First pair of SDA's!!!

drumminman

Congrats on a nice score and a dedicated room! As someone above said, I'd skip vintage equipment for front end/power and go for a more modern design. The SDA's respond nicely to clean power, and lots of it.

NJPOLKER

The Dells how nice!! I loved travelling from the Dells west and always stopped in Baraboo. The house on the rock is really kind of neat too!
Enjoy your new speakers for awhile and remember to always have FUN. I honestly do not believe you can beat the performance vs dollar with 2a's 2b's
You are doing well!!

hochpt21 wrote: »

Thanks for the tip. Opened them up a bit. A little less congestion.

Wisconsin Dells, we really like it here.

hochpt21

NJPOLKER wrote: »

The Dells how nice!! I loved travelling from the Dells west and always stopped in Baraboo. The house on the rock is really kind of neat too!
Enjoy your new speakers for awhile and remember to always have FUN. I honestly do not believe you can beat the performance vs dollar with 2a's 2b's
You are doing well!!

Went to high school in Baraboo, I really do like the area.

By the end of the evening yesterday, I had them about 4" from the back wall with no toe in, and about 2' from each side wall. The sound was the "biggest" of all the options I tried with the most bass, but a hair boomy.

Looking forward to doing a lot of tweaking on these things.

F1nut

Try 5 to 6 inches from the back wall moving them a 1/2 inch at a time. I also agree with the others, forget vintage get some newer higher end gear.

hochpt21

F1nut wrote: »

Try 5 to 6 inches from the back wall moving them a 1/2 inch at a time. I also agree with the others, forget vintage get some newer higher end gear.

Good tip. I was moving them about 2-4 inches at a time.

dromunds

The hair boomy should go away at 5-6 inches from the wall.

dts MA 7.1

I too was caught up in reading about sda 1a's so much so i bought a pair for $600 two years ago, have them connected to a b&k

pre-amp & amp, of course my wife said "cant you buy something new for that price"?. NO , will not give them up.

nooshinjohn

There are not too many 30 year old speakers that have held their value and owner devotion as the SDA's have done.

hochpt21

Work has been a freak show the last week, but I am off tomorrow and plan to spend as much time with these as possible. Gonna finish a few acoustic panels as well.

Any specific speaker cable that tends to match sda's better than others? I'm hoping for under $75 on those.

vintagchris

Congratts on those sda speakers, enjoy that one on one time with them today, I work days and my wife works the night shift three evenings a week, I really enjoy those one on one times when i have the house to myself and can kick back and relax to some good music, those times are pricelss and a great stress reliever, enjoy those fine speakers.

Schurkey

hochpt21 wrote: »

Any specific speaker cable that tends to match sda's better than others?

SDA 2A? I'm thinking 4-ohm nominal impedance. Like ANY lower-impedance speaker, they'll demand additional current compared to "typical" 8-ohm speakers. Therefore, speaker cable resistance/wire gauge is "twice" as critical as with 8-ohm speakers. Depending on length of cable, you'll want 12- or 10-guage speaker cable. 10 gauge is fairly enormous.

hochpt21 wrote: »

I'm hoping for under $75 on those.

I'm not a "cable guy", and I don't believe in voodoo cable properties. Before Bryston started selling their own line of expensive "boutique" speaker cables, their engineer was recommending a particular type of coax cable. Depending on the brand of cable you buy, the center conductor is either 13 gauge, 11 gauge, or even bigger--but make sure it's COPPER wire, not copper-plated aluminum or steel.. You're looking for RG8U (the full-size RG8) and NOT RG8X which is a down-rated version. You'll have to strip the ends, and use your choice of speaker-cable pins or spade lugs or banana jacks to connect to amp and speaker.

Examples: Carol C1180, Belden 9913. The Carol is 9.5 guage, double-shielded. I expect the Belden is similar if not identical.

I learned about the coax cable about two decades after buying plain ol' ordinary 12-gauge Monster Cable.

Either one should run something like a dollar or two per foot if you search around.

drumminman

IME very good DIY cables can be made using Belden 1585 cat 5, braided per the Chris Ven Haus recipe. these are time consuming and you have to use the version with teflon (PTFE) insulation on the wires inside the outer jacket or they won't deliver the sound quality you deserve after all that work! The recipe can be found here:

http://www.venhaus1.com/diycatfivecables.html


There are also recipes for making ribbon cables using unwound copper foil conductors. Do an internet search - there are several different recipes.

leftwinger57

Drumminman,I use CAT-5 for my minor bdrm runs to the JBL bookies. I have a full box of the stuff from my alarm installing days and always did the solids and stripes deal to seperate the pairs. I however never braided so many sets of the wire to produce what the dude says is audiophile quality cable. This I could live with but right now still waiting on the delivery of the rings and their installation.Oh yeah, he shows the braided sets w/o any covering at all, I would tape the braids just in case that rainbow of colors peeked through somwhere.

hochpt21

Thanks for all the suggestions on the cables.

I spent some time today, to further tweak the placement.

Took Jesse's suggestion and moved them 1/2 inch at a time. In and out back and forth.

The best placement I have found so far is 7" from the back wall and 23.5" from the side wall. Things really came together in that position.

Between working on acoustic panels and adjusting placement, I didn't get to spend that much time simply enjoying, but the 20 min or so I did get were simply outstanding.

I really like these speakers.

Mike Reeter

hochpt21 wrote: »

Thanks for all the suggestions on the cables.

I spent some time today, to further tweak the placement.

Took Jesse's suggestion and moved them 1/2 inch at a time. In and out back and forth.

The best placement I have found so far is 7" from the back wall and 23.5" from the side wall. Things really came together in that position.

Between working on acoustic panels and adjusting placement, I didn't get to spend that much time simply enjoying, but the 20 min or so I did get were simply outstanding.

I really like these speakers.

The SDA sonic signature is quite addictive, enjoy!

westmassguy

Schurkey wrote: »

SDA 2A? I'm thinking 4-ohm nominal impedance. Like ANY lower-impedance speaker, they'll demand additional current compared to "typical" 8-ohm speakers. Therefore, speaker cable resistance/wire gauge is "twice" as critical as with 8-ohm speakers. Depending on length of cable, you'll want 12- or 10-guage speaker cable. 10 gauge is fairly enormous.


I'm not a "cable guy", and I don't believe in voodoo cable properties. Before Bryston started selling their own line of expensive "boutique" speaker cables, their engineer was recommending a particular type of coax cable. Depending on the brand of cable you buy, the center conductor is either 13 gauge, 11 gauge, or even bigger--but make sure it's COPPER wire, not copper-plated aluminum or steel.. You're looking for RG8U (the full-size RG8) and NOT RG8X which is a down-rated version. You'll have to strip the ends, and use your choice of speaker-cable pins or spade lugs or banana jacks to connect to amp and speaker.

Examples: Carol C1180, Belden 9913. The Carol is 9.5 guage, double-shielded. I expect the Belden is similar if not identical.

I learned about the coax cable about two decades after buying plain ol' ordinary 12-gauge Monster Cable.

Either one should run something like a dollar or two per foot if you search around.

Very interesting. So the center conductor is + and the outer shield - ?

drumminman

westmassguy wrote: »

Very interesting. So the center conductor is + and the outer shield - ?

I made a decent pair of IC's using this design. It's not sota, but surprisingly good if using a good quality cable with a copper braided shield and solid copper center conductor.

westmassguy

drumminman wrote: »

I made a decent pair of IC's using this design. It's not sota, but surprisingly good if using a good quality cable with a copper braided shield and solid copper center conductor.

Schurkey's talking about speaker cables though. That I could deal with, but for ICs, kind of stiff no?

TennMan

I thought RG8U cable had 75 ohms resistance. Isn't the goal with speaker wire to avoid having any resistance in the wire. Also, with speaker wire I didn't think shielding was important. I have 12 gauge Monster speaker wires. I know it is low budget speaker wire but I can't imagine a length of RG8U cable being better. I can see how it might be OK for ICs where shielding is important.

westmassguy

TennMan wrote: »

I thought RG8U cable had 75 ohms resistance. Isn't the goal with speaker wire to avoid having any resistance in the wire. Also, with speaker wire I didn't think shielding was important. I have 12 gauge Monster speaker wires. I know it is low budget speaker wire but I can't imagine a length of RG8U cable being better. I can see how it might be OK for ICs where shielding is important.

Good point Ronnie. Don't want to steal the OPs thread though

TennMan

I apologize for getting too far off topic.

westmassguy

TennMan wrote: »

I apologize for getting too far off topic.

We all go off on a tangent

markamerica

Congrats on the new(to you) SDAs! You will probably fall in love with them much as I did back in 1985-6. Whenever you can pick up a pair of SDAs at a decent price, even if they require a little fixing-up, it's almost always worth it. Enjoy!

Mark

hochpt21

PolkieMan wrote: »

Good for you nice clean look !
My I suggest this
http://www.standsandmounts.com/sanusaccuratefurnitureseries4shelfmodularaudioracksystemblackafab.aspx

Thanks for the inspiration for a new stand...I ended up just pulling the trigger on this SANUS unit. I like the look of it.

bobsauto49

Congrats Paul!! Enjoy the new rig! Tinker here, tinker there:twisted:

dudeinaroom

Here is a a fix for the speaker wire, Go to Walmart/Meijer and get a spool of 12 gauge copper speaker wire, may be labeled subwoofer. It works just fine, and does not hinder there performance. If I recall correctly it was under 20 bucks.

F1nut

Schurkey wrote: »

SDA 2A? I'm thinking 4-ohm nominal impedance. Like ANY lower-impedance speaker, they'll demand additional current compared to "typical" 8-ohm speakers. Therefore, speaker cable resistance/wire gauge is "twice" as critical as with 8-ohm speakers. Depending on length of cable, you'll want 12- or 10-guage speaker cable. 10 gauge is fairly enormous.


I'm not a "cable guy", and I don't believe in voodoo cable properties. Before Bryston started selling their own line of expensive "boutique" speaker cables, their engineer was recommending a particular type of coax cable. Depending on the brand of cable you buy, the center conductor is either 13 gauge, 11 gauge, or even bigger--but make sure it's COPPER wire, not copper-plated aluminum or steel.. You're looking for RG8U (the full-size RG8) and NOT RG8X which is a down-rated version. You'll have to strip the ends, and use your choice of speaker-cable pins or spade lugs or banana jacks to connect to amp and speaker.

Examples: Carol C1180, Belden 9913. The Carol is 9.5 guage, double-shielded. I expect the Belden is similar if not identical.

I learned about the coax cable about two decades after buying plain ol' ordinary 12-gauge Monster Cable.

Either one should run something like a dollar or two per foot if you search around.

Too bad you and some of the other posters in this thread didn't join the MIT cable demo program when it was running. I believe you would have become enlightened.

Schurkey

westmassguy wrote: »

Very interesting. So the center conductor is + and the outer shield - ?

Not the way I understood the intention. One length of cable is +, another length of cable is -, don't use the shield.

TennMan wrote: »

I thought RG8U cable had 75 ohms resistance. Isn't the goal with speaker wire to avoid having any resistance in the wire. Also, with speaker wire I didn't think shielding was important. I have 12 gauge Monster speaker wires. I know it is low budget speaker wire but I can't imagine a length of RG8U cable being better. I can see how it might be OK for ICs where shielding is important.

75 ohm impedance, not resistance. Has nothing to do with the resistance of the center conductor, which is simply copper conductor of a certain gauge size. The conductor doesn't have "75 ohms" of resistance--how could it--you haven't told the cable how long you need it to be.

The shielding probably isn't all that important. Can't hurt, though. Look at what shielding did for the transformer of the AI-1 interconnect, and it's Dreadnought cousins.

dudeinaroom wrote: »

Here is a a fix for the speaker wire, Go to Walmart/Meijer and get a spool of 12 gauge copper speaker wire, may be labeled subwoofer. It works just fine, and does not hinder there performance. If I recall correctly it was under 20 bucks.

Damned fine performance/dollar ratio.

F1nut wrote: »

Too bad you and some of the other posters in this thread didn't join the MIT cable demo program when it was running. I believe you would have become enlightened.

Could be. I can't argue against it.

Why do none of the boutique cable manufacturers list the RCL values of their cables? RCL + noise = the "sonic signature" of a cable in a given system. There is no voodoo in cables, there are differences in R, C, or L, and there are differences in the noise of a cable. Yet nobody making cables wants to talk science. They want to talk voodoo.

hochpt21

Slowly, but surely assembling/upgrading this room.

Just put a new rack together....a few more pics.

westmassguy

hochpt21 wrote: »

Slowly, but surely assembling/upgrading this room.

Just put a new rack together....a few more pics.

Nice and clean looking. Enjoy!