SDA

Stew

The original SDA's were approximately $1,000 to $3,000 a pair. Doubling that to adjust for inflation would put them at $2,000 to $6,000 per pair. IMHO, It seems like something in that price range or a little higher would have a good chance of success. Polk has always been about performing above their price point.

xsmi

Stew, I was overshooting a bit so that people wouldn't get TOO bent out of shape if Polk needed to charge a little more. My guess is they would as R&D and marketing is going to be a bit more expensive than it was in 1991.

tonyb

DSkip wrote: »

Not sure how you view them competing against themselves? If SDA is implemented in the new line, it will be a new flagship line. The LSiM has years on it now and the line is probably reaching the end of its cycle (if its not already there).

In a world where there are hundreds to thousands of audio products in the world, I find it interesting that you think Polk couldn't compete if the product was done right and incorporated an excellent version of SDA in it. I'm not saying it would be an easy road to travel, but with the right marketing and demos in appropriate settings (like audio shows), it could be a gamechanger for them.

Maybe you misunderstood.....I never said Polk couldn't compete, just not at the higher end of audio. They compete quite well within their targeted audience. A quality built SDA speaker will no doubt have added costs to it over what it costs them to produce LSIM's. Personally, and I agree, that the LSIM line within a few years will get replaced, think replacing it with a more expensive model like an SDA might struggle a bit.

For them to take on another attempt at higher end audio, the stars have to align. Meaning, the company has to have the budget for it, support it and market it, the consumer base has to be doing better economically to look at a more expensive product from a brand that built it's reputation on bang for the buck.

It seems to me, Polks current strategy was to streamline their offerings, evident by dumping the Monitor series and LSI's. Adding another series is something I don't think they want to do. Replacing a current series with a more expensive one seems risky also. In order to have a shot at success, they'd need to have the company throw it's full support behind it and the funds to make it happen. Not so sure todays climate supports that endeavor.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong, but logic dictates over desire in my world. Many would like to see SDA's come back in all it's glory, just don't think it's a wise business move at this juncture for them.

mhardy6647

tonyb wrote: »

...
There are still well to do folks out there that buy higher end stuff, but those folks aren't going to be looking at Polk products. These types don't necessarily put value for dollar spent as the top priority, they like brand recognition as a statement of their own personal successes...

Thus is McIntosh still around

motorstereo

What a great thread this is. It's very informative yet entertaining and it has also reinforced the notion that I've made the right choice with my 1.2tl's as lifetime keepers.

nooshinjohn

Right there with you Motor. I am fortunate to have a few pieces that are never going anywhere.

xsmi

I WISH I had 1.2TL's. My SRS 2's will have to do for now. What about a lineup like this?

Signature Series
LSiM -Replacement
SDA

Each line has no more than 4 speakers in it with a center and surrounds. That's STILL less cluttered than what is offered at the moment.

Nightfall

@xsmi you might be surprised to find that you prefer your SRS 2s to 1.2s in the end.

xsmi

I've heard 1.2TL's many times. I KNOW I want them.

nooshinjohn

I would love to see Polk go with DMD or ribbon tweeters in a new SDA. Is it possible we might get a broad overview of what might be on the table?

tonyb

nooshinjohn wrote: »

I would love to see Polk go with DMD or ribbon tweeters in a new SDA. Is it possible we might get a broad overview of what might be on the table?

LOL, you and me both but I think we are starting to live in fantasy land there. Some want totl drivers, real wood cabinets, diamond tweets or ribbons, higher grade crossover parts, higher grade finishes.....suddenly those new SDA's will be hitting the 7-8k category.

I'd like to see Polk partner with someone on a new series of SDA to bring them into the modern world. Say someone like Jim Salk, I really like what he's done and how his speakers progressed. To put out a series of more expensive speakers, I think if Polk collaborated with other higher end brands it would go a long way into re-introducing the Polk name back into the higher end circles. Just a thought.

xsmi

OK. I admit it, I'm a fanboy! I understand that Polk damaged their reputation with the high end market. But again, I have to believe that what I was told in the mid '90's by a prominent high end dealer in this area that the damage was done by going after discount big box business. It wasn't that their product was lacking, it was where they wanted to do business. Yes, that hurts brand, but I have to believe that if Polk announced, were serious about getting back into the high end market, they can do that. Put those kinds oaf parts in their offerings will go a long way in showing how serious they are.

K_M

I thinks the Lsi and Lsim are pretty serious about being "highER end" speakers, but still being quite cost effective.
They got rave reviews, are considered by most to be quite good sounding, and use fairly decent drivers., and have great fit and finish, and looks.

Now if you are talking "High priced", I do not Polk doing that again effectively.
I do not see Polk being able to sell speakers costing much more than those 2 lines, as any quantity that would net a profit.
Also, what was deemed high priced or high end, in the late 1980s, has changed in the intervening 25 years.

xsmi

I wonder where Polk is on this today?

xsmi

I hope not...

FestYboy

It's been pushed aside for sound bar "innovation".

pitdogg2

tonyb wrote: »

show previous quotes

nooshinjohn wrote: »

I would love to see Polk go with DMD or ribbon tweeters in a new SDA. Is it possible we might get a broad overview of what might be on the table?

LOL, you and me both but I think we are starting to live in fantasy land there. Some want totl drivers, real wood cabinets, diamond tweets or ribbons, higher grade crossover parts, higher grade finishes.....suddenly those new SDA's will be hitting the 7-8k category.

I dunno Tony in today's money those 3500.00 SDA's of 1992 are close if not more, not to mention all the SRT's they sold that were what 10K or close to it? Those would be Legacy Whisper money if not more in today's dollars...

tonyb

pitdogg2 wrote: »

show previous quotes

tonyb wrote: »

nooshinjohn wrote: »

I would love to see Polk go with DMD or ribbon tweeters in a new SDA. Is it possible we might get a broad overview of what might be on the table?

LOL, you and me both but I think we are starting to live in fantasy land there. Some want totl drivers, real wood cabinets, diamond tweets or ribbons, higher grade crossover parts, higher grade finishes.....suddenly those new SDA's will be hitting the 7-8k category.

I dunno Tony in today's money those 3500.00 SDA's of 1992 are close if not more, not to mention all the SRT's they sold that were what 10K or close to it? Those would be Legacy Whisper money if not more in today's dollars...

Exactly, in "todays money", because that's where we live, most of us anyway. To make a speaker today with the wish list we all want, your talkin' min. 7k. Polk can't sell a 7k + speaker, not in todays competition.

nooshinjohn

Where did my comment go? It was neither rude, nor offensive. Just said the idea was dead and buried.

pitdogg2

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Where did my comment go? It was neither rude, nor offensive. Just said the idea was dead and buried.

who's this guy ^^^ can anyone see him? John ? John is that you???

nooshinjohn

Lol...

xsmi

Is this stuff you've read, or writing on the wall? I'm just asking...

DarqueKnight

tonyb wrote: »

To make a speaker today with the wish list we all want, your talkin' min. 7k. Polk can't sell a 7k + speaker, not in todays competition.

Polk could sell a 7K+ speaker IF they create a separate and distinct "luxury" brand similar to what Toyota did with Lexus and what Nissan did with Infiniti and, IF they marketed it properly. The fit, finish, and performance of the LSiM series, and the performance of modded SDAs provides some insight that Polk could compete with the best high end speaker brands if they really wanted to enter that market.

pitdogg2

DarqueKnight wrote: »

show previous quotes

tonyb wrote: »

To make a speaker today with the wish list we all want, your talkin' min. 7k. Polk can't sell a 7k + speaker, not in todays competition.

Polk could sell a 7K+ speaker IF they create a separate and distinct "luxury" brand similar to what Toyota did with Lexus and what Nissan did with Infiniti and, IF they marketed it properly. The fit, finish, and performance of the LSiM series, and the performance of modded SDAs provides some insight that Polk could compete with the best high end speaker brands if they really wanted to enter that market.

I think they could do it as Polk. Just market it as the people that brought you High End SDA's and SRT's back to our high end roots
Finally back where we belong
Or something like that.

Then again I'm not in marketing

Earthy

I don't listen to my 2.3 TL's much these days. My Dad got them back in the '80's and I was so jealous. He gave them to me a decade ago. I don't have the best room for them. They do sound great but I know we are missing something due to placement. Lately I wonder if I should let them go to someone that has a better space. Just owning them is kind of satisfying and maybe that is enough.

gimpod

There use to be a sticky (by the man himself) posted in July of 2001 by Kim (Jasper ?) in the Vintage Speakers Section that got deleted, It's just gone or I just can't find it. Thank god for "Internet Archive: Wayback Machine" here's a re-post.

Why were SDA's discontinued? by Matthew Polk

"Here is the answer to that burning question written by Matthew Polk.

This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer mainly because there is no simple answer. We began selling the SDA products in 1982 and stopped making them around 1990 except for a brief revival with the SRT system made in 1995 and 1996. From the first SDA-1 shown at CES in June 1982 customers loved them. However, this was not necessarily true of the retailers. SDA was a radical departure from the traditional audiophile concept of how audio should be reproduced and many of the salespeople in stores at that time were audiophiles. As a result, many of them hated SDA and steered customers away from them. In addition, because of the way SDA speakers work many retailers did not get them set up properly for demonstration which didn't help either. In spite of this SDA products sold amazingly well particularly when you consider how expensive they were relative to most everything else on the market. As I recall the original SDA-1 started out at $1,600 per pair retail at a time when most stores had nothing over $1,000 per pair. But, anyone who actually got to hear them was absolutely blown away and we were able to get a few good reviews particularly from Michael Riggs at High-Fidelity who described SDA as "Mind-boggling, astounding!". By 1986 we had a full line of SDA products from the SDA CRS+ at under $1,000 to the SRS-1.2 at $3,500.

But, the industry was changing rapidly. First, the era of big speakers was coming to an end and non-hobbyist customers were starting to prefer the then new sub-sat systems and the then brand-new concept of in-wall speakers. SDA speakers were big. The classic side-by-side driver arrangement meant a wide front baffle for any SDA product just as the trend was going to narrow towers and smaller speakers in general. Second, the small independent retailers were gradually turning into large regional chains with huge open format stores and non-hobbyist salespeople. The result of this was that retailers began to lose the ability to really demonstrate the performance of audio products. It's really impossible to describe the experience of SDA to someone. It really has to be demonstrated. So, as the stores became less and less able to demonstrate high performance products customers didn't have an opportunity to experience what SDA could deliver. Third, the development of digital electronics and surround sound drove the cost of high quality audio components rapidly upward but drove the cost of low quality surround sound receivers rapidly downward with a commensurate reduction in performance. Because of the channel cross coupling in SDA it is always a difficult load for an amp to drive. Many of the new multi-channel receivers just couldn't do it. So, with fewer and more expensive high performance amps the options for good SDA electronics became very slim.

So, a combination of changes in what non-hobbyist customers wanted and what the retailers were capable of selling plus changing technology made the SDA products much more difficult to sell. Of course it had nothing to do with the performance of the SDA systems which continues too astonish people even today.

-msp "

FestYboy

So that post is (I'll assume) now 20-ish years old? I think the HiFi scene has changed for the better since, especially as of late. It's time for a resurgence.

smglbrth

Not that it matters but I seriously doubt they'll ever come back to regular production. I can see Polk making an "anniversary" edition of small SDA's, similar to the CRS or 2A/B. Even that would be such a small market segment I doubt they would do it. However, they would sell them no doubt, for that one year. Regular production SDA's like the old days? Not a chance me thinks...

verb

Is there anybody out there that mimicks SDA-like technology today? Either passively (Polk) or actively like Carver Sonic Holography back in the day?

It’s seems like the HT world is going down a similar path, widening the soundstage, but 360 degrees, just by adding more speakers. Jeez we’re up to 11.2 now? I’m at 9.2, hard to keep up.

Viking64

verb wrote: »

I’m at 9.2, hard to keep up.

*wink*