SDA 2 Purchase

highway_chile

Hello, all. I've discovered the board by way of AK after purchasing a pair of SDA 2's today. Since this is where the experts reside, I'm throwing some questions out for response.
Thanks in advance!

I found a pair of these on CL listed for $250 but no interconnect cable. They looked in fine shape and the seller was quick to drop his price to $175 when I asked about the interconnect, so I was a bit skeptical. I went to his home (which is in an affluent area FWIW) and they looked even better in person. He had them hooked up to a small Realistic receiver just to show me all the drivers were working and I handed over the coin and loaded 'em up!
I was previously using some Klipsch KG4's with Crites upgrades and was in no way dissatisfied or even looking for other speakers. I just couldn't pass these up. I have a small room and since I also have 6 TV screens mounted on the wall that holds my audio gear, the speakers need to reside close to the wall on each side. Perfect for the KG4's but I wasn't sure about the Polks.
Anyway, they're sounding pretty nice right now and I plan to hunt down an interconnect ASAP.
So for some questions for the crowd. Does anyone know a source other the eBay? The only one on there now is $90. Speakers are currently 1 foot from the back wall and 9 1/2" from the side walls, with no toe in, and that's about the best I can do. Even so, comments on placement welcome.
How do I tell what series they are? I'm thinking SDA 2A's, but not too certain on how to pin that down. The sticker on the back just says SDA 2.
I'm powering them with a Luxman M-02 (with Luxman CX-100), so I should be good as far as their power needs. I also did a multimeter test to ensure it's a common ground amp.

westmassguy

For the cable, if you intend on keeping them, I'd suggest converting to SpeakONs.
Much better quality connectors, and you can use quality speaker cable, instead of the low grade type used originally, and the aftermarket ones being sold.

F1nut

Those are definitely 2A's with the blade/blade cable. Neutrik SpeakOn's are your best bet. Be sure to get the 4 pole version (higher quality) and also be sure the socket is an air tight version.

boston1450

Welcome to CP & Congrats on your beautiful speakers .... On a side note :::: we all here have talked about the Pin/Blade IC's & the pin is the important one & you can run temporary cord/wire from pin-to-pin & its ok to use -SO- with Blade/Blade which is the important one here. Is it just 1 blade ? And if so which one ? Can you run a temporary-so you can hear the SDA effect ? Just curious

westmassguy

boston1450 wrote: »

Welcome to CP & Congrats on your beautiful speakers .... On a side note :::: we all here have talked about the Pin/Blade IC's & the pin is the important one & you can run temporary cord/wire from pin-to-pin & its ok to use -SO- with Blade/Blade which is the important one here. Is it just 1 blade ? And if so which one ? Can you run a temporary-so you can hear the SDA effect ? Just curious

Randy, on the 1st through 3rd generation, two conductors were used. The full left and right signals were sent to the opposite speaker. On 4th and 5th generations, only the difference signal travels between the speakers via a single conductor.

dkfreebird

I bought my connectors for my old blade blade on eBay if you go that route . I think they were called Jones Cinch plugs but I can't remember what model number.

ken brydson

vcwatkins wrote: »

IIRC, you won't be able to see or respond to my PM(?), so I'll post here.

If you're in the CONUS, send me your address and I'll send you a blade/blade cable. Assuming you can't send me a PM, email it to me. Click on my user name in this post to see my email.

Congrats on the SDA's!

Craig

Nice gesture man!

george daniel

Post some pictures,that would be helpful

highway_chile

highway_chile

Serial L SDA II 17236....well that tells us something right there!

westmassguy

Welcome to CP. SDA-2As most likely.

highway_chile

Thanks for your input, gentlemen. I shall investigate the SpeakONs.

PolkieMan

A rule of thumb, never "corner" your SDA speakers

pkquat

PolkieMan wrote: »

A rule of thumb, never "corner" your SDA speakers

This is very true. It looks like there is not much space. Once you get an interconnect set up, I recommend trying them in different room or location so you get a better idea of what they are supposed to sound like. Once this is done, if they are going back to the location pictured, try and move them out a little more from the back wall and close the curtain. It looks like their may be some open space on the left, and if the curtain is heavy enough, it will help remove reflections on the right. A floor length curtain may also help. You may need sound deadening or a curtain on both sides, or may need to run the one on the right to the back wall.

If you are running these in an HT setup, try it without the interconnect first. Do it this way to at least get the delay times between speakers. Depending on your equipment, you can hook up the interconnect cable and all will be fine. At the easiest you may need to adjust their volume relative to the other speakers. If you are running a center and things sound off, you may need to adjust the front speaker width in the surround processor settings. Make them wider than they are. Make sure this does not change the delay or the distance relative to the listener.

highway_chile

Thanks, Polkie and pkquat.
The speakers you see sitting on top of the Polks are Wharfedales that are used with an Onkyo AVR for HT. I understand that SpeakONs would be the way to go if I were definitely keeping the SDA's, but due to my space limitations I may not be able to maximize them. I have a larger room downstairs, but it's really used only for HT, not stereo music listening, and the wife wouldn't want these big puppies down there.
I still would like to get an interconnect and experiment first. I'm not having any success online finding the proper blade/blade hardware to make my own cable. Maybe I just don't know what I'm looking for. Does anyone have a suggestion on that?

pitdogg2

Speaker cable and some automotive crimp on spades in the right size. IF you go this route be sure to connect positive wire to one blade hole and Negative to the other OR YOU could let the magic smoke out.

or you could call Polk customer service and have them sell you one.

vcwatkins

IIRC, you won't be able to see or respond to my PM(?), so I'll post here.

If you're in the CONUS, send me your address and I'll send you a blade/blade cable. Assuming you can't send me a PM, email it to me. Click on my user name in this post to see my email.

Congrats on the SDA's!

Craig

Dennis Gardner

I will say that your setup is the oddest that I have seen. Tell us how you utilize that many monitors from that seating distance. I have seen a lot of panorama gaming setups on desktops, but your rig confuses me.

highway_chile

Dennis-
It's not for gaming. It's used during college football and basketball seasons. The additional screens pretty much lie dormant from April 1 to September 1. It's actually hard to imagine how the setup could be any better. I'm around 9 feet from the wall. 65" screen on top, 2-32" on the sides, and 3-40" below. The audio runs through an Impact Acoustics 6-way audio switcher and into an Onkyo TX-NR708 AVR with 5 Wharfedale speakers and an SVS PB-1000 subwoofer.

highway_chile

You have a PM, VC. What a generous offer!

vcwatkins

Cool. Guess you don't need 10 posts (or something like that?) to PM anymore.
PM coming shortly.

highway_chile

I know this is an audio board, but since it was brought up I thought I'd post a photo of the system in action.

Toolfan66

Cool....

vcwatkins

Nice! Like being in the Venetian sports book. How's the beer selection?

highway_chile

vcwatkins wrote: »

Nice! Like being in the Venetian sports book. How's the beer selection?

Good food and drink is the norm and not the exception, let's put it that way VC!
I shall certainly report back once the interconnect has arrived. I'm looking forward to it! The more I read about these speakers, the happier I am about the deal I got on them. A free cable just about makes it too good to be true.

RandyCroissant

Remember proper placement is very important! Rock on

vcwatkins

Maybe drop the big boy down, so that its top is even with the top of the smaller two, and move the row of 3 to the top? Slide the SDA's inward a bit, face up, open beer.

highway_chile

vcwatkins wrote: »

Maybe drop the big boy down, so that its top is even with the top of the smaller two, and move the row of 3 to the top? Slide the SDA's inward a bit, face up, open beer.

That actually sounds like a viable plan, VC. Not easy, but it just might work. The cable is slated to arrive on Thursday, so the experiment is about to begin. At this point I can place them accordingly. And I guess I'd have 4 months to get the screens moved if it came to that!

highway_chile

I came home for lunch today to discover the cable had arrived from the generous Mr. Watkins. I don't have a ton of time for extensive testing at the moment, but I did get the SDA's moved back into the listening room, connected the interconnect, and put on Steely Dan's "Gaucho" MFSL CD on the Marantz CD6005.
The room is set up as such: SDA's are 21" from the back wall. The right speaker is 27" from the side wall. Being pulled out from the wall and corner, the left speaker is now 47" from the closed door (which is the left wall). The speakers are 7' apart. My listening spot is atop a 7' triangle. This seems close, and some of the other measurements may seem helter skelter, but I'm playing the hand I'm dealt as far as room dimensions.
I am noticing much more depth than I'm used to. I also have both fans running on the Luxman M-02, as these are much more power hungry than the KG-4's. I'm eager to get the day finished and do some more serious listening. I"ll have a good hour or so after work before the wife gets home.
Thanks again to all who've offered their expertise, and first and foremost to VCWatkins for the interconnect. That is totally stupendous! More to come later.

boston1450

You may find they are too far out. By looking at pictures above & being that far out creates quite a area behind them. Just saying. Placement is usually a issue with SDA's Try them & you decide

boston1450

nm..,,,,,