To carry on with SDA SRS or not.....?

brekekex

I feel like I am in a 1st world predicament.

Quick history: fell in love with my sda 2b's. Later upgraded to pin/blade SDA SRS2's which I was absolutely enamored with.
Now a pair of SDA SRS are sitting pretty in my room and I am left wondering if I love them.

Question is: persevere and pull the trigger on eight rdo194 and a recap, or looks elsewhere before I have committed to them?

F1nut

I think that's a decision you have to make.

nooshinjohn

brekekex wrote: »

I feel like I am in a 1st world predicament.



Question is: persevere and pull the trigger on eight rdo194 and a recap, or looks elsewhere before I have committed to them?

You will be out of pocket a grand to upgrade them, or 10k to surpass the upgraded SRS.

As Jesse said, it's your call. I am just asking "what's in your wallet".

Nightfall

How big is your room?

tonyb

That's certainly a decision the OP has to make himself, but if it was me, I'd say sell them and move on.

[Deleted User]

From my experience with SDA SRS 2s, I would think the big boys need a really large room to sound their best.

brekekex

I will make a decision, but since I am in a predicament, I welcome opinions, suggestions and simply differing perspectives to give me something to ponder.

Will they really sound on par with speakers of $10k caliber?

The room is 15'x25' with 8' ceilings.
Heavily treated with much skyline diffusion and absorption, bass traps.

15' wall is the front wall and that is where the speakers sit.

Thanks for your input, all.

crashb4

My SRS are currently in a much smaller room. They still sound terrific although it is easy to overdrive the room. I have a pending move which will provide me with a room a bit larger than yours with 9' ceilings. I have done the RDO-194 tweets and sealed the cabinets. Thus far I am about $900.00 into it over the cost of the speakers. For me; and this might just be me; I prefer a good old big block Chevelle to a current turbo 4 cylinder performance car. That is how I see these speakers compared to some of the newer whiz bang stuff. Personal preference, but I enjoy knowing that I can unleash raw power at will. I also enjoy taking a classic and bringing its performance up to more modern standards. That's just my $0.02. Take it for what it's worth.

Nightfall

Are they original SRS or a 1.2 variant?

brekekex

They date back to 1986, contain all MW6503 and SL2000 drivers, and are of the blade/blade type i/c.
I believe they are original SDA SRS.

michaeljhsda2

brekekex wrote: »

They date back to 1986, contain all MW6503 and SL2000 drivers, and are of the blade/blade type i/c.
I believe they are original SDA SRS.

Original SDA SRS is correct. The fact that they have the blade/blade IC socket confirms that. Polk never made a blade/blade SDA SRS 1.2 or 1.2 TL.

crashb4

Gen 1 SRS. Same as mine.

[Deleted User]

Remember , that any money that you invest in these speakers, probably will never be recouped, if you decide to sell them. 175 lb speakers have a really small market considering moving or shipping them. I found out the hard way.

Mikey081057

I should sell mine... My Ushers with a small sub really do it for me... Not saying better but fit the room and have the sweetest tweeties I've ever heard.

Still thanks to @DSkip

tonyb

Mikey081057 wrote: »

fit the room and have the sweetest tweeties ...

Knew a few girls like that back in H.S....

txcoastal1

Put your glasses on Tony he said tweeties

crashb4

It is true that these speakers will not hold value for resale after updates such as those recommended on this forum.This should be considered in your decision. If you want a statement piece that will blow your socks off........ go for it.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Schurkey

brekekex wrote: »

Quick history: fell in love with my sda 2b's. Later upgraded to pin/blade SDA SRS2's which I was absolutely enamored with.
Now a pair of SDA SRS are sitting pretty in my room and I am left wondering if I love them.

Question is: persevere and pull the trigger on eight rdo194 and a recap, or looks elsewhere before I have committed to them?

I would replace the caps with Dayton/ERSE level components. They're much better than what came in the speakers new, and the original caps are far beyond their expected service life. You could even buy four NEW 130uF electrolytic caps used on the SDA circuit for chump change and have an improvement over the elderly original caps; although I'm not specifically recommending that. Other folks will complain that the Dayton/ERSE stuff isn't as wonderful as the expensive Teflon-in-Unicorn-Tears caps; but they're FAR better than what's in there now. If you fall in love with the speakers, you can always upgrade the caps as your budget allows. I never felt the need to go beyond Dayton/ERSE caps with my 1Bs.

Shiit-can the polyswitches. Upgrade the five resistors if you have the urge. Leave the inductors alone.

First Guess: Those original caps and polyswitches are why you're having second thoughts about the speakers. That and perhaps they're too big for your room. LISTEN to them at this point. You like them more, you go on to the next phase. They still leave you cold, sell 'em for something else.

My 1Bs have two tweeters, one of which is the "main" unit in each cabinet. I replaced the two main tweeters. The secondary tweeters are rolled-off well below the 12K resonance of the SL2000 drivers. You could start with replacing one tweet in each cabinet instead of all four in each cabinet. I suggest replacing T3, but other folks may have a better idea.

Lifting the sagging internal damping material, damping the driver baskets, assuring that the cabinets are air-tight...cost little except for labor.

Fresh, inexpensive caps, two tweeters, and some labor will give you a much better look at what potential those speakers have. If you don't love 'em, you'll sell the '194s here at a small loss, and none of the rest of what you upgraded cost very much.

Schurkey

Double-post, sorry.

brekekex

Thank you all for your views on the matter.... it is exactly what I needed to make up my mind, and the path to take from here is as Schurkey suggested.

I have also realized, after discussing this with my lady, that I would forever regret not giving these speakers a fair go. Whatever the outcome is, I will live with them for a while.

Thank you all!

K_M

Facing a somewhat similar predicament here.

Love them in one way, but have sorta moved on to things that are more appealing overall, but hate to get rid of them.
Sheer size and space needed is a huge downside. They sound very good still, but found smaller, easier to manage speakers with subs that are just more attractive in many ways.

Hate to see them go, but hate to keep them...lol

nspindel

All this talk about size being an issue for your speakers is what makes me love my CRS+'s. Tiny compared to all other SDAs, but man can they pack a punch. More than enough for the room I have them in, so they were completely worth the money I put into them for a first rate mod job.

lawdogg

You guys just don't love em? Man I gotta say, I love my 3.1TLs. Every time I listen to them, I love them. I've had a lot of speakers and I've only ever loved a few (IMF and Magnepan among them). But I can't ever see falling out of love with the 3.1TLs. No matter how small the space, no matter what else comes through the door.

So I'm trying to come up with something useful to say but I just can't do it.

sbb2112

I bought mine new and am just finishing up the upgrades now. All of the upgrades and I'm nowhere near the cost of what it would cost to buy a comparable pair of something new. If yours sound like mine, a little tired, a little investment in time and a little cash will be worth it.

drumminman

Love my 2.3tl's. did all the mods plus a couple of tweaks, and they sound stunning. For me the pros outweigh the cons by a wide margin.

Emlyn

Consider it a hobby upgrading the speakers. After owning several pairs of SDAs and upgrading them in some way I eventually moved on to other hobbies and different speakers. The big speakers were too big to justify keeping around unused. As others have said, the money spent on updating will not be recouped if the speakers are sold. However, it may make it easier to sell them.

Gerres26

I love the sound you get from the large srs speakers. Really tough to beat. Looking for a pair to claim for myself so if anyone in this thread looking to sell a pair of the large srs let me know i may be interested.