical moments, and will affect the sound. if you ever trip them its best to replace them from my understanding. better off removing them and replace it with a resistor.

The 2B's definitely got brighter when I took out the polys, and it was a welcomed change. I did not replace them with a resistor. The 1C's sound great with the polys in place, so if I took them out I would probably replace them with a resistor... 0.5 or 1? I'll look it up....

It could be that the polys in the 2B's were in worse shape than the ones in the 1C's for whatever reason... bad amplification, been tripped a bunch already, who knows.

halo71

Sweet set up, congrats! But am I missing something with not turning my down firing sub on its side like that?

falconcry72

halo71 wrote: »

...am I missing something with not turning my down firing sub on its side like that?

That sub isn't great. It's a Cambridge Soundworks Basscube 12; it's alright. To me, it sounds better with music (tighter) firing frontwards, but it could be because firing downwards a lot of the sound ends up in the chimney! No, because in my last non-chimney-having room I also preferred it firing frontward. The sub is very soon to be replaced. The lowest it can be crossed over at is 60hz, and I really need to be able to cross it over at more like 40hz w/ the SDA's. Plus it's only good to 27hz -3db, so I need something that can go lower, too. We'll see....

danz1906

Nice setup-Congrats!

fishbones

Nice pick-up! Those look beautiful!!!

Toolfan66

Looks great Ben!!

There is two or three of us that have done full upgrades. You can serch for the threads they will be helpful. I will see if I can find mine real quick.

Enjoy!!!

audiobilly

Way to go Ben! One hellova deal! Cangrats! Please keep us posted on you progress!

fishbones

If you can't find it Larry, let me know...I have some saved in my favorites.

Here's one...

Larry's rings - by DarqueKnight

falconcry72

fishbones wrote: »

Nice pick-up! Those look beautiful!!!

Thanks, and yes, they are beautiful! Better in person than from the low-res pics.They were an early bday present to myself. I had a little coin and was planning on getting a used sub or DAC... little did I know I could afford, and find, a set of 1C's and a DAC. I'm really glad I put that wanted ad up... and that club polk exists.:biggrin:

falconcry72

TOOLFORLIFEFAN wrote: »

There is two or three of us that have done full upgrades. You can serch for the threads they will be helpful.

I have read through them in the past, and they will be an invaluable resource when I do the crossovers.

How did people learn about audio before the inernet? Friends? My friends are WAY too dumb to teach me anything about this stuff!

disneyjoe7

Looks sweet....


L O L at the sub on fire thing.

kcoc321

Nice score on the SDa's and the Parasound DAC...I have the C/DC-1500 Compact Disc Changer-Transport and have always wanted the matching DAC...Nice stack of Parasounds!

falconcry72

kcoc321 wrote: »

I have the C/DC-1500 Compact Disc Changer-Transport and have always wanted the matching DAC...Nice stack of Parasounds!

Let me know if you're tryin to sell it...

zarrdoss

falconcry72 wrote: »

I have read through them in the past, and they will be an invaluable resource when I do the crossovers.

How did people learn about audio before the inernet? Friends? My friends are WAY too dumb to teach me anything about this stuff!

there used to be these places called libraries, lol. I have been messing with this stuff since I was 8 or so. but this place has helped me immensely.

dpowell

Very sweet! Have you tried the 1C's without the sub?

falconcry72

dpowell wrote: »

Very sweet! Have you tried the 1C's without the sub?

Yes, and they sound great, but I miss that very bottom end. I've got my sub on pretty low now so it doesn't interfere very much.

audio_alan

zarrdoss wrote: »

... if you ever trip them its best to replace them from my understanding. ...

If that's the case, I guess I better replace the Polys on my 2.3's. Not long after I bought them, I was really pushing them to see what they could do (turns out, they get ridiculously loud! :eek:), and then tripped the poly on the left speaker. Then I did it again 5 minutes later. Oops! They still sound good to me, but perhaps I'd notice the difference after changing them...

Anyway, congrats on the new DAC and 1C's! It's great to get 20-25 year old speakers that look like they came off the assembly line yesterday...

BIZILL

i too have a pool table in front of my sda's that sees no use.... because it's in front of my sda's. i am not so much worried about a ball launching off but rather worried about a guest's shaft poking through them. and that's sig material right there.

falconcry72

BIZILL wrote: »

i too have a pool table in front of my sda's that sees no use.... because it's in front of my sda's. i am not so much worried about a ball launching off but rather worried about a guest's shaft poking through them. and that's sig material right there.

I too am worried about a guest's balls lanching off or shaft poking through them, and that's just from listening to them... I really get worried when we start playing pool!