SDA-1C Right Channel No SDA Effect

Gardenstater

Looks like one of the white nylon standoff clips is detached from the circuit board, by the inductor tab connection. Maybe it's an illusion of the photograph.

Tony M

Nice...no hanging parts or wires.

I hope the old original replacements you ordered are all fine. If these older replacements play fine, I think you'll LOVE the speakers.

If you plan on keeping them, which I think you are since you want to do cross-over work on them, you should put some adhesive around all the magnets per this forum's directions and suggestions to prevent the dreaded magnet shifting that sometimes happens.

PolksTillIDie

Yeah, I guess its only partially on, but its eventually coming off anyway. But, even though its academic now (I'll be getting new crossovers soon), the crossover looks older than the other one (see pics a while back in post). Just trying to figure out what the previous owner was trying to do. Maybe that's why the clips didn't fit on the other one and board was swinging free, because it was a different board and holes didn't match.

I've been spending a lot of $$ lately on equipment. Just bought a Yamaha CD-S1000 I'm trying to break-in, got a refurbishment date on the M-80 coming after Christmas (new gold inputs, IEC socket, remove old glue), new mw's shipping, and new crossovers probably as M-80's being worked on.

Happy exhaustion. Time soon to buy some CDs.

Gardenstater

The first photos that you showed in your thread here had date 06/26/89 on the edge of the inductor spool by the polk audio on the pcb. What's the date on this one?

PolksTillIDie

Hmm... don't know, I already closed it back up. Breaking-in the CD player... I took another picture of the crossover, but no dates in the picture. Just more aged looking caps, yellow ones marked "mexico". Don't remember that on the left channel one. That one surprised me at how new everything looked.

PolksTillIDie

I'll check next time I open it up.

Tony M

PolksTillIDie wrote: »

Yeah, I guess its only partially on, but its eventually coming off anyway. But, even though its academic now (I'll be getting new crossovers soon), the crossover looks older than the other one (see pics a while back in post). Just trying to figure out what the previous owner was trying to do. Maybe that's why the clips didn't fit on the other one and board was swinging free, because it was a different board and holes didn't match.

I've been spending a lot of $$ lately on equipment. Just bought a Yamaha CD-S1000 I'm trying to break-in, got a refurbishment date on the M-80 coming after Christmas (new gold inputs, IEC socket, remove old glue), new mw's shipping, and new crossovers probably as M-80's being worked on.

Happy exhaustion. Time soon to buy some CDs.

Do you have a Goodwill store or the likes near you? Yard sales, thrift stores are great places to get "collections" of CDs.

PolksTillIDie

Yeah, about half of my CD collection is from a now closed place in Austin called Cheapo Discs. Amazing finds ...

Tony M

I've bought some BIG collections from yard-sales over the years. 50.00 for hundreds of excellent condition CDs a few times.

One collection was from a closed radio station that played indi(?) groups and artists. That had a lot of groups and artists I never heard of!

One group was excellent relaxation CDs. That man had passed. Those CDs were/are pristine.

One was a lot of Jazz...that collection was owned by BB King's deceased personnel pilot. The brother was selling his belongings. I bought his Stereo system too. I sold the Jazz CDs to my older friend Paul for what I paid for them. 50.00 for 50 CDs. That was years ago though. Mr. Paul LOVES his Jazz!

One collection I got ( a lot from the Kinks ) for 40.00 had to be sanitized from the thick nicotine on the cases. About 60 CDs or more.
The guy had passed and I can only guess why.

Another collection had 50% Grunge Rock and 50% pretty good stuff. I took the Grunge to 2 local CD shops and made a good profit while still keeping the OK CDs.

It was fun to go Yard-saleing and get CDs and stereo stuff.

Haven't done hardly ANY yard-saleing in many years.

PolksTillIDie

Yeah I know that situation. Cheapo was killed off I think by developers. It wasn't that unusual that a friend of mine and I would go there nonchalantly after lunch and I'd find myself in a panic as I'd realize I was looking at someone's entire lifetime collection of classic jazz CDs. I miss those days. Somebody's going set up a shop like that again, but the pandemic's killed my wandering for now.

Have you noticed that some CDs of 50's, 60's jazz seem to have some incredible SDA imaging? Miles' Kind Of Blue and Duke Ellington - John Coltrane albums really shine. Its like they are there, even with my compromised speakers ...

Tony M

Yea, I did silently give my regards each time to the deceased guys whose collections I was purchasing.

I only have a few Jazz CDs.

I have this one, "Jazz like you've never heard it before" CD that IS like you said, Phenomenal.

I even gave one to Mr. Paul when I found another copy.
https://www.ebay.com/i/303638013393?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-213727-13078-0&mkcid=2&itemid=303638013393&targetid=4580840328167961&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=403204656&mkgroupid=1235851284511226&rlsatarget=pla-4580840328167961&abcId=9300377&merchantid=51291&msclkid=a26515f6728a19bd1f284a2fdb9200bd






Man are you going to be when you put those replacement woofers in. You'll want to listen to your whole collection again.

PolksTillIDie

Oh, man. Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald's Summertime. Her voice is absolutely the purist. I just played that yesterday while I was on the forum. There are many, many renditions of vocalists doing Summertime, but hers is the very best. Unusually, Scarlet Johannson's is my second favorite. I think it's still on YouTube...

Yeah, I think most, if not all of the midwoofers will be here on the 21st. I'm off that day and I think I'll have them opened up, ready for the install. Still waiting on the crossovers estimate (with Sonicaps). That'll get done after Christmas while the amp gets serviced.

PolksTillIDie

And TonyM, thanks for the tip on checking for moving drivers. That cut through a lot of hit or miss testing on my part that would have used up a lot of time. I just sent a text to a friend of mine who has my old 2B's so he can check if that's why I had so poor imaging on those.

Thanks.

Gardenstater

I found all those songs on Qobuz and made a playlist and am actually listening to the album now lol. I can see that some of them would be excellent SDA material.

PolksTillIDie we are anxiously awaiting results and reports

Clipdat

Nice looking jazz compilation CD there @Tony M

Tony M

One of those rare CDs I came across in my scavenging routine days.

Twice!

PolksTillIDie

Yeah, the other side to all this audio tech .... the music. You guys have heard of Andreas Vollenweider no doubt. If you haven't check out his Caverna Magica for a treat or Max Richter's The Blue Notebooks to check out your bass response.

Have no fear, within the hour of getting them, they'll be installed and I'll be talking about them. Just hope the fixed crossovers won't be crucial to confirming the SDA effect as that'll be after Christmas.

We need a bigger selection of emojis on this forum ...

Tony M

Oh yea.

Andreas Vollenweider was on my radar during those days.

After I bought his CD/s or Album/s the first time because of the cover art, I got home and played it/them and liked it/them. So when I saw one later on, I bought it.

I have quite a few of his CDs and albums now.

They were always in pristine condition too.

I might have a Max Richter album or CD too.

PolksTillIDie

A MW6511 arrived! Had it installed in about 5 min. This replaced the only stereo MW that was faulty, but on the good side (left channel). Listening now to see if left channel SDA is better. Hiroshima's "East", next my go to, Duke Ellington-John Colatrane ...

PolksTillIDie

"Colatrane"? Sorry, "Coltrane". No, the SDA isn't better on the left, its slightly less. But the left channel stereo is stronger, as is the "center channel". I'm thinking this is because the one working dimensional mw on the right is now overpowered by the now two stereo mw's on the left. Or maybe those crossovers really *do* need rebuilding. But without considering SDA, the speakers sound stronger. All the remaining mw's that are faulty are dimensional.

Tony M

I'm glad the sound IS improving somewhat.

Has your friend with your SDA-2Bs responded to your inquire about those drivers freedom of movement yet?

I feel the woofers arriving are like Christmas presents arriving and you can't help but open the packages and have fun.

I've ordered some things lately and like what I described, the boxes showing up on my porch are like presents too.

PolksTillIDie

Nope. He has a way of being stressed even when not busy. But I'm curious if that was the problem all along.

I was wondering, what can I do to the mw's to get them "sticky black"- looking? The new one looks kind of ... dry. Even my 2B's looked after 35 years
like you just put black shoe polish on them. It's a minor thing, but after I get the insides all working correctly I'm probably going to restore them aesthetically.

Yeah, I was planning on ordering some CDs today but got sidetracked. Probably tomorrow...

pitdogg2

.

PolksTillIDie

Well, when I got home from work, 2 out of the three remaining dimensional mw's were on my doorstep. 25 min later, I had them in the left speaker (which needed both dimensional mw's replaced) and was playing them. Yeah, the left speaker now has disappeared as a point source of sound, and has a nice, spread out left image. Nice.

But what about the right speaker? The left speaker had only one working mw initially, so I made that one "whole" first. And of course that prolongs the wait for the resolution (hopefully) of the right speaker's problem, but you know, that's just a better way to tell the story, no? The last mw should be here by the 21st, and then I can judge the right channel. Now, its just a solid right stereo channel with a little bit of extension of the right image past the speaker in a narrow range (cymbals, other percussion).

But the "shape" of the the sound image is really improving, just not yet complete on the far right.

Tony M

Fantastic!

I sure hope that last woofer makes the sound-field spread so far it wraps around you. It's a very pleasant listening experience if you like looking at your speakers and th have disappeared and sound seems to be coming from the WHOLE wall and sometimes from the sides of where your sitting too. The first time I experienced this SDA image, I smiled a big smile and the hair on my arm did this;



So the drivers arrived in good working condition then?
I'm pretty sure you checked them for freedom of movement and also that they did produce sound before you installed them, right?

PolksTillIDie

Yep, it was pretty obvious they were working. Just need that last dimensional one on the right ...

BlueBirdMusic

Great,

PolksTillIDie

Well, I got the last dimensional mw in and installed it. At first I couldn't tell any SDA effect at all. Then after a few hours and rechecks, I could hear it when playing music, but it was off with test audio files testing discrete left- and right-channel function. Then with music, it was there in the right channel, later the left channel. I was about to give up on this quest until the crossovers were redone, and then I remembered something about the interconnect cable. At one end a very tight plug, at the other a loose one. With a lotta effort I pushed the conductors terminals slightly apart on the loose one to get a tighter connection, and I got it ... SDA effect on both channels ! But I'll wait a while before I decide its stable.

I checked Midwest Speaker Repair about another cable and they appear to only have the two spaded plug cable. I suppose I can get one from Polk, but ah ... I have a question. I noticed the Polk interconnect Midwest has is unshielded. Would it be better if shielded? I know this is controversial when it comes to speaker cables.

Gardenstater

Awesome! I think this is the first time you mentioned that one end of the IC cable was a loose fit. Glad you got it going. Enjoy!

Not to be a nag but did you check out all your *new* drivers for DCR and free movement of the voice coils without rubbing?

Have fun listening to everything for the first time

PS: Might not be a bad idea to clean out those IC terminals with DeOxit or the like. Also, I like Silclear silver platelet contact enhancing grease. Just a trace.

spongebobsquarepants

You can ditch the pin blade interconnect in favor of speakON connectors

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakon_connector