Gonna buy Some SDA-2B

vader540is

I'm a noob to SDA. I have a neighbor that will sell me his pair...he is "upgrading" to a sound bar lol his wife is sick of seeing Large speakers. So anything I should check to ensure they work?. correctly? They look like the studio model...He has the original interconnect
cable, it's a pin/blade type. It has a SL2000 tweeter. Thanks for reading!

F1nut

Check the mid-drivers for shifted magnets by applying equal pressure with your fingertips around the cone and gently pushing in. You should not hear scraping or feel roughness. Check for air leaks by pushing the PR in and while holding it in watch the mid-drivers move out then slowly recede. 3 seconds is pretty good, more is better.

vader540is

Thanks!

verb

My first set of SDA's were the 2B's! Loved em, upgraded, and karma'd em to a buddy! Welcome to CP and enjoy your journey! We're here to help! Spend your money that is!

vader540is

verb wrote: »

My first set of SDA's were the 2B's! Loved em, upgraded, and karma'd em to a buddy! Welcome to CP and enjoy your journey! We're here to help! Spend your money that is!

Thank you so much! So I just got them and they are huge! Super heavy! It's late...I'll hook them up probably this weekend. So F1Nut said to push in on the PR and the speakers should stay out for 3 secs...the longer the better... So unfortunately when I push in the PR the speakers pop out and start to retract after 1-2 sec... What do I have to do to correct that?

hauxon

They start to retreat right after do have pushed the PR, there is no wait. So you push the PR and if the woofers are back three seconds later the sealing should be good enough.

vader540is

hauxon wrote: »

They start to retreat right after do have pushed the PR, there is no wait. So you push the PR and if the woofers are back three seconds later the sealing should be good enough.

Ahhh that makes sense, ok I'll check it out when I get home from work

verb

Keep us posted! Excited for you and your journey!

motorhead43026

I own the SDA-2BTL, rebuilt crossovers, Sonicaps and Mills, RDO198's, hurricane nuts, BH5, sealed cabinets.

Really enjoy these speakers.

boston1450

Press IN & HOLD passive & the woofers will go out. If they stay out for 3-5 seconds before returning-your ok... if they go back to fast. You got a leak in cabinet... I'd suggest snuggling up screws on Passive Woofers Tweeters & Binding cup on rear & then check again. I would also recommend at some point remove the woofers & put glue/LokTite PowerGrab on each side of the magnet. This will help prevent magnet shifting (which SDA mw woofers are known to happen) you only need a small bead on each side of magnet. No need for gobs & mess. Easy job. 3-4.00 at hardware store. Pay attn to how the 2 wires are connected. Label or take pictures. Also. Note the model MW #'s you have. Make sure you have the correct ones in your speaker cabinets. You can look at the Vintage Speaker thread listed "here" to make sure they are correct. You may even see the "date of manufacture"
The SDA2b speakers are great sounding speakers IMO..... if you enjoy them. You can upgrade the tweeters to RD0194 drop in replacements OR if you upgrade the crossovers you can upgrade them even better to the RD0198 which is far better. The crossovers are probably due as they are over 30 years old. Good luck & enjoy those 2b's. Dont hesitate to ask. There are folks here to help you

hauxon

boston1450 wrote: »

Press IN & HOLD passive & the woofers will go out. If they stay out for 3-5 seconds before returning-your ok...

Both of my SDA speaker woofers start retreating very shortly after I press and hold the radiator. They go back rather slowly but I haven't noticed up to 5 second delay before starting to move. Maybe my speakers could be better sealed but 5 seconds plus slow retreat seems very different from my speakers.

michaeljhsda2

The following has been my experience with 7 different pair of Polk speakers: When you push in the PR and hold it, the MW's will retreat ever so slightly at first, and when you release the PR after a few seconds, the drivers move back to their resting place.

michaeljhsda2

Didn't see Hauxon's explanation until after I posted my reply but that is very similar to how mine respond.

vader540is

So finally hooked these bad boys up and listen to some Rush, Red barchetta & Eagles, when hell freezes over, and OMG I have never heard anything like this before! It's freaking magic! I have owned
Paradigm mini monitor
Paradigm mini monitor V2
B&W DM602 S2
B&W DM602 S3
B&W 684
Polk LSi7
Polk RTi6
Polk Rti800
Polk Rti2000P
Polk Rti8
Martin Logan PreFace
Jamo E825
Klipsch RP160M
Klipsch Heresy ( 1st Gen)
Klipsch RF3
Klipsch RP280F
HTD Level 3
SVS Prime Bookshelf
Chane A1.5
Chane A2.4
And these SDA blow away everything, that I have owned! I can't believe how they sound... I can't describe it! I don't even wanna upgrade these things...but I know I'll have to...now where do it start? Tweeter 1st? Cross over? I still haven't pushed in the PR again to see if there are any bad leaks (I was just lost in the music for hours) I'll try it again later this weekend and probably open it up and check out the insides for any swollen capacitors and how the condition is of the internals etc...

F1nut

You ain't heard nutin yet.

krazypolk

vader540is wrote: »

So finally hooked these bad boys up and listen to some Rush, Red barchetta & Eagles, when hell freezes over, and OMG I have never heard anything like this before! It's freaking magic! I have owned
Paradigm mini monitor
Paradigm mini monitor V2
B&W DM602 S2
B&W DM602 S3
B&W 684
Polk LSi7
Polk RTi6
Polk Rti800
Polk Rti2000P
Polk Rti8
Martin Logan PreFace
Jamo E825
Klipsch RP160M
Klipsch Heresy ( 1st Gen)
Klipsch RF3
Klipsch RP280F
HTD Level 3
SVS Prime Bookshelf
Chane A1.5
Chane A2.4
And these SDA blow away everything, that I have owned! I can't believe how they sound... I can't describe it! I don't even wanna upgrade these things...but I know I'll have to...now where do it start? Tweeter 1st? Cross over? I still haven't pushed in the PR again to see if there are any bad leaks (I was just lost in the music for hours) I'll try it again later this weekend and probably open it up and check out the insides for any swollen capacitors and how the condition is of the internals etc...

Any pics?

Nightfall

Heck yeah. 2B's are awesome.

hauxon

Wow that's a long list of speakers! 😀

I would start with the tweeters. The tweeter is the weak point of the SDA 2B. It's cheap too.

Then there is the blue pill or the red pill... Do you want use the TL tweeter (RD0-198) from the SRS speakers or buy the drop in replacement (RD0-194)? Both cost the same and sound good but the TL one requires you to modify the crossover by adding a 5.6mH cap. It's easy if you've ever used a soldering iron before. But you might want to do some reading on caps since you would want the 5.6mH you add to be of the same type as the rest of the caps when you do the full recap. You would at least want the 12mH cap to be the same since it is too in the upper midrage/highs part. Sonicap and ClarityCap are popular brands on this forum. I got ClarityCap ESA for my 2B TL mod.

TennMan

OMG I have never heard anything like this before! It's freaking magic!

Welcome to the world of SDA! It's like the Hotel California. You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.

pitdogg2

hauxon wrote: »

Wow that's a long list of speakers! 😀

I would start with the tweeters. The tweeter is the weak point of the SDA 2B. It's cheap too.

Then there is the blue pill or the red pill... Do you want use the TL tweeter (RD0-198) from the SRS speakers or buy the drop in replacement (RD0-194)? Both cost the same and sound good but the TL one requires you to modify the crossover by adding a 5.8uf cap. It's easy if you've ever used a soldering iron before. But you might want to do some reading on caps since you would want the 5.8uf you add to be of the same type as the rest of the caps when you do the full recap. You would at least want the 12uf cap to be the same since it is too in the upper midrage/highs part. Sonicap and ClarityCap are popular brands on this forum. I got ClarityCap ESA for my 2B TL mod.

Fixed it

verb

Very cool @vader540is ! Made me think back to the day as my first set of SDA's were 2B's! Welcome to the family!

vader540is

krazypolk wrote: »

Any pics?

http://imgur.com/a/T7LHaPa

Here is a quick pic of them in my garage after I unloaded them. I didn't take of pic of them in my living room. I'm sitting about 10 feet away from them and they are 10 feet apart from each other. I have zero toe in. I'll definitely experiment with making them wider and giving them more room to breath. I'll also move my seating further back and probably use some toe-in. I'm very excited to use my Umik-1 with REW and see what these things are doing for a frequency response.

Thanks for all the awesome words and helpful comments everyone!

mhardy6647

I am in bad shape...
the title to this thread put me to mind of this golden oldie (which I doubt would be good fodder for listening to on SDAs).

https://youtu.be/nSJC-YDcS80



oh.
on topic.
least I can do.

vader540is wrote: »

krazypolk wrote: »

Any pics?

http://imgur.com/a/T7LHaPa

Here is a quick pic of them in my garage after I unloaded them. I didn't take of pic of them in my living room. I'm sitting about 10 feet away from them and they are 10 feet apart from each other. I have zero toe in. I'll definitely experiment with making them wider and giving them more room to breath. I'll also move my seating further back and probably use some toe-in. I'm very excited to use my Umik-1 with REW and see what these things are doing for a frequency response.

Thanks for all the awesome words and helpful comments everyone!

JayCee

vader540is wrote: »

I'll also move my seating further back and probably use some toe-in.

Absolutely not. SDA's are not like traditional speakers....they are designed for zero toe-in. Start 6" from any wall behind them, 6' from center to center of each speaker and the same distance to your listening position ("sweet spot"); work from there. Avoid a minimum of 3' from any corner of the room. Zealous Polkies also use a level on the top of each speaker (front to back, left to right) to ensure the speakers are perfect.

Congrats on the new speakers and welcome to Club Polk!

verb

Lol! Welcome to your first spanking! . I remember when I showcased my 2b’s neatly tucked in the corners of my room! Gosh I’m still feeling it!

For sure no toe in. IIRC minimum 4-6 ft apart, depending on your listening position, as they want to form an equilateral triangle. And away from the corners of the room as much as possible.

F1nut

Ideally, 6 to 8 feet apart.

vader540is

Thanks everyone for the helpful comments! I can't wait to get these things set up correctly!

gmcman

Congrats on the 2B's....wonderful speakers. My $.02...once you add up the price and time involved in using the stock boards and the RDO-194 tweeters, you will surely kick yourself if you end up with the RD0-198 and Gimpods boards. I would go all-in with the crossover upgrade..(boards and RDO-198).

Here's a pic of the placement guide, facing forward on the same plane and distance from side walls is critical. Actually....the whole setup is critical...and again, absolutely zero toe-in....enjoy.

vader540is

Awesome thanks! Yeah after reading a bunch...RD0-198 and Gimpods boards are definitely the way to go.

vader540is

gmcman wrote: »

Congrats on the 2B's....wonderful speakers. My $.02...once you add up the price and time involved in using the stock boards and the RDO-194 tweeters, you will surely kick yourself if you end up with the RD0-198 and Gimpods boards. I would go all-in with the crossover upgrade..(boards and RDO-198).

Here's a pic of the placement guide, facing forward on the same plane and distance from side walls is critical. Actually....the whole setup is critical...and again, absolutely zero toe-in....enjoy.

Would this place be ok to purchase from?

https://reconingspeakers.com/product/polk-sl2500-tweeter/

gmcman

vader540is wrote: »

Would this place be ok to purchase from?

https://reconingspeakers.com/product/polk-sl2500-tweeter/

I've never purchased from them, most members purchase those tweeters directly from Polk. Let them know you're a forum member and get 10% off.