Both "Right Side" SDA 2a's IC Questions

WGDB

I recently bought some SDA 2a's for real cheap. Both are right side. How do I set up one as a left side so I can take advantage of the interconnect dimensional array.

Respectfully speaking - I have been advised by On3s&Z3r0s, I need second opinions from others. His recommendation is: "You won't need to change the position of the MW's, but you will need to remove them from one speaker (which will become your left speaker) so that you can swap the hookups. You'll probably need to remove the large passive radiator too so you can access the crossover.

When you remove the MW's, make sure you pay attention to which color of wire is attached to which terminal on the MW. The positive terminal will be marked with a red dot. In the 2B's one set of hookups is black/white and the other set is blue/green. I don't know if they did that in the 2A's. In any event, write down or take a picture of how the MW's are connected. Then, swap the sets of wires. You might not want to hook them up and replace them right away because there are more changes to make.

The other change is from the IC socket (called a Jones socket made by Cinch, I think) to the crossover board. If you look at the schematic, you'll see that in the right speaker a blue/white wire combination runs from the socket to the crossover. If you had a left speaker, the wires should be black and white. The important bit is that the positions of the wires are reversed in the other speaker. So, I believe you'll have to either reverse the solder connections on the socket itself, or reverse the connections on the crossover board.

I've removed and re-soldered the connections on the IC sockets on the original SDA 2's. It's not too difficult, but there wasn't a lot of slack in the wires, so could be tricky for that reason.

When you've reversed the wires from the IC socket and the hookups to the MW terminals have been swapped and reinstalled, I think you're good to build a cable. The tricky part will be sourcing the Jones plug. They used to be available from Allied Electric, but not sure if they are any more.

Again, it might be good to wait for a second opinion on whether this is enough or the best way to go about it. I'm pretty confident that it's not as simple as just swapping the hookups to the MWs. Doing that and making a straight-through cable could damage the speakers or your amps."

In addition I will need to make the IC and have ordered the Jones plugs from Mouser. What type of cable do I need?

One more question, Polk still sells SL2000 tweeters, I'd like to upgrade. What's the best replacement tweeter and where can I buy them?

Thanks in Advance

Glen

fbm211

Tweeters ---RDO-194.These are the drop in replacement.
Do the tl upgrade and you could use the RDO-198s.You will need to mod the xovers though.Im not sure if you have the model that could be modded to the tl though.
You could also get a set of gimpods new xover boards and just build a set of newer and much better crosovers.
Im not sure about all that other stuff although I can say that you will need to move the MWs in one speaker so that the dim drivers are on the outer sides of each speaker.Or maybe the 2As didnt use different stereo/dim drivers.

On3s&Z3r0s

Hey again, thanks for posting the pics... it's cool to see inside the 2A's. I realize a second opinion is no good when it comes from the same person so I'll just add a quick addendum to what I said earlier. To make your left speaker, the obvious first step is to move the blue/green leads to the MW driver on the left side of the cabinet and the black/white leads to the MW on the right side.

Then, it looks like you're in luck with the leads from the IC socket... no soldering necessary! (This is the part where a second opinion would help.) Just swap the unplug and swap the blue and white wires' small faston connectors on that second crossover board.

You could use some black and white electrical tape or some other way of color coding the interconnect wires to correspond to the schematic. After you swap them, the white wire in your speaker corresponds to the black wire in the schematic, and the blue wire corresponds to white in the schematic.

Regarding the homemade IC, any long run of speaker cable would do. (I think the stock ones were like 20 feet.) I think you should be good to go with 14 guage. Just be sure to wire it straight through, wide blade to wide, narrow to narrow.

Regarding the upgrades, as fbm211 says the RD0-194 are the tweeters to get from Polk customer service. Members on this forum get a discount on replacement parts, so mention you heard about it here if they don't ask. Should be about $100 for the two tweeters.

Many guys also upgrade their crossovers with new capacitors and resistors. But you might have a hard time finding an appropriate replacement for the two 130uF caps. Since you don't have all the correct MW drivers to make 2B TL's out of them I personally wouldn't go down that path.

F1nut

When you've reversed the wires from the IC socket and the hookups to the MW terminals have been swapped and reinstalled, I think you're good to build a cable.

Agreed.


To the OP, after you get things swapped around, permanently mark the left speaker as such on the back.

gimpod

WDBG On3s&Z3r0s is spot on in his advice on how to convert a right SDA 2A to a Left SDA 2A also fbm211 is correct on the RDO-194 tweeter there about $48.00 each with free shipping for CP members. Also a good and important point by F1nut.

Here are some pdfs that should help with this endeavor. Please ignore the fact that there not to scale. Hope this helps. BTW you can't use my boards on these.

WGDB

Wow - Thanks - I'm ready to wake these girls up with top end advice from all of you. The Mouser folks delivered the IC connectors today. Once again thanks to On3s&Z3r0s for the comprehensive description and F1nut and gimpod for placing your blessing on this mod. WAF (commander) is very high at this point, mostly because these SDA's sound 5 times better than the Monitor 60's so my guess is RDO 94's are a go as well. And re-marking the Left as Left is a must along with the wiring internals. Thinking I will place 60's in the surround back and use the 40's for the garage gear.

Thanks Again

Glen

Toolfan66

Edit: Never mind I just reread the whole post, the guys above have you on the right track!!! To early in the morning to be posting brfore a cup of coffee...

WGDB

!!!Okay, spent the last few hours with my two "Right Side SDA 2A's" and converted one to a left, built an IC based on yall's educated advice and On3s&Z3r0s thread above. In addition I lined the speaker openings with more-tight. They sound excellent and I'm pretty stoked at the difference in spatial separation in the middle of the sound field. I'm still tweaking my PIO SC35 on a routine basis to bring out the best sound stage. Appreciate all of you for your input..... SDA's rock! and have changed everything....

On3s&Z3r0s

Congrats on a successful mod. I love that feeling of having added a little DIY sauce to a CL score and made something great out of it. Glad you're enjoying them!