Polk SDA Compacts

Kortex

I recently acquired a pair of SDA compacts. What is the club's opinion on these? Are they rare? I think they sound pretty nice, actually.

http://s459.photobucket.com/albums/qq319/kortexgt/Audio/Polk%20SDA%20Compacts/

Libertyc

They are some very nice speakers, actually one of my favorite of the SDA line. No not very rare...seems like the factory stands you have there are more rare than the speakers themselves. What are you driving them with?

Cayuga

They look nice and should sound even better. I've never seen them called compacts, what vintage are they? What are you going to power them with?

Kortex

Well it says SDA Compact on the back. What are they usually referred to as? Right now I'm powering them with a very small receiver. A Teac AG-H500 (45w rms). It's small and elegant. I bet they would sound much better on vintage solid state or tube. I have neither, however.

Tony M

Very nice purchase!!

You have a wonderful set of speakers and the stands to boot. Those are a great introduction to the SDA world. Yes they are called compacts.Compact reference system.

You need to check out the song list that plays exceptionally well on SDA's at the top of one of our sections here on the forum.

You don't have to get all vintage and stuff but you should upgrade that receiver whenever you get a chance.

Enjoy:biggrin:

halo71

kortex wrote: »

what are they usually referred to as?

sda crs

Kortex

What do you guys power them with? I will definitely check out the song list! I don't know what vintage they are...how can I tell?

analog97

I gave a pair of these CRS's to my daughter and her hubby for a wedding present, including a Rega P3 TT and Parasound HCA 800-II amp (100/150 @8/4 ohms) and Parasound 850 preamp. That amp I just loved and powers those CRS's very nicely. I am very impressed with those speakers and think they are rather underappreciated. My experience with them is an amp with a tad of beef and current capability is far preferred, but that advice generalizes to all SDA's IMO. Enjoy those great speakers!!

Kortex

So they sound good on SS and tube? I had a pioneer sx-1250 but recently sold it. It was too much power for anything I had. I am very quickly becoming a fan of polk speakers, though .

gdb

Kortex wrote: »

So they sound good on SS and tube? I had a pioneer sx-1250 but recently sold it. It was too much power for anything I had. I am very quickly becoming a fan of polk speakers, though .

Never too much power, too little does the greater amount of damage to speakers. Yup, it's true.

gdb

Parasound, Adcom or Carver seem to be the most favored SS amps on here. Lots of tube choices too but, I'm not that far down the rabbit's hole......yet anyway! :eek: You could power those CRSs with a 250 WPC amp all day long and do it much safer/better than with a receiver.

dorokusai

It's a wonderful pair of loudspeakers stock and you can modify them from mild to wild. I've owned both the SDA CRS and currently the SDA CRS+. I'd suggest new tweeters and spikes for your stands from www.myesound.com. I've run mine on anything from a 15wpc Tube Amplifier to 350wpc SS Amplifier....it's not that hard to drive.

There are a few members that have hot rodded theirs to a "never produced" SDA CRS 4.1TL model from schematics that are available on here. Check it out as it's a very interesting read and noteworthy effort regardless of whether you actually do it. I'd stick with a modest upgrade personally but the aforementioned "new" speaker sounds very good.

Kortex

gdb wrote: »

Never too much power, too little does the greater amount of damage to speakers. Yup, it's true.

I was using the pioneer receiver for a pair of speakers from the 60s that are extremely sensitive. Turning the volume knob very slightly on would produce deafening sound. That is how I deemed it to be too much power. IMHO, you don't need more power available that you can listen to. That's only my opinion, however...

dorokusai wrote: »

It's a wonderful pair of loudspeakers stock and you can modify them from mild to wild. I've owned both the SDA CRS and currently the SDA CRS+. I'd suggest new tweeters and spikes for your stands from www.myesound.com. I've run mine on anything from a 15wpc Tube Amplifier to 350wpc SS Amplifier....it's not that hard to drive.

There are a few members that have hot rodded theirs to a "never produced" SDA CRS 4.1TL model from schematics that are available on here. Check it out as it's a very interesting read and noteworthy effort regardless of whether you actually do it. I'd stick with a modest upgrade personally but the aforementioned "new" speaker sounds very good.

Great idea, the stands could definitely benefit from spikes. I have a few black spikes laying around, I believe... How did they sound on the 15wpc tube, out of curiosity? I'm not sure if I'm ready to mod them! Maybe down the road !

inspiredsports

The concept of more power than needed is called "headroom" and a strong case can be made that more headroom yields better control of the drivers at all listening levels. If you have enough headroom, you will never push the amp into a clipping situation and sound quality will remain pure and controlled up to the physical limits of the drivers.

Driving an amplifier into clipping may cause it to output power in excess of its published ratings where it both sounds bad and fries things downstream like tweeter and drivers.

If you are just a casual "low to rational listening level" listener, or use the system for background music, headroom may not be necessary.

Congrats on a great find!

Kortex

I see both sides. I would like to get a seperate preamp and amp. The Teac was never meant to be permanent. I'll start the hunt .

Joe08867

I have used amps from 10 watt tube to 325 watt SS and to be honest having some extra headroom is always a plus in my book. I am not a person that listens to music at concert level but I do like dynamics in my music and headroom in my amplification supports that. A 100 watt Onkyo Receiver will never sound like my old B&K 100 Watt Amplifier.

I also don't believe in a receiver for 2ch listening but you agree on this since you said the Teac isn't the best method of driving them so I will not tell you what you need.

nadams

Kortex wrote: »

So they sound good on SS and tube? I had a pioneer sx-1250 but recently sold it. It was too much power for anything I had. I am very quickly becoming a fan of polk speakers, though .

That SX-1250 would've sounded heavenly on the SDA's.

Check out something along the lines of an Adcom setup. I ran my big SDA's with a GFA-545, but found that a large Pioneer receiver (100wpc) sounded better.

Kortex

As far as I know, pioneer is not known for their preamps. That's not to say it would sound bad. I have an adcom GFA-555 II in its box, but it's for sale on ebizzle (BIN, so I guess I COULD stop it...). I also have an acurus act3 preamp but haven't decided whether or not to sell it. I got both the GFA-555 II and the acurus act3 from some guy in Chicago who moved into a house where someone had left a bunch of stereo equipment. The guy had thrown out most of it already (!!!!!). I got the leftovers. I'd hate to know what he had thrown out already... Anyway, I figured the GFA-555 II would be a tad much for these.

Joe08867

You would be really surprised what those CRS's can handle. Maybe not all that the GFA-555 has but a lot of it. That is a nice amp and leaves you plenty of headroom for dynamics in your music.

I would use the acurus and adcom as a pair and go from there.