Here we go

Faustin

After purchasing numerous sets of Polks over the past year or so, I finally stepped up to some SDA's. I told my wife they were approx the same size as the RTA 12's (which she is not overly pleased with in the living room) and I am wondering if she will notice they are slightly larger. Any suggestions???? I did mention to her that I would sell the RTA 12's in the event that I bought the SDA's.

soundfreak1

Take her out to dinner, get her drunk. Than blame it on the booze.

txcoastal1

Sell the 12's and tell after further review "WE" (Polk guys) said the SDA's look better...LOL;)

They do...

Which sound better in the room?

Buy her a purse or a pair of shoes...

Nice room by the way....tell her I said so

Oldfatdogs

Just set her in the sweet spot and play her favorite music,she will love them.
Nice SDAs enjoy.

Dan

drumiv

Oldfatdogs wrote: »

Just set her in the sweet spot and play her favorite music,she will love them.
Nice SDAs enjoy.

Dan

Yep, that's what I did; Nora Jones Nightengale got her.

westmassguy

Bruce, I know you love your 12s, but once bitten by SDAs I doubt you'll look back. They're not THAT much bigger, and as others have said, play her favorite tracks, buy her a full day spa treatment, or take her to Vegas, whatever works!
BTW, you think they sound good now? Wait till you do the upgrades.

Mr. Bubbles

Listen to them GOOD first. You may just be like a few others and want to sell the 1C's and end up keeping the 12's. That would be my choice. I love SDA's, but not the 1C's. They just do not work for my ears. Either way enjoy, and as already said, even though larger the 1C's are aesthetically more pleasing to most , including myself. If like most other wives, your wife will primarily vote for looks and not sound.

Faustin

Thanks for the suggestions. I had told her they were about the same size. When she saw them this morning she smiled and said"those are not the same size as the 12's". That was about it. I do plan to spend some time comparing the 12's and SDA's. The c/o's have been upgraded with Sonicap Gen 1 and Mills resistors. I don't like the way the 6 1/2's hold when the pr is pushed in so I will do hurricane nuts and weatherstrip. They have not been dynamatted either so that will get done. I have to see what was done with the interconnect. The original socket is still there and a new binding post was installed and is being used as the interconnect. I did hear a difference in sound with the cable being connected vs disconnected. Here is a picture of the interconnect.

westmassguy

Bit of a butcher job in the interconnect. I think one of the larger, flanged SpeakON Jack would cover everything and make it look neater. While your at it, connect the ground lead to the 2nd SpeakOn terminal, so in the future, you can use mono-blocks, or non-common ground amps with an AI-1 dreadnaught.
BTW, those look like Cardas Binding Posts

nspindel

He can already use a Dreadnaught now, it's just a bit of a PITA. Before I switched my SDA connection to a Speakon, I had a binding post in place of the original pin/blade connector. What I did was use speaker cables with bananas and an Dreadnaught cable terminated with spades. Then I connected both the banana and the spade to the negative binding post. Worked fine, but less than ideal. Speakon would be much better. The spades do tend to loosen with time.

Faustin, I recommend that you use armacell for your seals on the drivers. When you tighten down your machine screws into the hurricane nuts, tighten down on the armacell with a very limited amount of torque. Then wait 48 hours, come back and tighten again. You will be amazed at how loose the screws become as the armacell compresses. Then wait another 48 hours, and tighten a third and final time after the armacell compresses even more. The key is not to overtighten the first two times, or you can bend the driver.


May I ask how much you paid for these speakers? Since you've already gotten the Sonicaps, the RD-0194's, and the Cardas binding posts, the expensive mods have all been done. The armacell and the hurricane nuts are pennies compared to the electrical mods and the new tweeters.

A couple other mods you might consider would be replacing the large inductor with a lower DCR equivalent. Erse Super Q on a budget, or a Solen if you want to splurge. Also you may want to consider building new wiring harnesses with Cardas Litz.

EndersShadow

So you bought those SDA 1C's in chicago eh .

If true you got a pretty good deal on em.

Faustin

nspindel wrote: »

He can already use a Dreadnaught now, it's just a bit of a PITA. Before I switched my SDA connection to a Speakon, I had a binding post in place of the original pin/blade connector. What I did was use speaker cables with bananas and an Dreadnaught cable terminated with spades. Then I connected both the banana and the spade to the negative binding post. Worked fine, but less than ideal. Speakon would be much better. The spades do tend to loosen with time.

Faustin, I recommend that you use armacell for your seals on the drivers. When you tighten down your machine screws into the hurricane nuts, tighten down on the armacell with a very limited amount of torque. Then wait 48 hours, come back and tighten again. You will be amazed at how loose the screws become as the armacell compresses. Then wait another 48 hours, and tighten a third and final time after the armacell compresses even more. The key is not to overtighten the first two times, or you can bend the driver.


May I ask how much you paid for these speakers? Since you've already gotten the Sonicaps, the RD-0194's, and the Cardas binding posts, the expensive mods have all been done. The armacell and the hurricane nuts are pennies compared to the electrical mods and the new tweeters.

A couple other mods you might consider would be replacing the large inductor with a lower DCR equivalent. Erse Super Q on a budget, or a Solen if you want to splurge. Also you may want to consider building new wiring harnesses with Cardas Litz.

Thanks for the input. And honestly I have not dealt with the SDA / interconnect before and I am not really sure how, where and to what it is supposed to be connected. I have not had a chance to look them over and do my research. What I don't understand is why the original connector has 2 connections, a pin and a blade and this one only has the one. I did purchase them near Chicago and paid $500 for them. I have not priced what the caps were, but would guess $200 - $300 and then another $200 for the RDO 194's. Overall they are in very nice shape. Probably 9 to 9.5 out of 10.

westmassguy

Bruce, the 4th & 5th generation SDAs use one conductor to carry the signal between the speakers. Earlier generations used both. If you use a common ground amp, the 2nd conductor can be ignored. If you do eventually switch to higher power amps, that are not common ground, or separate mono-blocks, then you'll need the 2nd connector and a AI-1 Dreadnought Isolation Transformer.

pitdogg2

The pin carries the signal and the blade was just for support, But with non common ground amps or mono blocks the blade will carry the ground from the A1 interconnect or dreadnaught box.


What Dave said he has faster fingers

westmassguy

That's what she said........

pitdogg2

Now who's in the gutter:redface: touche'

westmassguy

Just a little levity my friend

Faustin

Thanks gentlemen. Makes sense now. I think for now I will just change out the ends to banana plugs, as the current ends are rather cheesy and listen to them for a while before I take things apart. I am using an Adcom 555 which I believe is common ground so I should be ok.

westmassguy

Yes it is

boston1450

Those look very nice-enjoy

nspindel

Nothing wrong with kicking back and enjoying your purchase! One thing to note is that many of us have moved to using a Dreadnaught (a big upgrade to the original Polk AI-1) even with a common ground amp, and have found it to offer a great sonic improvement over a straight SDA connection.

PolkieMan

Very nice 1C set

EndersShadow

Faustin wrote: »

I did purchase them near Chicago and paid $500 for them. I have not priced what the caps were, but would guess $200 - $300 and then another $200 for the RDO 194's. Overall they are in very nice shape. Probably 9 to 9.5 out of 10.

You got yourself one heck of a deal as a FYI.

Enjoy and good luck!

Faustin

Listened to the 1c's last night and then switched over to the 12c's. The SDA's sounded "bigger" and more expansive but they don't have the sweet high end like the 12c's. Not sure if something is wired wrong......,maybe the tweeter are hooked up out of phase? going to open up and do some investigating.

westmassguy

That's not good Bruce. The RDO-194s should sound superior to the Peerless you're used to. Pull the PRs, and everything is right there. If you want, email me some photos, so I can see what was done to the crossovers. The schematics, all three, are here: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?55888-POLK-AUDIO-Speaker-Wiring-Schematics-amp-More-Stereo-Dimensional-Array(SDA)

Faustin

Well I started pulling drivers to make sure things are connected properly and the tweeters are hooked up wrong. Black was connected to negative and white to positive and the other tweeter was also wrong. Going to pull all of them and check.

westmassguy

Sounds like a good start

nspindel

Faustin wrote: »

Well I started pulling drivers to make sure things are connected properly and the tweeters are hooked up wrong. Black was connected to negative and white to positive and the other tweeter was also wrong. Going to pull all of them and check.

How'd that happen? The quick connect tabs are different sizes. Did the fella who modified them replace the quick connects?

westmassguy

RDO-194s have the same size connectors. The 198s have different sizes

Faustin

Well I checked all the wiring and all 4 tweeters were hooked up out of phase and the binding posts are wired in reverse of the diagrahm on the back of the cabinets. All is corrected and they sound great. Thanks for the assistance Dave.

nspindel

Hah! No wonder the guy sold them!