just picked up a mint pair of SDA1C's...however, trying to resolve some issues...

91rtstealth

Check these things out. They are in fantastic shape. At this point, I have SDA 1B's, 1C's, and 2B's..haha..

I made a post a while back about the mids on my 1B's and unfortunately I'm running into the same issue with these. I thought it might be slightly different considering the different mid drivers, but nope. I just find that these speakers make piano's sound bad...they come out of the mix too much, but don't sound clear or defined. I notice it particularly on Diana Krall's "Look of Love" piano solo.

I love everything else about these speakers and I would like to try to alleviate this if I could, but before I go through the trouble and expense of recapping, I want to see if there's a way to remedy this or if anyone else has run into this. It might just be that I just don't love the sound of these speakers, who knows. I find that the SDA2B's aren't as harsh so I plan on recapping them anyways for the fun and experimentation of it. Is there any way i can smoothen out the mids of these speakers a bit?

before anyone asks, I've tried different preamp/amp/cable combinations. When I swap these out



for my JBL4425 or Kef 103.2's and play the same song, it sounds fine. With the SDA's, that piano is WAY out front, but not very clear. It actually hurts my ears..haha..

Lastly, one of the binding posts broke off...any recommendations as to what I should replace them with and where I should get them?

Thanks guys...

check these beauties out...

nooshinjohn

Try getting them six inches or so off the back wall, and check to make sure they are wired correctly.

First thing on the list would be to restore and upgrade your crossovers. This will go a long way towards increasing the performance of your speakers and your enjoyment of them.

91rtstealth

nooshinjohn wrote: »

Try getting them six inches or so off the back wall, and check to make sure they are wired correctly.

First thing on the list would be to restore and upgrade your crossovers. This will go a long way towards increasing the performance of your speakers and your enjoyment of them.

I do pull them away from the wall when I listen to them, I just put them back when I'm done so no one bumps into them when they walk through my living room. I also checked all the wiring and put those rdo194's in right away.

I want to redo the crossovers, I'm just afraid I'm going to spend the 400-500 on boards and quality caps and still hate the mids, and then have the resale value be next to nothing. These don't sell well in my area. That's why I end up getting them so cheaply. They just sit on CL and Facebook Marketplace. Most people don't know what these speakers are.

nooshinjohn

You won’t be selling them.

F1nut

Put all the money into the 2B's. Sell the rest.

91rtstealth

F1nut wrote: »

Put all the money into the 2B's. Sell the rest.

I plan on doing the TL mod with sonicaps to the 2b's first to see if it makes THAT much of a difference..if it does, I'm going to mod the 1C's as well to see how they sound. I"m selling the 1B's to my best friend for his new house. It's his first nice stereo set up.

I'm saving up currently to do the 2b's and I'm trying to get this local guy to sell me his SDA2A's with the nice real wood cabinets. I just want to get the cabinets so I can swap all my 2B parts into them. I like the way the real wood cabinets look. I should be able to easily swap everything, correct?

91rtstealth

oh...and for the 1C crossovers, do ya'll still recommend the sonicaps over clarity caps? or is the 1C a totally different animal. I know everyone seems to recommend the sonicaps over clarity caps for the 2B's.

pitdogg2

Sonicap tends to have exact values needed for most if not all SDA's. Nothing wrong with Clarity, values seem to be off a smidge one way or another or the need to parallel to get said value. Many do like them so it is more personal preference than anything.

F1nut

The 1C's have a very different sound than the 2B's stock or modified.

91rtstealth

I really just want speakers that sound as neutral/transparent as possible. I'm a professional musician..I like things to sound real and uncolored. I don't want to brighten them up or anything like that. It seems to me that sonicaps are the way to go for that, at least that's according to what i've read.

does anyone know if I can just simply swap the components of an sda2b into sda2a cabinets? I'd like to know that before I try to buy his. I'm fairly certain his are A's because of the blade blade IC, and I want to stick with the B "guts" because of their modification capabilities.

Nightfall

There are blade/blade 2Bs. Mine are.

91rtstealth

Nightfall wrote: »

There are blade/blade 2Bs. Mine are.

interesting...so the blade blade cable doesn't necessarily mean it has a dual board crossover?

pitdogg2

91rtstealth wrote: »

Does anyone know if I can just simply swap the components of an sda2b into sda2a cabinets? I'd like to know that before I try to buy his. I'm fairly certain his are A's because of the blade blade IC, and I want to stick with the B "guts" because of their modification capabilities.

Why would you do that 2b cabinets shot? Cabinets cut out would be the same for drivers and tweeter. SDA2b are cheaper to buy caps for but you would need to pull driver to make sure one is A or B. SDA2a has both drivers MW6510. SDA2b has 1 MW6503 and 1 mw6511

Moose68Bash

91rtstealth wrote: »

Check these things out. They are in fantastic shape. At this point, I have SDA 1B's, 1C's, and 2B's..haha..

I made a post a while back about the mids on my 1B's and unfortunately I'm running into the same issue with these. I thought it might be slightly different considering the different mid drivers, but nope. I just find that these speakers make piano's sound bad...they come out of the mix too much, but don't sound clear or defined. I notice it particularly on Diana Krall's "Look of Love" piano solo.

@91rtstealth,

Your comments and questions about your 1Cs piqued my curiosity, particularly with respect to your impressions of their rendering of Diana Krall's piano solo in "Look of Love."

So, I did an experiment: I listened to "Look of Love" on my "fully" mod'd 1Cs, and then listened to them on my also "fully" mod'd 1.2tls.

My observations about the two renderings follow.
First, about the 1Cs:

1. Krall was perfectly centered on the soundstage, and the sound of the piano was positioned slightly to the right, where I would have expected it to be.
2. The sound of the piano was well organized, and the notes were clear and well defined.
3. Krall appeared to be seated slightly in front of the plane of the speakers, as did the piano. The drums and other instruments appeared to be properly arrayed behind and around her and the piano. This created a visual image that I would have expected had I witnessed the live performance from a front-row, center seat.
4. I was surprised by the sound of the final run of notes from mid to high at the end of the track. Not only were they clear and tonally correct with the correct timbre, but I also thought I could hear the sound coming from strings closer to me as she executed the run. The latter phenomenon is what I would have expected from a live performance of a similar run, for example, by my daughter while listening to her playing in my living room.

Now, about the 1.2tls:

1. Krall was perfectly centered on the soundstage, and the sound of the piano was positioned to the right, as expected.
2. Krall was situated slightly behind the plane of the front of the speakers, as was the piano. The other instruments were situated behind and around her, deeper into the soundstage as I would have expected.
3. The sound of the piano was well organized, and the individual notes were clear, distinct, and had the correct timbre.
4. Overall, the sound was mellower, softer, less "technical" than it was with the 1Cs.
5. While listening, I felt that I was at the same level as Krall and her band. I did not feel as if I were in a concert venue, sitting in seats below the level of the stage. I felt like I was very close to Krall and "present" as the music was being produced by the performers. It was like being in my living room listening to my daughter sing and play live.

The two systems I use are very different in many ways beyond the differences between the 1Cs and 1.2tls, as the details in my signature show. In particular, I would note that the family room system has a tube preamp, while the exercise room system uses a PS Audio Perfectwave DAC MkII. The speaker cables are very different: The family room cables are AQ Sky XLRs; the exercise room cables are Supra Rondo 4x2.5 with banana plugs. The amp for the family room system is a CAT 600.2 dual-mono amp; the exercise room amp is a 30+ years-old Perreaux PMF3150 two-channel stereo amp.

I enjoyed both renditions. The rendering of the 1C-system demanded my attention and, perhaps, might have been slightly toward the fatiguing end of the spectrum versus the 1.2tl-system, to which I could (and do) listen for many hours on end.

My wife did not participate in this experiment, but I would expect her to say she prefers the sound of the 1.2tls because the sound of the 1Cs would be a bit harsh for her ears.

With respect to modifying the 1Cs, my advice would be to go for it full bore. They can and will produce spectacular music for your pleasure if they are given the right "back up."

Moose68Bash

@91rtstealth,

As a footnote to the above, here is a list of the mods I did or had done on my 1Cs that I copied from my thread about this subject:

1.Installed RDO 194 Tweeters

2.Installed Crossovers Upgraded by Vr3 Mods:
a. Gimpod Boards
b. Clarity Caps
i.Tweeter Network: Clarity Cap ESAs:
ii.Midbass Network: Clarity Cap PXs
c. Mundorf Resistors
d. Jantzen Perfect-lay Inductors: Board-mounted & SDA

3.Custom SDA Interconnect Cables by Vr3 Mods:
a. Supra Rondo 2.5 Cable
b. Neutrik speakOn NL2FC Male Connectors (Speaker Ends)
c. Banana Connectors (Dreadnought Ends)

4.Custom Aluminum Binding-Post Plates by Vr3 Mods:
a. Upgraded Binding Posts
b. Neutrik speakOn NLJ2MD Female Jack Receptacles for SDA Cables

5.Dreadnought SDA Amplifier Interface per DarqueKnight’s Design:
a. Toroid Corporation of Maryland 600VA Transformer [Now, upgraded.]
b. “Larry’s Enclosure” by Toolfan66
c. Cardas CCGR Binding Posts

6.“Larry’s Brackets & Rings” by Toolfan66:
a. Brackets for Tweeters
b. Rings for MWs and PRs

7.Black Hole 5 Installed behind Tweeters, MWs, and on Sides in Cabinets

8.Dynamat Xtreme on MW and Passive Radiator Baskets

9.JB Weld on MW Magnets

10.Custom-cut Gaskets for PRs (1/4” Neoprene Material)

11.Spikes

All of this was well worth the effort, time and money!

westmassguy

91rtstealth wrote: »

I really just want speakers that sound as neutral/transparent as possible. I'm a professional musician..I like things to sound real and uncolored. I don't want to brighten them up or anything like that. It seems to me that sonicaps are the way to go for that, at least that's according to what i've read.

does anyone know if I can just simply swap the components of an sda2b into sda2a cabinets? I'd like to know that before I try to buy his. I'm fairly certain his are A's because of the blade blade IC, and I want to stick with the B "guts" because of their modification capabilities.

The 2B crossovers and harnesses will work perfectly in the 2A cabinets.

91rtstealth

damn..that's quite an extensive list of mods. When I get back home from my tour, i'll mess around with the position of them a little bit and see if that helps. I just find that the mids can be overpowering at times, but it's usually only an issue with the SDA cable connected. I actually disconnected the lower SDA driver on both speakers as an experiment and it mellowed things out a little bit. I think the SDA effect just has a tendency to make the mids sound a little odd to me, but not using the SDA cable takes away that massive sound stage that I love.

In summary, I think I'm just going to redo the crossovers on my 2b's with sonicaps first and see if the difference is substantial enough for me to want to do it to the 1c's as well. If I still don't fall in love with these speakers, I'm just going to save and get a pair of JBL L250's like I've always wanted.

91rtstealth

westmassguy wrote: »

91rtstealth wrote: »

I really just want speakers that sound as neutral/transparent as possible. I'm a professional musician..I like things to sound real and uncolored. I don't want to brighten them up or anything like that. It seems to me that sonicaps are the way to go for that, at least that's according to what i've read.

does anyone know if I can just simply swap the components of an sda2b into sda2a cabinets? I'd like to know that before I try to buy his. I'm fairly certain his are A's because of the blade blade IC, and I want to stick with the B "guts" because of their modification capabilities.

The 2B crossovers and harnesses will work perfectly in the 2A cabinets.

and thanks for answering this...My current 2b's are pretty mint in terms of the drivers and everything and there's a local guy with a pair of 2A's (I think they are 2A's due to the blade blade cable, but hopefully i'm wrong) with the real wood cabinets I want. I want to try to buy them cheaply and make one awesome pair of 2B's in the real wood cabinets. Just wanted to make sure everything would swap easily.

F1nut

The 2B came in a studio and regular version. The studio covering is a vinyl laminate available in black or wood tone colors. The regular 2B has wood veneer end caps with cloth side panels. The 2B studio cabinets and 2A cabinets look vertically identical, but the 2A could be had with wood veneer or wood tone vinyl laminate.

So, what you think might be wood veneer is actually vinyl. Decorating tip, black goes with everything.

91rtstealth

F1nut wrote: »

The 2B came in a studio and regular version. The studio covering is a vinyl laminate available in black or wood tone colors. The regular 2B has wood veneer end caps with cloth side panels. The 2B studio cabinets and 2A cabinets look vertically identical, but the 2A could be had with wood veneer or wood tone vinyl laminate.

So, what you think might be wood veneer is actually vinyl. Decorating tip, black goes with everything.

i'm talking about these....these are all real wood, correct? and if they come in this variation, does that guarantee that it's a 2B as opposed to an A? In his pics, I see a blade blade connector so I just assumed that meant it was an A

https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--ky2j_OLx--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_90,w_620/v1497712113/ghyt30etmh8uerdhjyjx.jpg

pitdogg2

Those are 2b and real wood end caps



SDA2a
https://www.ebay.com/i/113886338972?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=113886338972&targetid=593772112973&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=2086088304&mkgroupid=77258593396&rlsatarget=pla-593772112973&abcId=1141016&merchantid=6296724&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrJeF26OS5QIVzcDACh2nAQgyEAQYAiABEgJZkvD_BwE

F1nut

Yep, early 2B blade/blade with wood veneer end caps and cloth sides, which are falling off.

91rtstealth

awesome...I didn't know this. In that case, I might just buy them when I get back from Key West.