New To The Club - SDA-2B ('89)

jcusick

I'm stuck in the middle of the Mojave on a contract job with no stereo and just picked up a pair of SDA-2B's today at a fairly decent price considering it has one blown 2000 and one blown 6511. I called Polk before I got 'em and they have the replacement 2000, but I didn't know the 6511 was blown until I looked at 'em... Needless to say that lowered the price some more Hopefully Polk has a replacement for this, too.

They did not include the connector cable. It appears to be the pin/blade connector, although these are new to me, so I'm not sure. One socket appears a little smaller than the other. Are these connectors available?

By the way, even with the blown 6511 and tweeter, they still sound pretty darn good, at least compared to the old and crappy 5.1 computer speakers that I just tossed in the garbage (a couple of cheap blown-out woofers/tweeters - not worth fixing, even at MCM prices). Right now I'm listening to Pat Benatar's "True Love" and it sounds good.

This is my first set of these, always wanted a pair, and I'm happy I got 'em, considering the price, a good deal even after purchasing new driver and tweeter, I'm sure. And that is even considering that I'm using a fairly cheap used KLH surround amp (also picked up cheap - I'm going a little crazy here with just the computer for sound) to push the pair.

Any info on the connector cable/plugs would be very helpful.

Regards to all,

JC

F1nut

I hope you ordered two new tweeters, not just one as the new ones sound very different, in a much better way, than the originals.

The pin/blade cable is not available. You can use the pin on a regular RCA jack to insert into the round hole, break off the outer turbines. The blade is used for support only, no wire is connected.

dcoil

Hi JC and welcome to the forum. I am fairly new myself, but there is a TON of top rate information on the Polk SDA speakers on this forum. You probably are not aware of how good your speakers can sound. The Pin/Blade interconnect will make your sound stage 'come alive'. Polk does not sell these anymore, but one of the members, Ben62670 was making these for $45 (and from what I understand a very good quality IC). I don't know about the blown 6511. Check with Polk first, and if they no longer stock it I know some of the SDA group have spare drivers - although I'm not sure about yours.

falconcry72

F1nut wrote: »

I hope you ordered two new tweeters, not just one as the new ones sound very different, in a much better way, than the originals.

The pin/blade cable is not available. You can use the pin on a regular RCA jack to insert into the round hole, break off the outer turbines. The blade is used for support only, no wire is connected.

+1 to both of those statements. Take a decent quality 75ohm sub cable and remove the "petals" around the pin and you'll have yourself a fine SDA interconnect.

Polk can provide you with a new 6511, but it will be different than the original 6511, and originals are fairly hard to come by, as it is a rare driver and there are many who need backups.:cool: That being said, some can't hear a difference between a new one and an original one.

BTW, welcome to the club!:biggrin:

jcusick

F1nut wrote: »

I hope you ordered two new tweeters, not just one as the new ones sound very different, in a much better way, than the originals.

Haven't ordered yet, just called to make sure they were available before I went to look at them. Thanks for the advice, I figured that was the case when I was told it was a different tweeter and will definitely do so. Thanks.

The 6511 is frozen up, and I understand they're hard to come by, so I may send this off to someone who has experience repairing these.

Any suggestions?

JC

jcusick

falconcry72 wrote: »

+1 to both of those statements. Take a decent quality 75ohm sub cable and remove the "petals" around the pin and you'll have yourself a fine SDA interconnect.

Polk can provide you with a new 6511, but it will be different than the original 6511, and originals are fairly hard to come by, as it is a rare driver and there are many who need backups.:cool: That being said, some can't hear a difference between a new one and an original one.

BTW, welcome to the club!:biggrin:

Thanks, it's a pleasure to be here, and thanks for the advice.

I've had some nice speakers and nice amps in the past, but these are probably the nicest I've had, even if they are 20+ years old. I've always had respect for the Polks I've heard at other's houses.

Now all I have to do is figure out how I'm gonna get 'em back to the East Coast when the job ends :eek:

JC

ben62670

falconcry72 wrote: »

... Take a decent quality 75ohm sub cable and remove the "petals" around the pin and you'll have yourself a fine SDA interconnect...

The cable inside a 75ohm coax is way to small to work well. Usually 22-18ga.

jcusick

ben62670 wrote: »

The cable inside a 75ohm coax is way to small to work well. Usually 22-18ga.

ben62670,

Not enough messages under my belt to send a private message... I'm interested. Length of cable? 18ga? Paypal, credit card, money order? Phone number to call and do the deal?

JC

falconcry72

ben62670 wrote: »

The cable inside a 75ohm coax is way to small to work well. Usually 22-18ga.

Good to know.

Do you know what the AWG of the original SDA cable is? What AWG do you recommend?

Thanks

ben62670

I think the stock cable is 18-20ga. I use 14ga silver plated copper with a teflon jacket.

jcusick

ben62670 wrote: »

I think the stock cable is 18-20ga. I use 14ga silver plated copper with a teflon jacket.

OK, the new speakers arrived from Polk last night and I popped them in today. The tweeters were an exact fit, and after talking with the tech rep who told me they do stock exact replacements, I ordered one WD-6511 which was also an exact fit.

For the IC cable, it looked like a 2-Pin DIN connector to me and I happened to have one 2-pin DIN that goes with some Amateur Radio equipment I have to test the fit... exact. So I picked up two DIN plugs from Newark. Not cheap and a bummer because I happen to have 3 or 4 extras sitting in a drawer 2750 miles away in a box... oh well.

Anyway, I stripped one side of some extra 16 ga speaker wire, built the cable, and Man, Oh Man... they sound great. I just blew through the Chieftains "The Long Black Veil" and Sinead O'Conner's The Foggy Dew sounded even more haunting than usual, which I didn't think was possible. Listening to Diz and Getz right now, clean as a whistle.

Thanks again for all the input. a little over $200.00 overall for this pair and I couldn't be happier with them.

Regards and Thanks Again,

JC

sda2mike

welcome to the club!

F1nut

ben62670 wrote: »

I think the stock cable is 18-20ga.

16 gauge.