How hard of a sale was it ?

leftwinger57

If any of you guys, gals can remember going into the way back machine, how hard of a sale was it to get a new pair of SDAs of any flavor. Going back I know I did not have $1,000 or $1,300 minimally for a set of speakers whether or not they were VERY placement critical. Do any of you going back, have any idea what the pitch was or just a listen or 2 was it for you. Me, I barely could get my hands on Criterion 100s so high end was out. KLH, Rectilinear High Boys, ESS Heil AMT -1 or Dalhquist D-10s were out of my reach no less the speakers of every den AR-3a

tonyb

The sales pitch was the SDA effect and how we hear things. The price was towards the higher end but still not out of reach. Have to remember too, in the way back time machine the speaker world was a lot smaller. Today, it's exploded.

Moose68Bash

When I purchased my first SDAs in 1989, I simply walked into the shop in Mountain View, CA, listened to a pair of SDA SRSs (I don't know which version they were -- original, 1.2s, or 1.2TLs) driven by Perreaux electronics (SA 33 pre & PMF 5550 amp) and a Sony CD changer, and I was sold.

My wife wisely questioned whether we had the space for the "monsters." Hence, we purchased the 1Cs, Sony CD changer, Perreaux SA 33, and a smaller Perreaux PMF 2350 amp with all required cables an interconnects (whatever the sales guy recommended; then, I had no idea cables made an appreciable difference).

I used this system happily till a two or three years ago when I decided to get a pair of those SDA SRSs I passed on ~25 years ago and began my plunge down the rabbit hole!

oldrocker

Mine weren't new when I bought them. I just remember my neighbor saying " I want these out of my basement", so I bought them and talk about knowing nothing about them, I knew less than that. I only bought them because of their size and how many drivers there were in each.

EndersShadow

@oldrocker someday I will have to have you come down to Indy to hear my system to get your thoughts.

I wish when I had the 2.3s here I listened to em a bit more...

bls56

I lived in a rented double -- an up-and-down duplex -- in 1990 and bought the SDA-SRS 2.3. I shortly thereafter bought a house with a bigger living room room for bigger speakers. The local high-end Polk dealer had a policy that you could trade in any component within a year and get 100 percent credit toward a more expensive model -- speakers or other components -- and the dealer would sell the trade-in as used or a demo. So in 1991 I paid the difference for the upgrade to the 1.2TL. I still had the boxes and uncompleted warranty paperwork for the 2.3s. The salesman said, "These look brand new. I think I can get full list for these." Those were my bachelor spending days. I, too, have no specific memory in my short ownership of whether the 2.3s sounded any less impressive.

oldrocker

EndersShadow wrote: »

@oldrocker someday I will have to have you come down to Indy to hear my system to get your thoughts.

I wish when I had the 2.3s here I listened to em a bit more...

Anytime your schedule works, it would be my pleasure and afterwards maybe we could swing by Getchells place and see what new "goodies" he has found.

heiney9

Lots of tire kickers back in the day. I mostly sold 1C's because they were a little more reasonable. We had the big boys set up properly and using Nakamichi gear, PA-7; CA-7; OMS-7 to run them.

One thing it did was sell more Polk speakers because if someone couldn't afford SDA's, they were always impressed and that trickled down for sales of regular Monitor series. I sold a lot RTA8's and RTA11's after a 15-20 minute SDA demo. Every once in awhile I'd actually sell the SDA's on the spot.

I couldn't afford them back then either, I was in school and on a limited budget. At the time Polk accommodation for a salesman was like 50% off, still I ended up buying RTA-11t's because it was all I could afford.

I only remember a handful of people walking away unimpressed by an SDA demo. Those were usually Bose owners or buyers.........lol.

H9

soundfreak1

Just an aside "how do you pitch a pair of 30,000.00 speakers"???
Listened to thesr at a club meeting. The sound (had i purchaced them
LOL) would have made me suicidal. How do you tell someone that spent 30k "your system sounds like ****". In all honstly the system was just set up totaly wrong from source to placement. But showed me money aint everything!

MrBuhl

FWIW - These arent't the big boys, but I remember hearing a set of M10's in the very early 80's and a set of 7's when stereo shopping and absolutely loving the sound, really knowing even then that I was hearing something I hadn't heard before... but realistically, as a high school kid, they were 2x the cost of the crappy Pioneer everyone else was buying at the time and I didn't bite cause I couldn't afford them.

I think it was probably a tough sell, unless you were of an age and means to afford them - which is not unlike today's environment. Today, I'm just of a means to afford them and bring them up to date - which is why I am enjoying modded 1'c - If I had the room for them, I'd have already bit on Emlyn's 2.3's!!

tratliff

I remember back in the day when my dad purchased the SDA SRS's, that I recently sold. He said it was not real difficult for the salesman to make the deal. I think he had more trouble with the CFO (mom). He was a regular at the Audio store (Arnold and Morgan), some may remember if you know the DFW area.

When he brought them home I thought "Holy Sh**". That's when the bug bit me and has not let up since - 30 years later. My dad just shakes his head now when he visits my place and listens to my setup.

vmaxer

bls56 wrote: »

I lived in a rented double -- an up-and-down duplex -- in 1990 and bought the SDA-SRS 2.3. I shortly thereafter bought a house with a bigger living room room for bigger speakers. The local high-end Polk dealer had a policy that you could trade in any component within a year and get 100 percent credit toward a more expensive model -- speakers or other components -- and the dealer would sell the trade-in as used or a demo. So in 1991 I paid the difference for the upgrade to the 1.2TL. I still had the boxes and uncompleted warranty paperwork for the 2.3s. The salesman said, "These look brand new. I think I can get full list for these." Those were my bachelor spending days. I, too, have no specific memory in my short ownership of whether the 2.3s sounded any less impressive.

I used to do that a lot with Circuit City.

soundfreak1

BLING is right, they were the most beautiful cabs I've seen! The shame is how they were set up. Literally every thing that could have been done wrong was. I have know idea how they could sound due to the mistakes he made in the sources, equip, placement, and room treatments. Basicly bought a whole bunch of expensive equip through it all together and expected it to sound great cause it cost so much. No serergy at all. Like taking a bunch of pretty paint tossing it in a bag shaking it up and pouring it on a canvas and expecting a Picasso to appear.

dromunds

Leftwinger, my first set of speakers were Rectilinear Hi-boys. Damage to the bottom of one of the cabs in shipment and I got a damage claim that almost paid for the speakers. I wish I still had them, sounded real nice.

dromunds

Later, I was back in school and on an extremely limited budget, but I remember going to a favorite stereo salon just for kicks and listening to Polks and thinking there was no way I could afford these.

Polkie2009

Leftwinger, I had owned a pair of ESS HEIL AMT-B speakers for about 5 years when I got a chance to hear the SDA/SRS2's in 1987. Sold the ESS speakers ( I think for about $500) and put the money towards the Polks.

leftwinger57

My friend just came into an insurance claim and kinda went wild w/ his audio picks. McIntosh 2105, Mac C-28 pre, Mac mx117 tuner, a Dual 1229 and those ESS Heil AMT-1a pyramids. The thing w/ both those speakers and Ohm/Walsh models the hoods were huge dust collectors, but boy did they sound great w/ the Heil tweeter and a 12" passive in the rear and a 12" speaker up front. Huge footprint but great sound. Shown below not the shape of my friends but you can get the idea.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ESS-Heil-AMT-1B-speakers-/181754781727?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a516de01f