My SDA project so far

stewdog09

Hello, I've been monitoring this site for a while, first post.

Current setup:
Onkyo rz830
2x SDA 1.2tl powered by
2x adcom gfa 555 through an ace515
5.1.4 with Polk rc80i in the ceiling
Room is 18x32

I am using the 1.2s as my front r/l in my HT and I want to start replacing the rest of the speakers in the room. From what I've read on here one or two crs'+ will work best for a center channel with proper modification and I've found a pair for 100$ I have also located 2x SDA 1c with pin blade IC cable which I hope to use for rear speakers. I understand SDA does not work well for side surrounds but do you think 1c will work well for rears? Also what recommendations for an amp to drive them. I have 16ga wire prewired for the rears so I can't go wild. My receiver states 120w per channel output which ideally for me would drive them fine but certainly not to potential. Let me know your thoughts and ideas, much appreciated

Schurkey

I'd expect the 1Cs to be just fine for rear surround speakers in a 7.x system. Others may disagree. If I understand 5.1.4 surround, they're not going to work unless you remove the SDA cable and disable the SDA effect, because they're not really "rear" speakers like a 7.x system has.
https://www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/speaker-setup-guides/5.1.4-overhead-speaker-setup-guide/
(Of course, the SDA front L-R speakers won't be toed-in like the illustration.)

SDA will not work for the side and (probably) ceiling surround speakers. CRS+ for the center channel again should be fine, but you won't be needing the SDA interconnect cable since center channel is monophonic.

If your intention is for movie surround-sound, big power for the surround speakers generally isn't needed, especially if your processor is programmed to accept those speakers as "small" (no low bass.)

If your intention is multichannel music, you'd probably need more power for the 1C side speakers.

nooshinjohn

SDA for surround is overkill. You need to look for some RTA-11 instead. Even the RTA-8 would suffice. They use the same drivers so they would be voice matched, and take up a smaller footprint on the floor.

dpowell

I use a pair of Monitor 4 series bookies for rear surround for now. At some point for fun I will swap in a pair of Monitor 5s for comparison. The Monitor 4s perform well and keep up with the 1.2TLs in the front. I suspect if I put my pair of 1Cs in for surround duty that Audyssey would just throttle them so that they wouldn't overpower the side and atmos speakers. Plus, I have the wife approval factor to consider in my case.