SDA SRS new to me

skipshot12

I should start a new post regarding the acquisition of these speakers.
Had asked a question regarding Phase Linear amps to drive them that pitdogg2 responded to.

So,
Bought a pair of the SDA SRS Signatures recently and wanted to share. Original blade/blade.
Been reading/looking and lusting after these since the early 80's when I first read about them.
Read the review in Stereo Review in 1985 and was hooked.

Well, was able to pull the trigger and purchase a pair.
Original owner. Absolutely perfect with no mods, complete originals.
Gonna enjoy them for a while before making a decision whether to head down the mod rabbit hole.
Did the pressure test (courtesy) per reading

These are replacing my Infinity Kappa 9's. Great speakers in their own right but, I'm pretty confident these will surpass those.
Was in the process of upgrading the crossovers in the kappa 9's and quickly became overwhelmed.

skipshot12

After getting home it was time to start pulling the monsters outta the back of the Tahoe.
Good thing I removed the spare tire frame....

skipshot12

Started with checking all the screws on the drivers and passive.
Found two issues with the passive on the first speaker. Two of the screw inserts were stripped. When assembled from the factory (I'm guessing) the screws were, just there, not tight. The inserts were screwed all the way down into the fiberboard and were just hanging.
Luckily an easy fix... headed to Ace and grabbed two brass inserts of the same size and the same thread pitch.

I also picked up some flat and lock washers for the passive.
Perfect fit, hopefully this keeps the screws from coming loose so quickly after extended loud playing sessions.
May look into this for the drivers to as long as they have the wood inserts.

skipshot12

Both are now out, by myself no less.
These monsters are way more speaker in size than my Kappa 9's.

A picture of the backs...

skipshot12

Grills vacuumed and standing tall at parade rest...

skipshot12

Now to get em inside...

I was able to get the Legacy-Audio focus inside by myself. I reckon I can do it the same way with the Polk's. Legacy's were close to the same size and weighed 200lbs each.

What I did was lay them on their sides then lifted to their tops, then to their bottoms, etc...
Being gentle and consistent it worked. Once inside being able to move them into place while on their feet.

pitdogg2

Be very careful with washers up against the rubber surround. If they are on top or just touching the rubber it will cause cracks (if touching) or twist the rubber under the washer. Both will cause premature accelerated wear. Those are very very hard to obtain in the wild and if you do find them they will cost a few hundred to buy.

May look into this for the drivers to as long as they have the wood inserts.

Hurricane nut inserts are tried and true.

Emlyn

Those look to be in great shape!

F1nut

Two words, hand truck.

skipshot12

They surprised me, when I went to pick em' up, at the condition they're in.
Original and unmolested. Got lucky as hell and found a one owner only driven to church......

Bahahahaaaaaaa... hand truck. Or a couple O friends with a couple of six packs for payment.

Thank you for the heads-up on the washers in regard to the surround rubber on the passive.

nooshinjohn

What branch of military were you in?

plastic_avatar

Can't wait to hear your impressions. Both the Kappa and the Focus are at the top of my 80's/90's lust list.

dromunds

plastic_avatar wrote: »

Can't wait to hear your impressions. Both the Kappa and the Focus are at the top of my 80's/90's lust list.

I may be selling my Kappa 8’s if you’re interested. PM me if so.

skipshot12

nooshinjohn,
Army 76-80, 3 years in Germany. Small town called Hanau and stationed @ Fleigerhorst Kaserne.
Helicopter Powertrain Repair, 13 or 15 Delta MOS... memory sucks. Huey's, Chit-Hooks, OH58's, Cobra's. I got censored writing s. h. i. t.-hooks

pitdogg2,
I'll take a pic regarding the washers and post. After all these years of being taken care of I don't want to be the one to damage those surrounds.
I think they're ok???? But, want to make sure.

plastic_avatar,
Can give you first hand impressions of both the Kappa & Focus....

Legacy-Audio Focus are very powerful speakers. Excellent speakers for rock, full orchestra and big band music. I don't listen to jazz, chamber or opera so I can't report on the speaker's performance with those genre's. Very sensitive and can take mucho wattage. Never fatiguing to me, very good frequency extension in the bottom end, they could definitely rock the house. Can be a little bright for some folks but never to me.
Drove them with Sim Audio Moon W-10 mono blocks and Moon P-5 Dual-Mono Preamp, a fantastic combination. Also drove them with a pair of WOPL Phase Linear 700 Series II's. Also a gret combination.

The only problems I had with the Focus was with their Midrange Kevlar Drivers. Mine kept breaking off the leads at the cones. I had to replace three of my Kevlar Midranges. I initially tried to re-solder the lead but DAMN, they always broke right close to the back of the cone. I found it best to just replace the driver. Always needed to keep spares on hand.
They have made quite a few generations since and may no longer have those issues. Not sure when they stopped using the Kevlar Mid-Range.
Maybe this was the case with just the 1st Gen Focus, I don't know this to be true, as mine were the 1st Gen.

Very nice speaker that most would be completely satisfied with.
The build quality on these are top notch.
Large speaker that need room from the back wall and sides to sound their best.




My Infinity Kappa 9's....

They are something special. Prefer these over the Legacy Focus. There's something about the bass in these speakers that I can't define but holy crap! They can shake the house at much lower volumes than the Focus could. The Focus could do that but, it took a much much higher level of loudness to get there.
I'm not talking boominess bass either, tight well controlled pounding your chest and gut bass.
Ended up getting rid of the Focus and keeping the Kappa's.

There's something about the drivers in the Infinity's that are just sweet. The midrange is right. The top end can be a bit too revealing.... some may call it a tad harsh (EMIT & SEMIT). But, once re-capped is beautiful. Maybe it was just the age of the caps? I never thought they were harsh even before the re-cap.

I had a pair of Infinity Kappa 8's before my 9's. They are excellent speakers too. They did everything the 9's do except for the power of the bass. The 9's don't seem to produce anything lower than the 8's are capable of I just think the added woofer just gives it more.

The 9's need to be in a larger room, smaller rooms will be overwhelmed quickly. If you like sound pressure then a smaller room's for you but, it can become boomy.
They also need a ton of watts & current. Very very difficult speakers to drive. There's something Nuddell did when designing the crossovers... they're (crossover) way complicated and difficult to re-cap and, if one's going full bore on the crossovers the inductors are whole nudda headache. Getting just the upgraded caps to fit on the crossover are a ball buster.
I'm pretty sure that's, the crossover design, what gives them their special sound in that Arnie knew what he was doing. That's also what makes them so hard to drive.
They had to do some crazy crossover engineering to get those two 12" woofers to operate in such a small woofer cabinet to get that kind of bass to work... and holy flippin' doodle good buddy does it work!

I also have Infinity's Prelude MTS Speakers.
If anyone wants to know how those sound I can try and give my "biased to Infinity" opinion.

I can't wait to get the SDA's hooked up to make a comparison...

Skip

nooshinjohn

Thanks… I figured it was a branch that actually gets dirty to get the job done when you used the term”parade rest”. USMC, VMFA122 for me. I fixed the F404 on F/A-16s

nooshinjohn

***F/A-18’s…. Lol

skipshot12

Couple O pics ya'll on the flat washers and the lock washers...
Will I be ok?

pitdogg2

Makes me nervous. I had done something similar with my drivers and passive on my sda1 signatures. The rubber started cracking. The bottom picture looks as if it's under the rubber.
I can't explain why but for whatever reason the rubber started cracking around my washers. For me it wasn't really a problem because I had spare drivers. As for the passives spares are very very hard to find and there is no replacement rubber to repair should they go south.
I'd advise against using any armor or rubber protectant on any driver.

JayCee

Here's another possibility. Similar problem w/my drivers and while doing xschop's semi-ring install I addressed this. One change in the details of the following post...instead of aluminum I'd look for steel or stainless.
https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2640997/#Comment_2640997

Gardenstater

This is the way I've been doing it. It's a 10-32 black oxide square nut with one side milled or ground down and drilled out a bit. Sometimes I've had to trim the surround a little where there was misalignment from the factory but otherwise no trimming usually necessary. I trimmed this one:

skipshot12

I had no idea....
I'm gonna pull those washers today and modify them.
I have a Dremel, gonna grind a flat spot on the flat washers so they recess a little up against the outer ring of the passive.
Should allow it to move slightly away from the rubber surround.

I do like the idea of the lock washers not allowing the screw to loosen from vibrations. The Kappa 9's were always backing out (woofers are the worst) and loosening the screws, constantly tightening. On the Kappa's there's no insert, driver's screw right into the MDF.

Not positive the lock washers will actually work yet but, didn't want to Loctite at this time just in case.
New to these and am stepping lightly to start.

Thanks for the link...

audioluvr

Gardenstater wrote: »

Sometimes I've had to trim the surround a little where there was misalignment from the factory

Why do I see a hole in your trimming?

Gardenstater

audioluvr wrote: »

Gardenstater wrote: »

Sometimes I've had to trim the surround a little where there was misalignment from the factory

Why do I see a hole in your trimming?

I see that too and that's not where I trimmed. I guess call it a flash photograph artifact that isn't really there.

Edit to add - It is possible that it is some excess adhesive from the surround attachment process.

F1nut

I use #8 round flat washers with socket cap screws, no problem.

skipshot12

Before starting the grinding on the washers I had initially used, decided to head back to Ace Hardware to see what they had in stock.
I found these M4 washers (Metric) to give them a go... just a tad smaller on the outside diameter.
I think they may do the job. No more pinching on the surround and am pretty happy with the results.

Thank you's for the guidance.
More better.....

skipshot12

Moved the Kappa 9's out this morning and am ready to try and get them into the house.....

skipshot12

I've been skull f-ing myself over moving the Polk's into the house. Years ago wouldn't have thought twice.
It's been two weeks since I picked them up and finally got my head in the right place to bring em into the house.
Feeling awesome about that accomplishment tonight.
Got er done tonight.

I wrapped the speakers with a moving blanket and laid them on my stairs in the garage.
Then lifted the one end to get them upright and slid them into their position by the fireplace.

They're in a temp position, for now, to give them a test.
Going to move my amp & disc player over to the fireplace for a listen.

skipshot12

skipshot12

Wouldn't let me attach the video of the first fire up, file's too large? Guess 1 minute are too many bits?

First listen was without the cable. Played the Eagles from their greatest hits album.
WOW there's some low end in these speakers. The sound is well balanced at this low volume setting. Bass is all there where as the Kappa's need more volume to get the bass to sound balanced at the right level, maybe because of the sensitivity difference.
Very articulate and clear with no sibilance I can detect. These are all original with the SL2000 tweets. Definitely not as bright as the Kappa 9's... the Kappa's could be harsh very easily depending on the recording & material. Polk's are little more laid back in the upper frequencies.

Turned everything off and hooked up the SDA cable... same songs at same volume.
My word did the soundstage expand. There's quite a large difference between the two hookups. It's like hearing the band on stage and not through speakers, a wall of sound where I could pick out positions of instruments and where the singer's standing.
Truly amazed at this first short session with the soundstage being produced.
Very very nice.

There's a wall about 3' to the left of the left speaker. This makes the left channel a tad louder. Was an easy fix with a little less input on the left channel of the amp to balance it.

For this first listen the inputs on the Phase Linear were at 8 0'clock. Tonight we'll be cranking them up a tad to see what these babies can do.
Just giving them a little time to settle in.

Once they're in their permanent position I'll add the other Phase Linear to to bi-amp.

These may have to go into the basement where there's a larger room.

This is gonna be fun...

pitdogg2

Once they're in their permanent position I'll add the other Phase Linear to to bi-amp.

They're your speakers to do whatever you want with. That being said tweeters do not need gobs of power not to mention being first gen SRS (correct me if I'm wrong) they may not like it one bit. You'll need a dreadnought and later generations of SDA's to bi-amp or use a non-common ground amp.

Be careful

xschop

I think you'd want the baffle face of them at least on edge of chimney base.