What speaker made you give up your Polks?

Joshwest90

Hey everyone!

I just recently had a driver go out in my SDA-2A and it’s gotten me into looking at speakers again. I have had a pair of smaller Klipsch towers, and definitive tech towers and I’ve not found anything to really pull me away for the vintage polks and the SDA technology.

For those of you who have made the jump; what speakers made you take the leap? What do you miss about the polks that you don’t get from your current setup?

Sound_Recluse

When you say it "went out" what's it doing?

Sound_Recluse

If you say they are 2As then the drivers are mw6510.. there are currently 4 of those drivers for sale on ebay right now.. you could get yours fixed and have a spare.

Adam

mantis

Back in the day I was die hard Polk audio. I joined this forum way back in the 90's when it was a brand new thing.
I had SDA's, RT , LSI , an array of in wall and in ceiling and a pair of Outdoors.
The speaker that took me away from Polk in my main system was Dynaudio. They did things I felt the polk LSI's could not.

motorstereo

9 years some 1.2tl's made me give up my 2.3s; does that count ?

mlistens03

I gave up my LSi25s for KEF Q150s and now Martin Logans. They just were a little darker than I liked. They were incredible if you were sitting perfectly on-axis but if you weren't they were little more than ok.

Both my KEFs and my Martin Logans staged much better and sound better off axis. There are many things they don't do as well though. One day I could see myself buying another pair.

mhardy6647

Very vintage Altec.

soundfreak1

ADS 1590.

BlueFox

I went on a roll starting back around 2003 or so. I went from SDA-2B to PSB Synchrony One. That lasted a while, and then upgraded to Aerial Acoustics 7T. Finally, I upgraded the Aerials to Magico S5. A year or so later I traded the Magico S5 for the upgraded Magico S5 MK II. At this point, I have zero desire for anything else.

treitz3

Tyler Acoustic 7U's

I still have Tyler's but not those. Moved on up the line and then modified them to the absolute extreme.

SPEAKERS - Tyler Acoustics Lynbrook Signature Series one piece towers in Ribbon Mahogany. The speakers have been completely disassembled and rebuilt/finished from the ground up, resealed, damping material added, crossovers removed from the cabinet. Also, upgraded wiring, spikes, back plate and NL4 connector/umbilical cord that connects back to the crossover networks.

CROSSOVER - The crosssovers have been removed from the cabinets and were part of a 3 and a half year project from design to finished product. Completely custom. A cabinet enclosure was manufactured from scratch to hold three levels of crossover components. 1st level, the original crossovers that came with the speakers. 2nd level, the tweeter network with all VR3 Abott series upgrades (his top tier line). 3rd level, VR3 Abott series upgrade bass and mid-bass network. This is actually two crossover networks in one enclosure so we can very rapidly change from the original crossovers that came with the speakers to the upgraded crossovers. Custom aircraft aluminum chassis with independently suspended/isolated shelves, powder coated black and spiked w/ custom umbilical cord to speakers with NL4 connections to the speakers.

Tom

motorstereo

soundfreak1 wrote: »

ADS 1590.

Great speakers; Which model Polks did they send packing?

slow_polk7

Give up my Polks? -- blasphemy!

Sound_Recluse

The best of the best.. and cant nobody tell me any different.


Lol.. I'm with slow_polk7 I could never give up my polks

tratliff

Legacy Focus S/E's and a pair of REL Carbons.

BlueFox

BlueFox wrote: »

I went on a roll starting back around 2003 or so. I went from SDA-2B to PSB Synchrony One. That lasted a while, and then upgraded to Aerial Acoustics 7T. Finally, I upgraded the Aerials to Magico S5. A year or so later I traded the Magico S5 for the upgraded Magico S5 MK II. At this point, I have zero desire for anything else.

Adding a picture.

Joshwest90

Sound_Recluse wrote: »

When you say it "went out" what's it doing?

One driver is muffled and crackles. Pulled it out and it fluctuates between 6.0-6.7 ohms. There’s a point in movement of the speaker where I feel it catch and it sounds like a click when you move the woofer.

Mikey081057

Had RT's SDA 2.3's LSI's LSIM's and now have Ushers...

Better all around, less picky regarding placement... awesome sound stage and the finest soundig tweeter you can find for the $$$$.

Easier to drive, with way better aesthetics.

tratliff

treitz3 wrote: »

Tyler Acoustic 7U's

I still have Tyler's but not those. Moved on up the line and then modified them to the absolute extreme.

SPEAKERS - Tyler Acoustics Lynbrook Signature Series one piece towers in Ribbon Mahogany. The speakers have been completely disassembled and rebuilt/finished from the ground up, resealed, damping material added, crossovers removed from the cabinet. Also, upgraded wiring, spikes, back plate and NL4 connector/umbilical cord that connects back to the crossover networks.

CROSSOVER - The crosssovers have been removed from the cabinets and were part of a 3 and a half year project from design to finished product. Completely custom. A cabinet enclosure was manufactured from scratch to hold three levels of crossover components. 1st level, the original crossovers that came with the speakers. 2nd level, the tweeter network with all VR3 Abott series upgrades (his top tier line). 3rd level, VR3 Abott series upgrade bass and mid-bass network. This is actually two crossover networks in one enclosure so we can very rapidly change from the original crossovers that came with the speakers to the upgraded crossovers. Custom aircraft aluminum chassis with independently suspended/isolated shelves, powder coated black and spiked w/ custom umbilical cord to speakers with NL4 connections to the speakers.

Tom

Tom those crossovers are awesome. I would love to do something like that. I talked with VR3 but he did not want to take on a project like that at this time. Like how you have the original and new crossover.

ZLTFUL

I went from my fully upgraded 2.3TLs to a set of Silverline Audio Sonatina MKIs. Primarily because of the space consideration but after spending some time with the Silverlines, I was hooked. While they gave up a bit in the lower registers to the SDAs, I never felt anything else was "missing" with them.



That was until I heard the revised Rosso Fiorentino Elba S2s. They took everything I loved about the Silverlines and kicked it up about 5 more notches.


I still have Polks in the house. LSiM705s (although they are sold), a pair of Monitor 5 Series IIs in the garage, LSi7/LSiC/TL3s for the bar surround system.

afterburnt

Nothing. Of the 29 Polk speakers that I have had I still have 22 of them. Gave away 5 and sploded 2. Wait I fogot subs so I have 23 gave away 1.

Nightfall

Another Rosso Fiorentino here.

nooshinjohn

The only speaker I have had I like more than my Polks was a set of Magnepan MG-20.1's. I would go back to them, with a pair of REL Gibraltars if I had the room for them.

LoStrings

I had a original set of SRS SDA’s, and I have a set of SDA-1c’s, but my lust for Infinity sent me on a beautiful journey...

treitz3

tratliff wrote: »

Tom those crossovers are awesome. I would love to do something like that. I talked with VR3 but he did not want to take on a project like that at this time. Like how you have the original and new crossover.

I very seriously doubt that he would want to take on such a massive project again. It didn't really start out to be such an endeavor but it slowly morphed into something extraordinary. It was a fun project, though.

I remember the day we were in Trey's backyard, building up a mock up of the crossover enclosure with 2by's and luan...just to see if everything would fit. I think we must have gone through a case of beer that day, just spouting off ideas. Many of which came into fruition. If you are ever up in the Charlotte area, hit me up. I'd love for you to hear the end result of all the effort put into them.

Thanks all for the kind words. This forum definitely has some nice rigs!

Tom

msg

Great thread you BFs.
Truly.

Emlyn

JMlab Electra (Focal) or Spendor replaced SDAs. Availability of excellent sealed box subwoofers has helped in recent years. That’s after having nine different pairs of SDAs. I have lost count of the number of non SDA Polk speakers I have had, and still have LSiMs.

tonyb

Legacy Focus 20/20 made me kick the SRT's to the curb

daddyjt

treitz3 wrote: »

tratliff wrote: »

...This forum definitely has some nice rigs!

Tom

Yea, I thought I had pretty nice gear until I started spending some time here. I’m definitely not in the upper half in these parts... but it is cool knowing that there are real people that spend more on speakers than they do their car.

daddyjt

Nightfall wrote: »

Another Rosso Fiorentino here.

Man, those Infinity Kappa 5s didn’t last long, lol!

F1nut

Haven't found any and demo'd hundreds over the years. I've stopped trying.

jdjohn

First was Infinity RSIIIa, and then JM Lab/Focal Mezzo Utopia that I bought from some guy named Tom...sorry, I meant Trey.