What to do with my SDA-1Cs?

1996BlackBauer

I recently aquired a pair of SDA-1Cs from my local Salvation Army for $30 :cheesygrin: I was so excited, to finally find a pair that I can afford. I have a few questions and concerns. I hear Things about out of phase, using an amplifier with a common ground, and other things. So what do I actually need for these speakers to perform well?

F1nut

So what do I actually need for these speakers to perform well?

How much do you have in your checkbook?

nooshinjohn

What to do with my SDA-1Cs?

Sell them to me for 60 bucks and double your money!

george daniel

Make sure you have the the interconnect,, caps resistors,,rdo replacements,binding posts,dynamat drivers.

1996BlackBauer

Well maybe I left my question a little broad. What I really want to know is what do I need to hook them up, and play? Do I actually need a common grounded amp? If I do what would happen if I did not use one? I am not so much for mods. A lot of people told me to mod my Monitor 10's, but I love the sound of them the way they are. Is running them without the interconnect bad for the speakers? there seems to be a lot of cautions, but some seem odd and not real. I just would like the truth, so I don't mess up my speakers, or any of my amps.

Toolfan66

Can you post pics of the speakers without the grills and the outlet on the back for the interconnect cable?

1996BlackBauer

Absolutely, but it will not be until tomorrow when I have a break in school. didn't mean to confuse anybody.

F1nut

I just would like the truth

You can't handle the truth!

TNHNDYMAN

common ground amp is very important- please let us know what you are wanting to use AVR, amp, integrated ect... most AVR's are common ground and alot of amps as well but it's best to find out for sure before doing any damage.

1996BlackBauer

Well I finally got some pictures for everybody.

Here are the speakers when I got them, before testing, the first was right as I got them, and the second was after removing the damaged speakers.





The decals for the left and right channels.





and the interconnect plugs, and speaker terminals.



The first of 2 woofers that are not working.



The second one



Both together



The tweeter, this was a reference photo for hooking it back up, to show which color wire to put where.



and I believe there is something missing.



The front of the tweeter.




So what does everybody think?
I am wondering if there is refoam kits available for the woofers, or if the magnets have shifted. Also it seems that I have the rare interconnect cables, so what can I do about that?

cnh

Welcome to Club Polk!

Do you or do you not have the SDA interconnect that hooks the two speakers to each other?

Have you tried one set of drivers in one speaker and swapped them out with the other to see which ones are fully functional? If so, keep those and try to find substitutes for the others.

Magnets often shift on some of the mid-woofers making them lock up and non-functional.

Tweeter replacements are available from Polk direct (RD-0194). They are drop in, so if your tweets are shot, no problem there.

There is a huge resource on crossover renewal on this site. But first, just see if you can get ONE speaker to work with all its drivers. If you can do that. Then all you might need to do is find new drivers to replace what is non-functional. Although almost "everyone" here likes to tear into their SDAs. Redo the crossovers, soundproof better, add damping material to mid-bass drivers, and P-radiators, as well as improve the integrity of the driver cabinet seals, etc.

Polk drivers have rubber surrounds, unless "torn" by something or someone, there should be no need for a refoam?

Just get them "functional" first and you can address all that (I'm such a hot-**** DIY guy) later! They'll should sound passable even in stock form or else Matt Polk was a moron. Which he most definitely was not.

Good Luck!

cnh

naturallight

what you have is SDA 1C studio models. The interconnect cable is pin/blade type. Which you may be able to get from Polk..I'm not sure, but is NOT rare. from your pic it seems that another driver in not that good looking. It is probably an MW 6511.

But have you tested any of this stuff out??? Do you know what's broke or what is not??

I have the same speakers, but kind of hard to help, if i don't know what for sure is broke or not...or what you have tested.
The tweeters should all be just pulled and replaced with RDO stuff..but if you don't know what really works..not worth it at this point.

Saftgeek

Hang in there Mr 1996! A thousand dollars or so and you'll have a killer pair of speakers. I am resurrecting the exact same set. I only had one dead soldier in mine. Be very, very careful moving them around or you'll risk shifting other drivers. You should invest $5 in some JB Weld and get the good speakers locked in place. Take some time and read a lot to see how you need to plan your repairs. If your speakers are for sure not blown, don't throw them away. They can be fixed if you have the patience, tools, and stubbornness to stick with it.

Good luck and great find!

-Saftgeek

thsmith

Congrats and outstanding price even with bad woofers and tweets.

naturallight

Well a thousand bucks, may be a tad over the top..LOL But have you tried these speakers at all with any amp???do you know what works and what dose not??

halo71

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Sell them to me for 60 bucks and double your money!

THIS is an great idea! You live in Georgia by chance?

PolkieMan

I assume you don't have a lot to spend with school and such.
IC Cable, only the pin is active use 2 Rca plugs break off the outer rings and use a piece of 14 gage speaker wire.
Used 6510 are easy to come by not like 6511.
I would get those and a used tweeter, maybe here or ebay then sit back and develop and save for your next upgrade plan.
I am using a 100wpc onkyo receiver in 2 channel mode, I don't play them super loud.

1996BlackBauer

cnh wrote: »

Welcome to Club Polk!

Do you or do you not have the SDA interconnect that hooks the two speakers to each other?

Have you tried one set of drivers in one speaker and swapped them out with the other to see which ones are fully functional? If so, keep those and try to find substitutes for the others.

Magnets often shift on some of the mid-woofers making them lock up and non-functional.

Tweeter replacements are available from Polk direct (RD-0194). They are drop in, so if your tweets are shot, no problem there.

There is a huge resource on crossover renewal on this site. But first, just see if you can get ONE speaker to work with all its drivers. If you can do that. Then all you might need to do is find new drivers to replace what is non-functional. Although almost "everyone" here likes to tear into their SDAs. Redo the crossovers, soundproof better, add damping material to mid-bass drivers, and P-radiators, as well as improve the integrity of the driver cabinet seals, etc.

Polk drivers have rubber surrounds, unless "torn" by something or someone, there should be no need for a refoam?

Just get them "functional" first and you can address all that (I'm such a hot-**** DIY guy) later! They'll should sound passable even in stock form or else Matt Polk was a moron. Which he most definitely was not.

Good Luck!

cnh

I do not have the interconnects, but I have seen mods to make your own, and that seems very doable. I have tested one speaker so far. the one with the tweeter that needs to be replaced, all drivers with the exception of the tweeter seemed to work well, so that good news, the other I did not hook up for fear of damage to something with 2 seized woofers, so I have yet to plug it in yet. I asked about "refoams" , but what I meant to say is recone kits, that is if the voice coil has been burnt up. that way I can keep the same driver, and just replace all the "soft Parts". as for mods, those won't be for a while, I just want them to play first, then mods later.

naturallight wrote: »

what you have is SDA 1C studio models. The interconnect cable is pin/blade type. Which you may be able to get from Polk..I'm not sure, but is NOT rare. from your pic it seems that another driver in not that good looking. It is probably an MW 6511.

But have you tested any of this stuff out??? Do you know what's broke or what is not??

I have the same speakers, but kind of hard to help, if i don't know what for sure is broke or not...or what you have tested.
The tweeters should all be just pulled and replaced with RDO stuff..but if you don't know what really works..not worth it at this point.

I am going to continue testing soon. That way I know exactly what I have to deal with.

Saftgeek wrote: »

Hang in there Mr 1996! A thousand dollars or so and you'll have a killer pair of speakers. I am resurrecting the exact same set. I only had one dead soldier in mine. Be very, very careful moving them around or you'll risk shifting other drivers. You should invest $5 in some JB Weld and get the good speakers locked in place. Take some time and read a lot to see how you need to plan your repairs. If your speakers are for sure not blown, don't throw them away. They can be fixed if you have the patience, tools, and stubbornness to stick with it.

Good luck and great find!

-Saftgeek

:eek: $1000 is worth more then half my truck!!! I guess I won't get these going as soon as I want, but that's OK, I just want to hear them. I am already stocked with JB Weld, that and duct tape are my main "repairs" on most things.

thsmith wrote: »

Congrats and outstanding price even with bad woofers and tweets.

thank you. looks like it will only take time and money now, I have some time, and no money, so we'll see how it goes.

naturallight wrote: »

Well a thousand bucks, may be a tad over the top..LOL But have you tried these speakers at all with any amp???do you know what works and what dose not??

one works , with the exception of the tweeter, I have yet to try the other.

PolkieMan wrote: »

I assume you don't have a lot to spend with school and such.
IC Cable, only the pin is active use 2 Rca plugs break off the outer rings and use a piece of 14 gage speaker wire.
Used 6510 are easy to come by not like 6511.
I would get those and a used tweeter, maybe here or ebay then sit back and develop and save for your next upgrade plan.
I am using a 100wpc onkyo receiver in 2 channel mode, I don't play them super loud.

Good to hear. I was hoping I could find a budget way to make these things shine. I just don't understand what is suppose to happen with a non common ground amp. anybody know?

I now know what the interconnect cable is for, so I will for sure make one, and or buy one. We'll see what my finances allow.

thanks everybody, this is a great forum. this to me is like how AudioKarma was when I first got into speaker and stereos period.

Saftgeek

Mr. 1996 - you can use a battery to check your drivers. Take a 9 volt battery with wires attached to the terminals. You can have somebody touch the neg/pos terminals on the back of the speakers... The speakers should move in/out accordingly. You will also hear the tweeters crackle. Whatever you do, don't leave the battery hooked up. Just touch the leads. It may startle you at first, but it won't hurt the speakers. If you do some searching on here you can find the resistance chart and see what impedence the voice coils should be. If the driver is frozen w/ a good voice coil, the resistance should be fine. Then all you have to do is re-align the magnet.

I know it won't cost you 1k, but it sure seems like it. Your purchase price will most definitely help you out. Whatever you do, don't get discouraged and don't let someone talk you into parting these out. I promise you the 1cs will be awesome when you get them done. Like I said, keep reading and listen to what the old-timers on here recommend. They are a great bunch with more knowlege than you can shake a stick at.

Good luck!

-Saftgeek

PolkieMan

If you like, I would use a 1.5v AA .
The Mw-65XX I test direct turned down **real low***same with tweeters but i mean **REAL** low!
But it's safer to use a meter.
If you can get to a Harbor Freight they have a cheap like $5 multimeter you can check the ohm, if it's nothing it's history.
The interconnect wire is the main reason for the SDA speakers. They will not work properly without it. Just to test you don't need to buy anything when I bought mine I just used a 6' piece of wire 1/2" bare each end and balled up a bit.

SDA1C

If you do NOT use the interconnect cable a NON common ground amp will not do any damage. It is when you connect the SDA cable that things get dicey in the crossovers and require the ground to be common.

AGAIN! ONLY if you do NOT use SDA cable you can use a non common amp. They will not sound exactly right but honestly if you have not heard SDA you won't know what you are missing anyway no sweat off 'em there right.

1996BlackBauer

Saftgeek wrote: »

Mr. 1996 - you can use a battery to check your drivers. Take a 9 volt battery with wires attached to the terminals. You can have somebody touch the neg/pos terminals on the back of the speakers... The speakers should move in/out accordingly. You will also hear the tweeters crackle. Whatever you do, don't leave the battery hooked up. Just touch the leads. It may startle you at first, but it won't hurt the speakers. If you do some searching on here you can find the resistance chart and see what impedence the voice coils should be. If the driver is frozen w/ a good voice coil, the resistance should be fine. Then all you have to do is re-align the magnet.

I know it won't cost you 1k, but it sure seems like it. Your purchase price will most definitely help you out. Whatever you do, don't get discouraged and don't let someone talk you into parting these out. I promise you the 1cs will be awesome when you get them done. Like I said, keep reading and listen to what the old-timers on here recommend. They are a great bunch with more knowlege than you can shake a stick at.

Good luck!

-Saftgeek

This weekend, most likely Sunday I will be testing everything. that is when I get out early from work. I already planned on testing the all the speakers with a DMM. I have a BluePoint one that I had to get for my Automotive classes, that should be up for the job. I am glad to hear there is a bunch of people to help me out, and that I won't have to spend my life saving on these speakers. One day I will have them playing perfectly, but for now like I mentioned above I just to to hear them both play, then go on to buying a proper amp, and getting the SDA sound.

PolkieMan wrote: »

If you like, I would use a 1.5v AA .
The Mw-65XX I test direct turned down **real low***same with tweeters but i mean **REAL** low!
But it's safer to use a meter.
If you can get to a Harbor Freight they have a cheap like $5 multimeter you can check the ohm, if it's nothing it's history.
The interconnect wire is the main reason for the SDA speakers. They will not work properly without it. Just to test you don't need to buy anything when I bought mine I just used a 6' piece of wire 1/2" bare each end and balled up a bit.

I like the budget way of doing that, I hear that the blade part is just so that the plug stays in better, but it also seems that some automotive pin connectors seem to be that size, so I will do some research, but I also have somebody contacting me with one for sale, we will see how much that will run me before I make my own. I also already have a BluePoint Meter, so that should be good for testing, I love the thing and have had it for a while.

SDA1C wrote: »

If you do NOT use the interconnect cable a NON common ground amp will not do any damage. It is when you connect the SDA cable that things get dicey in the crossovers and require the ground to be common.

AGAIN! ONLY if you do NOT use SDA cable you can use a non common amp. They will not sound exactly right but honestly if you have not heard SDA you won't know what you are missing anyway no sweat off 'em there right.

YAY! :cheesygrin: good to hear, so that means that I won't have to buy another amp for quite a while. those darn things get pricey. I also have not ever heard the SDA sound yet, so it will not affect me. But I cannot wait until I do.

nspindel

I have an original pin/blade SDA cable I can sell you if you're interested. Not trying to be solicitous on your thread, but if I post it in the for-sale forum you won't be able to see it because you don't have 100 post counts. I believe the going rate is $50, if I'm wrong on that someone please correct me.

1996BlackBauer

nspindel wrote: »

I have an original pin/blade SDA cable I can sell you if you're interested. Not trying to be solicitous on your thread, but if I post it in the for-sale forum you won't be able to see it because you don't have 100 post counts. I believe the going rate is $50, if I'm wrong on that someone please correct me.

I may be interested, but I may be doing a mod with the RCA cable, so I will have to decide on what I am doing first.