Wow!

Sea

Although I have owned RTA12C's for 30 years, I am coming to the SDA party late. I am currently redoing a pair of 1C's but I am listening a lot to a pair of unmodified 2.3TL's I recently bought from Conradicles. I am amazed at the sound of these as is. I have listened to many familiar songs and heard details I have never noticed before. I cannot imagine what they will sound like after upgrades. I will say that they are very accurate and poor recordings sound poor.

xsmi

Buh-yah!! you're hooked!

headrott

The 2.3TL's are great speakers. Once you fully modify them you will likely never choose another speaker to put into your system.

I am not syaing that there aren't better speakers out there. But, the amount of money you will need to spend won't be worth the gain. Also, you will not find another speaker that can give you the SDA "effect" (getting rid of interaural crosstalk).

Anyway, enjoy your 2.3TL's and modify them fully when you can.

msg

Sea, I just recently acquire a pair as well, and am having a similar experience with the sound quality and detail. been almost two weeks now and I still can't get over how good they sound.

Mikey081057

Ain't that crazy... I woulda never believed how great they could sound... I have recently acquired a pair of 2.3's, upgraded the tweets and sit there listening with a goofy **** smile on my face for hours on end... I can't wait to do the xover mods...

Mike Reeter

I can safely say that the 2.3TL's are my best and more than likely my last pair of speakers, I've got other SDA's that I roll in every once in a while if I want something a little different.

Sea

Why do so called audiophiles poo poo SDA speakers? I have a long time friend who has owned the likes of Thiel, Dalquist, very expensive Infinities, and most recently $5000 speakers by a Canadian company called Reference 3A. I can remember him pokin fun at Polks back in the 90's. He thought the monitor series was OK but thought the SDA were junk. As I sir here and listen to Tony Bennett through these 2.3tl's I wonder if he ever even heard a good pair of SDA speakers. I bet not.

Moose68Bash

For what it's worth my opinion is that very few speaker sales folks, even when SDAs had been on the market for awhile and were still being produced by Polk, knew how to set up the SDAs properly or how to explain the effect to customers in a minute or less. They preferred selling an alternative product that sold more easily to learning about SDAs and having to sell them pretty hard.

I encountered this in 1989 and as recently as a couple of years ago when I was shopping for speakers before investing in mods to my SRSs and 1Cs. The sales people to whom I talked denigrated my SDAs, but could not give me a rational explanation of their reasons. Clearly, their opinions grew out of ignorance, not understanding of the technologies involved.

drumminman

DSkip wrote: »

You'll wonder how you ever listened to the stock version once you invest in the mods.

^ ^ ^ ^ This. The transformation of mine began with the RD-0198 tweeters. Massive improvement. Replacing all the caps and resistors was huge. Surprisingly good mods included replacing all the board mounted inductors, and installing Black Hole 5.

One of the qualities I like most about mine is they convey the emotion of the music better than any speakers I've heard.

Mr. Bubbles

Others i believe have hit the nail on the head already. Many people call it a gimmick. But that is no more true than the B&W pod tweeter or a bipolar subwoofer being a gimmick. They are simply different ways of getting a different sound.

For me the Polks are not the most detailed Ive heard or own but the SDA effect is amazing and every time I sit and listen to them I am captivated by the soundstage. Sure you can get a huge sound stage with some very high end speakers paired with the proper pre and some awesome mono blocks, etc. But take that same gear and hook the SDA's to it and I bet the stage will be that much bigger still. While it is true the detail comes out temendously with varying mods the SDA's still have issues with diffraction and relatively weak cabinets (as compared to other high end speakers, though they are better than much on the market as is). These are still issues that can be addressed with mods but we have guys that are changeing everything but the mids, passives and cabs. If the build new cabs the only thing left is the m/w's and passives. One day the passives will need replacement and direct replacements wont be available, etc, etc , etc. Anyway it would simply get to the point that it was no longer a polk speaker anymore, so we don't build new cabs and big peices of felt or foam glued to the front of the cabs would be very ugly so we just deal with it.

I prefer the detail from my Vandy's and my VMPS but they don't have the SDA which captivates me even more. Also I think most of us are guilty of passing judgement on things without proper knowledge of the situation for many different reasons. For some we can't afford certain technologies so we justify reasons that we wouldn't want it anyway. other times we simply view what we think should be best and reject other ideas. It simply human nature. But that's why there is so much variety because we all like something a little different for whatever reason we have for doing so be it wrong or right. I try real hard to be open minded and ready to try new and differnt things for fear that i may miss something i really enjoy if I act differently.

Mr_Hz

Ignorance is bliss....

I've been sold on SDA technology since I heard my first pair of SDA1's/SDA2's at the AAFES stereo shop in Wiesbaden, WEST Germany, 1985.

In my case I've been 'soldiering on' with a set (actually added a 2nd set in the early 90's) of unmodified SDA2's since that initial purchase in '85. Was always happy with them, but then again, hadn't sampled any of the improved/evolving SDA model line, and forget about any electronics improvements. I joined this forum in January, and have just recently obtained 'newer' SDA1C's and SRS2.3TLs, both in need of electronic and cosmetic upgrades. Rather than listen to them outright, I've chosen to perform upgrades first before inserting them in to the line up. Part of my reasoning is that if I've been happy with my SDA2's, and I'm sure I'd be happy with stock 1C's or better yet, the 2.3TL's. Unfortunately the 2.3TL's didn't ship w/out something coming loose within the cabinet, so that is something that has to be isolated. Why not 'knock my socks off,' and go the full upgrade route before hearing these more advanced models? So I'm delaying some sonic gratification in order to bring these wonderful speakers up to their full potential. After all, I've been listening to the SDA2's for almost 30years without complaint.

Ron

Mr. Bubbles

Mr_Hz wrote: »

Ignorance is bliss....

I've been sold on SDA technology since I heard my first pair of SDA1's/SDA2's at the AAFES stereo shop in Wiesbaden, WEST Germany, 1985.

In my case I've been 'soldiering on' with a set (actually added a 2nd set in the early 90's) of unmodified SDA2's since that initial purchase in '85. Was always happy with them, but then again, hadn't sampled any of the improved/evolving SDA model line, and forget about any electronics improvements. I joined this forum in January, and have just recently obtained 'newer' SDA1C's and SRS2.3TLs, both in need of electronic and cosmetic upgrades. Rather than listen to them outright, I've chosen to perform upgrades first before inserting them in to the line up. Part of my reasoning is that if I've been happy with my SDA2's, and I'm sure I'd be happy with stock 1C's or better yet, the 2.3TL's. Unfortunately the 2.3TL's didn't ship w/out something coming loose within the cabinet, so that is something that has to be isolated. Why not 'knock my socks off,' and go the full upgrade route before hearing these more advanced models? So I'm delaying some sonic gratification in order to bring these wonderful speakers up to their full potential. After all, I've been listening to the SDA2's for almost 30years without complaint.

Ron

I understand your reasoning. BUT. I loved (and still do love) my SDA 2A's I got a pair of 1C's, sure i would love them more than the 2A's. I was sorely dissapointed. IMO the 2A/B's that i have owned and heard are slightly ahead of all others I have heard/ owned. Thw 1C's being the least liked for me. I have not heard the 2.3TL's so I have no opinion on those.

My take would be to listen first, you may be surprised at what you do not like but were expecting to. This could save you some money and time.

BKphoto

My question is this....how can the soundstage be big yet the sweet spot small.....?

"you have to sit here"

I wonder why these were not made in a 3 way design...