SDA SRS2 upgrade thread, starting with blade blade version

evhudsons

Just picked up a Polk Audio SDA SRS2! I had to drive up to Fort Lauderdale to get it. The seller was a really nice guy, his roommate a smoking hot blond in these super tiny "pink" lettered shorts, and a nice rack. It was a nice sight to see after a few hours drive, and reminded me of Rick's posts. I will post my pics of the transformations here on this thread. I wish I had done it with my CRS+ but didn't. I plan on a full upgrade, and possibly changing the wood too. If I do, I plan on cherry. I have a friend in PA that does woodwork and could send some down for me. I would most likely have a cabinet worker then cut it for me to make sure the measurements were perfect. I noticed that on the very bottom of one speaker it looks as if the wood was starting to separate. It seems still solid but there may have been some water damage from office workers shampooing the carpet where the speakers sat over the years. The insides are in perfect condition.
The speakers were in good shape, with the normal dings here and there. The grill cover cloth has aged but wasn?t too shabby. I will replace those soon. Thanks to VR3's sticky list of upgrades I found the link to figure out the mystery of getting the side panel off. DarqueKnight has a fantastic thread on the removal. He didn't replace the side cloth but I am going to replace all the speaker grill cloth.
I was able to get the SRS2's in the house fairly easily using a dolly going up 4 steps. They are pretty big, making the 1c's look fairly small. I hooked up my extra Parasound hca 1500 amp to them, and fired it up after making my speaker location and alignment fairly straight using a laser. Having SDA perfection desires, I invested in a laser a while back and have used it a lot for the speakers and for other projects. It's pretty handy. I read somewhere that you can also use a string to do the same thing.
I thought the tweeters would have been somewhat subdued because of the age in the same way my CRS+ had become over the years. I was amazed at what came out, really fantastic music, huge, huge, expansive soundstage. Absolutely wonderful in every regard blowing away my CRS+ even modded, and the 1C's with upgraded crossovers.
I still plan to upgrade these, but now I know I can take my time. I've read that some people really treasure the original sl2000's. I still think the rdo194 is a massive upgrade, but I can see now why some folks would keep the stock tweeters. I have one pair on order now, and will give them to my friend later once I make the hopeful transition to the rdo198's. One of the jacks for the blade blade sda cord is broken but still works but the cord is slightly loose set inside. I upgraded the CRS+ jack, but I don't know how yet to do the blade blade version.
The press test was perfect. I am still going to mortite or armecell the drivers though. I took my brass spikes from Meniscus and put them on. The previous owner had covered the holes with sticky pads. The audible change was instantaneous. It looks good too. In looking at the wood, the top and bottom pieces appear to be solid, but the tabs on the side might be veneered but I am not certain. Is it safe to sand the wood? And does anyone know what wood this is? The color is off in the pictures, it's more of a darker color, and not reddish. The picture colors are reflections from the living room wood. I've read somewhere that it could be oak, or could be black walnut. Are there any recommendations on what I can do to the wood now to make it look a bit better?
Everything is stock from day one. The drivers and passive appear to be in perfect condition. Supposedly the speakers were bought new by this guy's friend and sat in his office only being used a few times a year, then lost interest in the hifi, and got smaller home theater style speakers and gave the Polks to him as payment for painting. The speakers are way too small for his little room. They are pretty big even for my room, but I am more than happy with them. For $350 and a roundtrip tour to Fort Lauderdale it was a steal in my book.
My big question I think I have the answer for but not the definitive answer: Can these by upgraded to the tl for use of the rdo198's? If so I will get Trey to do that for me.
I also plan on upgrading the inductors, big and small. These are awesome speakers. They have about the same distance between the drivers as my crs+, but the same number of drivers as the 1C's, but a lot, lot more space in the cabinets for super bass.
In my pictures I know that I don't have them set up for optimum SDA. That is because of my theater screen. But the SDA is still there in full force and sounds great. My couch is farther back than it appears, and we have tons of soft cloth covers, pillows, etc to help diffuse the sound so we don't have sound waves bouncing all over the place. It's far from perfect but Key West is space premium, I have to share the living room as theater and as stereo man cave. It's a happy compromise, but I have to tweak as best as I can for the best sound I can.
My dog was not helping with the alignment.
All in all I am in Awe of these incredible speakers.

feel free to post other SRS

upgrades, I won't consider it hijacking just sharing.

EndersShadow

For 350 you robbed him lol. Congrats on the score!

evhudsons

sda2mike

i was on the fence with those...congrats! where's the roomate pics?

Drenis

Nice score man!

In for pics of roomate too.

TNHNDYMAN

Congrats evh- hope you really enjoy them.

Polkie2009

Welcome to the SDA SRS2 club man, great buy IMHO! The spikes make a nice upgrade.:cool:

VR3

Congrats!

Pics of the blonde!

I am also glad to hear my list is helping folks! :-D

evhudsons

Thanks everyone, and I'll try working on the blond pics! I befriended the seller who may come down and I already convinced the blond to come down. I'll keep you posted.

My wife who normally doesn't like the music too loud was pumping to some old school rock and funk, falling in love with the speakers and gave me blessings to do what I need to do. She then threw not only the tweeters into protection mode but the amp too ha ha. I heard the distortion and was just waiting for it to happen. Now I have all green lights on upgrading the amp. Any suggestions? The parasound I have is plenty to drive for most of my volume tastes, but it performances so well for my crs+ that I want to have the proper amp power and musicality. I love the parasound, but it's a big jump in price to the higher wattages. I saw some Carver amps that is in budget, but I read that they are more pro amps than home stereo. I also read that there are some that are good for home use. So I would love some good used amp suggestions.

-Everett

drumminman

Nice score - congrats! Nice room, too.

Schurkey

evhudsons wrote: »

My big question I think I have the answer for but not the definitive answer: Can these by upgraded to the tl for use of the rdo198's?

YES. This was covered by member inspiredsports in a huge/long multipage thread. The first half of the thread is mostly unimportant, the second half is VERY INTERESTING. Read to the end, most everything is covered except inductors.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?74946-SDA-SRS-2-Crossover-Parts-list&highlight=Crossover+parts+list

evhudsons wrote: »

I also plan on upgrading the inductors, big and small. These are awesome speakers.

I've purchased--but not installed--two replacement inductors for the SDA circuit from ERSE Audio. They said I'd have to take off about five windings to get to the correct inductance for my 1Bs--identical electrically to your SRS 2 Blade/Blade crossovers except for one resistor per speaker; and it's the resistor that you probably won't be returning to stock value.

http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/SuperQCoils16Gauge/ESQ55-16-10000

The smaller inductors I was warned against messing with. Whether that's still the opinion of the folks here is debatable. "I" haven't touched them. Keep in mind that reducing the DC resistance by going to the replacement "large" inductors will make life harder on your amplifier due to reduced resistance/impedance of the speaker. You will want an amp stable to ~2 ohm loads or less. I'm using an Aragon 8008BB which works wonderfully but requires a jumper wire to connect the negative terminals to provide common ground. The Aragon will have 20 ohms resistance between the channels otherwise--"Partial-non-common ground" or "Semi-common-ground" depending on whether you see the glass as half-empty or half-full. At any rate, add the jumper and you'd be fine. A used Aragon amp can be had at a very advantageous price. NEW Aragon amps are either in production or will be soon.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?125232-Another-inductor-thread-The-Little-Guys

helipilotdoug

Congrats on the SRS2 speakers! I have them, and the first time I listened to them was as impressed as you with the performance of these wonderful speakers. However, once the rebuild was done, using the thread Shurkey mentioned,
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?74946-SDA-SRS-2-Crossover-Parts-list&highlight=Crossover+parts+list
What a great improvement! The soundstage is un-believable! Some recordings seem to be almost 180 degree soundstage, like you are sitting front row center. Very clean highs, and very balanced mids, with lows so good no sub is needed, unless i want the LFE channel for movies. I highly recommend this upgrade. Scroll down to the last post in his thread to see what I did to mine. http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?111224-And-so-it-begins-SRS2-TL-upgrade-rebuild
IMHO these SRS 2.1tl's are the best set of speakers I've ever heard.
Be careful with the distortion you mentioned! don't want to fubar anything! Power for mine comes from a Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature, which puts out 405 watts per channel, and have never been able to turn it up so much things start to distort. A Carver amp I'd recommend for the SRS2's is the TFM-45. At 375 wpc into 8 ohms, it should be plenty to power the SRS2's with no problem, and is one of the best sounding Carvers.
Enjoy

Mike Reeter

Nice score, I broke my SDA cherry on the same model. Loved the SRS 2's, wish I still had them...Is the lady in the window your S.O.??? or the hot blonde of the former owner???

Dawgfish

Congrats on the score from another happy SRS 2 owner. I'm glad to hear your finding them to be as awesome as I find them! I have the pin/blade version. The only mods I've done so far is an upgraded SDA cable, Dynamatting, and Armaflexing the MWs and PRs. I just ordered some spikes, sonic barrier, hurricane nuts, and hardware from PE. I also ordered a set of jumpers from JW Audio. The pin/blade versions of the SRS 2's have dual binding posts.

I heard from several folks that the SL-2000s didn't sound that bad with the SRS 2s and having been listening to them for over a month, I have to agree with them. I'm running a tube pre and amp, and the SL-2000s sound great with this set-up. I may upgrade to the RD0-194s eventually, but I'm in no hurry. I think I'm going to upgrade the cross-overs and inductors next. I may not ever replace the Sl-2000s as I'm really digging their sound with my setup. If I were running solid state gear my opionion on them may be different however.

I really think the SRS 2s are the perfect SDA for my application. I too had a set of modded SDA-1Cs and I find the SRS 2s to be superior in every way. I just don't have the room for the big boys. These have a lot of the sda effect, power handling, and bass impact of the big boys, while still being able to used effectively in a medium to medium-large size room. I think their perfect! I'm looking forward to comparing notes and mods with you over these badboys! Congrats!

Mr. Bubbles

Congrats on the acquisition. I tried to figure out how to get down there to get them reasonably but the trip was just too far. Congrats again.

Please Please Please (actually anyone with this model speaker) when you open them up send me some detailed pics and measurements for the cabinets. PM me and I'll get you my personal e-mail to make it easier. This model is so hard to find I plan to build a pair from some 1C's and proper passives along with building the cabinets from scratch. but to do so I need a lot of pics and measurements to get them as close to original as possible. Thanks in advance for any help from anyone on this.

headrott

Schurkey wrote: »

YES. This was covered by member inspiredsports in a huge/long multipage thread. The first half of the thread is mostly unimportant, the second half is VERY INTERESTING. Read to the end, most everything is covered except inductors.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?74946-SDA-SRS-2-Crossover-Parts-list&highlight=Crossover+parts+list


I've purchased--but not installed--two replacement inductors for the SDA circuit from ERSE Audio. They said I'd have to take off about five windings to get to the correct inductance for my 1Bs--identical electrically to your SRS 2 Blade/Blade crossovers except for one resistor per speaker; and it's the resistor that you probably won't be returning to stock value.

http://www.erseaudio.com/Products/SuperQCoils16Gauge/ESQ55-16-10000

The smaller inductors I was warned against messing with. Whether that's still the opinion of the folks here is debatable. "I" haven't touched them. Keep in mind that reducing the DC resistance by going to the replacement "large" inductors will make life harder on your amplifier due to reduced resistance/impedance of the speaker. You will want an amp stable to ~2 ohm loads or less. I'm using an Aragon 8008BB which works wonderfully but requires a jumper wire to connect the negative terminals to provide common ground. The Aragon will have 20 ohms resistance between the channels otherwise--"Partial-non-common ground" or "Semi-common-ground" depending on whether you see the glass as half-empty or half-full. At any rate, add the jumper and you'd be fine. A used Aragon amp can be had at a very advantageous price. NEW Aragon amps are either in production or will be soon.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?125232-Another-inductor-thread-The-Little-Guys

Nice advice on the Aragon 8008bb amp. I think it will mate well with the SRS2's (once you install the RD0-194's and eventually RD0-198's). IMO, forget the strap and simply use the AI-1 when you end up getting your 1000VA transformer(s) from A-L. I have strapped my Aragon 8008bb and the AI-1 makes a night and day difference in stereo separation, audio quality and overall "presence". Plus, the Aragon 8008bb puts out A LOT of pure, clean power. I can play my 2.3TL's at 100+ dB's with absolutley no distortion and phenominal quality. Keep us posted.

EDIT: Oooops, forgot you have the blade/blade version of the SRS-2's so the AI-1 I don't think will work.

Schurkey

headrott wrote: »

EDIT: Oooops, forgot you have the blade/blade version of the SRS-2's so the AI-1 I don't think will work.

For all practical purposes, the AI-1 WILL NOT work on the SDA-SRS-2 Blade/Blade; or the nearly-identical (electrically) SDA 1B.

It's not impossible to rewire them to accept an AI-1, but the sound quality is compromised--so there's no point to the modification. (BTDT)

evhudsons

Thanks again for all the links and advice and kudos to these incredible speakers. I have now added one pair of rdo194 tweeters. As I knew it would, the sound initially was not that great, but even by the end of the next day the rapid break in had begun to improve the sound. I'm now listening in awe at these beautiful beasts! My wife loves the look of the wood, especially after I cleaned them up. I first used lemon oil and 0000 size steel wool for a couple of weeks to help with the drying, then used Tung oil in two coats, and now they look natural but lustrous. I showed my wife the various wood upgrade threads such as DarqueKnights, but after cleaning these up we both agree that we actually like the look of the black walnut. So for now I will leave at it is, but I may upgrade to cherry if I do change them.

I am attaching pictures here of the crossover components so Trey can have a good look at them.

Mr. Bubbles, I will get dimensions when I take these apart further, it's just that I've been so busy working and traveling. PM me what the exact dimensions you are looking for in addition to the basic dimensions.

I see that I can't do the aI-1, but that is fine. I would rather have the rdo198 tl upgrade. I did order a used Carver m1.5t amp which is in my budget and gets 500 or so watts per channel in four ohms. That should be fine for my listening anyway. If I needed it louder, I'd get a PA system. I just don't want to distort at moderately loud volumes.

I want to upgrade the blade/blade interconnect, but it is not so straighforward as the pin/blade. The Blade/blade is actually a small blade/larger blade interconnect, and on one speaker the small blade is on top, the other it is opposite, on the bottom. I only noticed this after I tried to run one wire from top to top, the other wire bottom to bottom. Luckily the amp just turned itself off rather than blowing up or melting my speakers. Before I do any other experimenting I will wait for more advice!

evhudsons

Here's a quick picture of my wood cleaning job:

evhudsons

oops, let me try that again:

Tony M

Beautiful Caps. Walnut is a great wood to use for this I think.

helipilotdoug

All I can say is WoW!! Beautiful job on the wood!

drumminman

Wow, that wood looks great. Is it original or did someone have custom end caps made?

evhudsons

thanks! It was much easier than I thought. I was patient in doing just a little at a time until I got the look right before I put on the Tung oil, and even then I took my time and only reapplied when needed. I didn't use any stain or varnish other than what might be in the tung oil. These are original, they are four peices of solid wood pressed together to resemble one piece. I made a clipboard in shop with this same technique and it was very durable. The bottom caps have a bit of a misalignment which Darqueknight noted in one of his threads. He noticed on his srs that the measurement was a hair off. For that reason if I do change the wood I will have a local shop cut and install so that they can get it right on the money. As they turned out I don't feel the need to change, plus it is stock vintage and will only get nicer as it ages. I think I read in an old post F1 saying that black walnut is a man's wood. I would agree. Oak is too light and typical on furniture, so I see why that would be changed, but these are regal.

Soon I will change out the screen material, but I'm putting my money into the sound for now. I will have to pry off the side strips which may be a challenge. There are several threads on this. One person put holes and hardware so that his pulls off just like the front grills.

On my CRS+ speakers, I one day will change the veneer. Nspindle is doing that now and has a nice CRS+ thread started.

Schurkey

evhudsons wrote: »

I am attaching pictures here of the crossover components so Trey can have a good look at them.

Brings back memories. The crossover boards for the SDA 1B is essentially identical except for the value of a single resistor per high-frequency board.

One thing I am curious about: One of your SDA capacitors has no plastic jacket--just the bare metal can, naked for God and everyone to see. Is there any stamped/engraved identification on that capacitor? Does the other speaker have a similar nude cap?



The naked cap is paired with a second cap, the combined capacitance should be 185uF. I'd expect 130uF and 55uF caps in those positions. I'm told that ideally, the 185uF would either be a single cap, or a pair of caps equally split, rather than one larger, one smaller. I used a pair of 3% tolerance 91uF caps on my 1Bs, figuring that was close enough to the wide-tolerance "185uF" used originally.



Nice wood. I suspect I could sand and steel-wool and oil the vinyl woodgrain of my 1Bs, and NOT achieve similar results.

nspindel

evh, can you explain a bit more about how you're using that Bosch laser level to align your speakers? How do you know when you have an angle that is perpendicular to the wall behind the speaker?

nspindel

Nice woodwork btw!

evhudsons

Thanks again!

I just used a right angle ruler to align the laser. It's not perfect, but as about perfect as I can. The house itself was not perfectly aligned or level, as I find out from time to time. It's old, and on an island.

I will take more pictures as requested by Trey of the crossover, and I'll get better ones of that capacitor. I noticed under the bare silver one there is foam cushioning such as you would have around the windows and such. I thought it odd, and for a second wondered if it was post production. I'm going to open up the right speaker too, as these pics were only of the left speaker.

Schurkey

evhudsons wrote: »

I noticed under the bare silver one there is foam cushioning such as you would have around the windows and such. I thought it odd, and for a second wondered if it was post production.

Nope. That's how Polk made 'em.

nspindel

And there I was thinking something scientific was going on!

evhudsons

Got Larry's legendary rings in! when I get back from drinking to excess with Thomas Arvid in Napa Valley ill put them together and post more pictures. They so supurb now, and will get even better.