New (to me) SDA SRS 3.1 TL

polklifer

Went to Denver and bought an excellent pair of Polk SDA SRS 3.1 TL speakers. The crossovers have been upgraded with Clarity caps and sonicaps, internal dampening has been done. Overall cabinet condition is about a 9, grilles perfect, all drivers perfect. In fact, he threw in three NIB MW 6511 drivers as well.

The original SDA interlink was pretty well trashed, so I made a new one out of a 20' Audioquest interconnect, works well for the interium..I just happened to have a small drawer full of gold interconnect parts from days of work past...

Listening impressions? I am so blown away by the nuiances I can hear in my familiar test tracks, totally off the hook awesome in every way, put the 'ol Definitive 15" sub away, no need for bass emphasis with these speakers. Put spikes on them, cleaned up the bass a tad..Imaging is perfect, precise in placement...in a word...JOY

I sanded the veneer a bit yesterday and re-applied some black ash stain, they came out really good for a fifteen minute effort...

I have had SDA-1, SDA-SRS, SDA-2...and this is clearly miles ahead of them for my application, my room is 12' x 19', put the SRS on the long wall, 10 feet apart, with 4 feet space on both sides of the speakers.

Running them on an Adcom 5803 with a B&K Reference 50 SII pre/processor...sweet!

I gave $400 for the lot of goods, no regrets here

will post pics when the system will let me

Listening is again a wonderful thing, Thanks to everyone for the sage advice.

Toolfan66

Glad to see someone here picked these up, I almost pulled the trigger on them, but I really have no use for them..

Enjoy...

polklifer

I meant to say Adcom GFA5802...finger check..

Mikey081057

Pictures please

stubby

3.1 TL's are excellent speakers. Still one of my favorite if not very favorite speaker. Enjoy them!!

stubby

polklifer

Here are a few pics

brgman

What a great deal.
You are going to love these.
Congrats on a killer buy.

Mike Reeter

WOW, Congrats on an awesome set of speakers. I listen to my 3.1's daily, they image like no other speaker I've ever experienced. I've heard them referred to as the "Most Musical" of the SDA line up, I believe it!

Enjoy!

Schurkey

There were two sets of SDA speakers in the Denver area listed on craigslist; and I'll be going through Denver in the next two days. Thank you for helping keep my budget under control. Congrats on the acquisition.

I'll probably have to at least make a 'phone call for the other set, though.

Mike Reeter

stubby wrote: »

3.1 TL's are excellent speakers. Still one of my favorite if not very favorite speaker. Enjoy them!!

stubby

Hey Paul, I'm still enjoying those 3.1's, thanks again!

polklifer

Schurkey wrote: »

There were two sets of SDA speakers in the Denver area listed on craigslist; and I'll be going through Denver in the next two days. Thank you for helping keep my budget under control. Congrats on the acquisition.

I'll probably have to at least make a 'phone call for the other set, though.

I didn't check out the other set of SDA's in Denver, the other set is a pair of SRS-2, pretty well worked through it would seem, for $610...wonder if he will make a deal?? They look wonderful, my space is not near enough to appreciate them, so I had to pass

Good luck!!

oldmodman

How do you insure that your cat will leave the speakers alone?

I am always worried that if one of my cats ever gets into my audio room the grills will be the first thing to go.

polklifer

Thanks everyone, have really enjoyed them today, listened to many different types of music, all fantastic...

oh yea my cat Oliver, dosen't ever bother the speakers, neither do any of my other two cats, we play with them a lot, I think that keeps the cats from going after them...

Toolfan66

polklifer wrote: »

I didn't check out the other set of SDA's in Denver, the other set is a pair of SRS-2, pretty well worked through it would seem, for $610...wonder if he will make a deal?? They look wonderful, my space is not near enough to appreciate them, so I had to pass

Good luck!!

The SDA 2's are not that much bigger then the 3.1tl's, you got the better deal either way..

F1nut

I've heard them referred to as the "Most Musical" of the SDA line up

I believe you are thinking of the 2.3TL's.

Mike Reeter

F1nut wrote: »

I believe you are thinking of the 2.3TL's.

He he, When I get my 2.3TL's finished up, I'll make that comparison and get back to you :biggrin:

Schurkey

polklifer wrote: »

I didn't check out the other set of SDA's in Denver, the other set is a pair of SRS-2, pretty well worked through it would seem, for $610...wonder if he will make a deal?? They look wonderful, my space is not near enough to appreciate them, so I had to pass

Good luck!!

They are "probably" SDA SRS 2 first style (based on SDA 1B) rather than SRS 2 second style (based on SDA 1C). He describes the interconnect cable as pin-blade, but there's only one red and one black binding post. I am, therefore, getting mixed messages about which series they truly are--the early ones should be blade/blade with one red and one black binding post, while the second series should be pin/blade with two red and two black binding posts, to allow for bi-amping or bi-wiring.

My best guess is that they are first-style SRS 2s, perhaps with a modified interconnect socket. He isn't the person who replaced the crossover capacitors and "wing nuts" on the passive radiators. Perhaps the previous owner who updated the crossovers also updated the SDA interconnect socket. At any rate, I'm insisting on SRS models new enough to use the isolation transformer, so I'm not diverting to Denver to buy them.

Have the rest of you noticed that SRS 2s are NEVER described as blade/blade or pin/blade in the advertisements? A person that cares has to call and talk to the owner; it's never put into the description.

headrott

Congratulations on the great set of SDA's! I own a pair of 3.1TL's that look exactly like yours (black). Mine are modded with all Sonicaps/mills. You absolutely need to get some of Larry's (ToolFan66's) rings for the drivers/PR/tweeters. It makes a very very very big improvement in clarity. Also, buy some of the RD0-198 teeters from Polk and tell them you are a Forum memeber to get free shipping and a discount. After you do these two things, you should be (close to) set. Of course, you couls always upgrade the inductors (through Trey (VR3) here on the forum) as well. What Clarity Caps are in the 3.1TL's? I also own some fully modified 2.3TL's and will say they are better than the 3.1TL's. I am not sure they are necessarily "more musical" than the 3.1TL's, but they have more of a "presence" than the 3.1TL's. Glad you are enjoying your SDA's!

zingo

Fantastic price, and they look like great condition speakers.

stubby

Mike Reeter wrote: »

Hey Paul, I'm still enjoying those 3.1's, thanks again!

That's great! I am just happy someone has brought them to their full potential. Happy listening!

polklifer

Thanks again to all, I am going to start the Dynamat process here soon, and I am ordering a set of RDO-198's today

xjghost

Congrats!

I picked up a pair of them recently and love them. I'm not too good with electronics so I'll wait before I venture inside and risk messing something up. There is a thread on here with pictures of mine. I need a decent interconnect cable though.

polklifer

I got to directly compare the SDA SRS 3.1 to my Aurum Cantus DIY...the DIY is definitely the better speaker for me, even thought the Polk has the ability to play more genre types, the HF is pretty lame compared to a good ribbon...

And it would seem that the 6.5 polk driver is kinda flimsy hence the need for Dynamat, and re-gluing the magnets

Guess I will see what differences an RDO 198 tweeter will bring

Excellent speaker, I actually prefer running them without the SDA cable connected, pretty "busy" if connected

still wringing them out, waiting for my parts

westmassguy

polklifer wrote: »

I got to directly compare the SDA SRS 3.1 to my Aurum Cantus DIY...the DIY is definitely the better speaker for me, even thought the Polk has the ability to play more genre types, the HF is pretty lame compared to a good ribbon...

And it would seem that the 6.5 polk driver is kinda flimsy hence the need for Dynamat, and re-gluing the magnets

Guess I will see what differences an RDO 198 tweeter will bring

Excellent speaker, I actually prefer running them without the SDA cable connected, pretty "busy" if connected

still wringing them out, waiting for my parts

I can't comment on the ribbon vs Sl3000, however the RDO-198-1s are some of the most musical and detailed silk dome tweeters I've ever heard.

As for the 6.5" drivers, flimsy is not a work I would use, they're cost effective. Polk had price points they had to meet. The drivers are actually well constructed, and the fact that they're still functioning, even on Monitors from the 70s, is a testament to that. The magnet assembly glue issue is not exclusive to Polk. I've seen magnet shift of many different makes and models.

If you're operating them without the Interconnect Cable, then they're performing no better than a conventional 2way speaker. In fact, the dimensional driver is acting as another passive radiator, which will affect how the large passive radiator reacts, in a negative way most likely. Check to make sure you have the left and right speaker in the correct orientation. Busy is not a word I'd use to describe interaural crosstalk cancellation.

You mentioned the crossover was rebuilt with Clarity and Sonicaps. That's something I've never seen, nor would I recommend it.

polklifer

Just an observation, I have lots of quality drivers here on the bench, Polkies look a lot like the Dayton classic...but just in looks, the T/S parameters tell the real story...:)

Listening to tunes with the interconnect cable and without, dunno if the SDA is for me

Why not CCaps and Sonicaps?? they are both as grainy as Dayton, a moot point

westmassguy

Never heard Sonicaps described as grainy. Soft or warm, yes, never grainy. The Clarity PX could be described as grainy, but certainly not the ESAs.

polklifer

Yup, you are correct, have had the PX, not the ESA's

Schurkey

polklifer wrote: »

Running them on an Adcom 5803 with a B&K Reference 50 SII pre/processor...sweet!

polklifer wrote: »

I actually prefer running them without the SDA cable connected, pretty "busy" if connected

OHMMETER! Check your amplifier for resistance between the negative terminals. I'm thinking that that generation of Adcom amps is not common-ground. We had this discussion in another thread, which I am now looking for.

20 ohms of resistance between the left channel negative and the right channel negative terminals of my Aragon 8008BB made my 1Bs sound goofy as all get-out. I might not have described them as "busy", but they had voicing issues that made them almost un-listenable. Another member using that same amp had it shut down when using with other SDA speakers.

A ~$5 home-made jumper cable between the two channels fixed the issue for me. No promises on the Adcom.

[Later Edit] Adcom 5800 is not common-ground due to resistors inserted in the negative side. Apparently can be bypassed with jumper wire. I assume that the 5803 is similar.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?153668-New-to-me-SDA-2a-Amplification
especially post #20 and onward.

You are gonna LOVE the Polks when you get the amp issue sorted-out. When the cable is connected, the only change you'll hear to the sound is the increased width of the soundstage--the voicing of the speakers shouldn't change except on the earliest-generation or two of SDAs.[/Later Edit]

polklifer

I made an error in my assessment of the crossovers, they are Solen/Sonicap not Clarity...geeezzzz...sorry all, and two drivers were wired out of phase, so made a correction there, and it made a huge difference...hopefully this will make SDA awesome again.

I hooked up a B&K amp, sounds considerably better, glad I had an extra!

Thanks Schurkey and westmassguy

Schurkey

Since your 3.1TLs are compatible with an isolation transformer inserted into the SDA interconnect cable, you need to search for the Dreadnought posts; (there are many, the primary one is linked to below) that ought to be your next upgrade. With the Dreadnought or similar in the SDA cable, you're back to having total amp freedom--no more need for common-ground amps.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?74472-The-AI-1-Dreadnought-Project-Pt.1&highlight=Dreadnaught

Curious about the two drivers wired out-of-phase. Which ones? How did you figure out the problem?

polklifer

I found the dimensional drivers to be wired out of phase..I discovered this after I was looking at the crossovers, I started to check each driver's polarity, not thinking that this problem was amp-related as well. The sound just was not right, I listened to a lot of music, but changed out amps a number of times, so I was really lucky. I have some B&K gear in the closet, along with H/K and Threshold.

I am reading up on the Dreadnaught cables..very cool! Thanks for the link