Bring Back the SDA - Fan List

dorokusai
dorokusai Posts: 25,577
edited May 2008 in Vintage Speakers
Here is the thread for you guys to post your demands or comments for the return of the greatest speaker Polk Audio ever made.

Begin your gushing now.... :D
CTC BBQ Amplifier, Sonic Frontiers Line3 Pre-Amplifier and Wadia 581 SACD player. Speakers? Always changing but for now, Mission Argonauts I picked up for $50 bucks, mint.
Post edited by dorokusai on
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  • jdhdiggs
    jdhdiggs Posts: 4,305
    edited August 2004
    My favorite part of SDA's are demoing them to those who don't know. Usually goes something like this:

    1) Hey, they sound pretty good, I don't know what the big deal is
    2) their head turns as they realize the guitar is not coming from the speaker, but from the kitchen
    3) the dumbfounded look on their face as they try to figure it out
    4) Head returns to center and the SDA grin begins as they really start listening....

    Sound about right?

    LSi SDA...!!! :D
    There is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction. Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them. We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, old or young, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time.-Menkin
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited August 2004
    I still have not heard them...which is stupid becuase I have no excuse since Russ lives right up the road...
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  • jdhdiggs
    jdhdiggs Posts: 4,305
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by Polkmaniac
    I still have not heard them...which is stupid becuase I have no excuse since Russ lives right up the road...

    And I'm right down the road..
    There is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction. Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them. We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, old or young, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time.-Menkin
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  • TroyD
    TroyD Posts: 13,085
    edited August 2004
    I go along and say that they are the crowning achievment for Polk.

    I wouldn't hold my breath for an SDA comeback though.

    BDT
    I plan for the future. - F1Nut
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by jdhdiggs
    2) their head turns as they realize the guitar is not coming from the speaker, but from the kitchen
    OK, I have to admit I don't get this one...

    I've heard people rave about hearing different instruments from other speakers or directions (usually with multichannel music on an HT setup, but still...) and I personally don't understand the fascination with it...

    I WANT the music coming from the front speakers becuase that's where it comes from naturally. If I go to a concert, all the performers are in front of me, not over to my right and left and behind me...

    So is this the SDA effect...to make the music appear to come from other directions??

    Maybe I'm just skeptical becuase I haven't heard SDAs yet...I don't know...
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by jdhdiggs
    And I'm right down the road..
    you got SDAs too? damn...
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  • RuSsMaN
    RuSsMaN Posts: 17,986
    edited August 2004
    You local yahoos - Dallas Audio Club is meeting at my house next Thursday 7-10pm, feel free to come on by for snacks, tunes, etc.

    And to stay on topic, you can listen to the SDA's.

    Cheers,
    Russ
    Check your lips at the door woman. Shake your hips like battleships. Yeah, all the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service.
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  • jdhdiggs
    jdhdiggs Posts: 4,305
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by Polkmaniac
    OK, I have to admit I don't get this one...

    I've heard people rave about hearing different instruments from other speakers or directions (usually with multichannel music on an HT setup, but still...) and I personally don't understand the fascination with it...

    I WANT the music coming from the front speakers becuase that's where it comes from naturally. If I go to a concert, all the performers are in front of me, not over to my right and left and behind me...

    So is this the SDA effect...to make the music appear to come from other directions??

    Maybe I'm just skeptical becuase I haven't heard SDAs yet...I don't know...

    Basically, the speakers tend to disappear and the instruments surround you in a 180 degree field. To me, it typically sounds like I'm sitting at the drums, the singer is in front of me and the various other instruments are surrounding me. Much more enveloping and involving...

    Oh, and I'd recommend going to Russ's. it's like a good audio museum of sorts. I'll do my best to attend. Would you want me to bring any gear? I think you have a good record of what I have.
    There is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction. Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them. We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, old or young, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time.-Menkin
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  • nadams
    nadams Posts: 5,877
    edited August 2004
    I look at it if Polk brings back the SDA lines, the vintage ones may be less sought after, and I might be able to nab a pair of the vintage ones :-)
    Ludicrous gibs!
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  • gmorris
    gmorris Posts: 1,179
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by jdhdiggs
    Basically, the speakers tend to disappear and the instruments surround you in a 180 degree field. To me, it typically sounds like I'm sitting at the drums, the singer is in front of me and the various other instruments are surrounding me. Much more enveloping and involving...

    So it makes you feel like you are in the band, sitting on the stage?

    I didn't think that was the point at all. I thought SDA was supposed to give you Supreme stereo seperation, which gives better sense of space, and other things. By saying it makes you feel like you are on stage (if that is indeed what you are saying) that sounds like some odd surround effect.
    Bob Mayo, on the keyboards. Bob Mayo.
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  • Frank Z
    Frank Z Posts: 5,860
    edited August 2004
    I would define the SDA Effect as wider soundfield coupled with better imaging than a conventional speaker. There isn't a "Surround Effect" but there is an improvement in the placeemnt of the instruments/vocals that are heard. Imagine sitting a few rows from the front of an orchestra (center stage) and closing your eyes. You can hear where each instrument is placed left to right as well as front to rear.
    9/11 - WE WILL NEVER FORGET!! (<---<<click)
    2005-06 Club Polk Football Pool Champion!! :D
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  • pjdami
    pjdami Posts: 1,894
    edited August 2004
    Polk really needs to get back to its "roots" with some high end two channel speakers.

    I'm talking about the sound I hear from the Monitor 10s and the SDA CRS+ that I own. The LSi are nice, but I can tell that something is missing or muddied in the sound compared to the older speakers and other speakers I own.

    Look at companies like JM Labs, Magnepan, Dynaudio, among others. These companies carry speakers that cost as little as $500 - $600 but also offer speakers that cost a ton more. What's wrong with Polk doing the same thing here?

    Talking about getting back to roots, I found this article on the web. I hadn't read it before, but I'm sure that some of you have. When reading it, pay attention to the part about what Polk's original intentions were, making a speaker like the European Spendor BC1 with great midrange and imaging, but with the bass and slam of the american speakers at the time. Hence, the birth of the Monitor 7s and the 10s and later the SDAs. I thought it was cool that Matt Polk referenced the BC1 in this article since I own a pair. Makes me wonder a lot when I listen to the 10s some of the similarities I'm hearing there.

    http://www.soundstage.com/interviews/matthew_polk.htm

    edit for typo
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  • xsmi
    xsmi Posts: 1,798
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by Polkmaniac
    I still have not heard them...which is stupid becuase I have no excuse since Russ lives right up the road...

    PolkManiac Get your favorite recordings and get your **** over there. I wish I had SDA's within 100 Miles of me!!! :D
    2-channelBelles 22A Pre, Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2, Marantz SA8005, Pro-Ject RPM-10 Turntable, Pro-Ject Phono Box DS3B, Polk Audio Legend L800's, AudioQuest Cable throughout.
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  • PolkWannabie
    PolkWannabie Posts: 2,763
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by Polkmaniac
    If I go to a concert, all the performers are in front of me, not over to my right and left and behind me...
    They aren't behind you with SDA either. However if you sit near the stage in a concert the sound you hear is much wider and deeper than what you hear out of a typical pair of speakers and you of course have the ability to pick out not only by sight but by sound as well where different instruments are not only left and right but front to back. This is the objective and realization with SDA i.e. to much more accurately reproduce the sound you'd hear at a concert or recording session.

    http://www.polkaudio.com/home/technology/sda.php?category=3&speaker=82
    Rick
    HT+ Sunfire TG IV, Dual CG Sig II's, CinePro 1K2, Oppo 981, Audio Technica PL120, Polk SRT's & F/X1000's, Samsung 71" DLP
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  • Jstas
    Jstas Posts: 14,842
    edited August 2004
    The SDA's make you feel like you are there and the band is playing just for you. Or like you are a fly on the wall in the studio itself.

    It's hard to describe.

    The soundstage is both deep and wide. Lesser speakers will sound like they are playing music, SDA's sound like they are almost emminating music in every direction.

    Listening to SDA's goes something like this:

    Close your eyes. Picture yourself at a jazz club and the band is on stage. The drums are off to the left in the corner, there is a Hammond B3 in the right corner with an amplifier and speaker box. The bass is off to the far right, next to the Hammond organ. There is a guitar player with a microphone and harmonica dead center and a small brass section with a trumpet, trombone and sax off to the left, just infront of the drums. They start playing and get rocking good! Volumes increase and decrease and they pass solos off to each other through the whole deal. The singer is singing and the guitar is wailing, the brass is growling, the bass is plucking away and those drums feel like they are kicking you in your seat every time! Now you open your eyes, see the soft red glows of the power lights and these two dark monoliths staring at you. But the band is still there, yet you can't see them. You can feel them and hear them and point to where each one is but all that is there are these two monoliths standing tall and proud and and flooding over you with music and sound that not even speakers 3-4 times thier price can rival.

    That is what SDA's are like. Very few other speakers can do that. They basically can immerse you in thier sound-stage and it is very life-like. Afterall, the point of speakers to recreate a live performance as accuratly as possible. Go to a live performance and listen. There is no one single sound source, it comes from all across the stage. Due to the SDA technology, the SDA's are capable of reproducing that from two sound sources, stereo speakers.

    The only way to really "get it" is to go and get your listen on. They are incredible and impressive speakers both visually and sonically. Defintly a crowning achievement and IMO, no other conventional cone based speaker has come close to the abilities of a pair of SDA's in producing real-to-life sound. I'd have to look to electrostatics and magnetic planar speakers to get a similar effect to the SDA's.
    Expert Moron Extraordinaire

    You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited August 2004
    Is placement a big issue with the SDA speakers?
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  • PolkWannabie
    PolkWannabie Posts: 2,763
    edited August 2004
    A BIG issue ? ... I suppose it depends on what you mean by BIG ...

    They need to be straight on i.e. no toe in, away from the side walls and relatively near the back walls and have an ideal from/to range away from each other.
    Rick
    HT+ Sunfire TG IV, Dual CG Sig II's, CinePro 1K2, Oppo 981, Audio Technica PL120, Polk SRT's & F/X1000's, Samsung 71" DLP
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  • Airplay355
    Airplay355 Posts: 4,298
    edited August 2004
    they are pretty big speakers too so movin them around isnt what id call fun....not a speaker u wanna bear hug and wander around with
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,734
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by Airplay355
    not a speaker u wanna bear hug and wander around with

    Huh? I bear hug mine all the time! :D
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • Jstas
    Jstas Posts: 14,842
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by F1nut
    Huh? I bear hug mine all the time! :D

    I'll bet your passive radiators have dents all over them from the dry humping too, huh?
    Expert Moron Extraordinaire

    You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
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  • Jstas
    Jstas Posts: 14,842
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by Zero
    Good to see you are enjoying the ole 2b's John. Every once in a blue moon I do wish I could hook them up again when I pull out a live-event recording.

    I don't get to listen to them a whole lot. They are placed facing the wall to prevent damage until I move out. Sometimes I stack furniture on top of other furniture in my room to pull them out and hook them up.
    Expert Moron Extraordinaire

    You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
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  • keith allen
    keith allen Posts: 734
    edited August 2004
    Ive owned some kind of Polk since the middle 80's,BUT Ive never got to hear the sda's...IM in around Atlanta,Jeorja...anbody own a pair close???Also which is the best sda's to own?
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  • TroyD
    TroyD Posts: 13,085
    edited August 2004
    Keith,

    The weekend of Oct 9th, hit I-20 east to I-26 South down to Charleston, I've got a pair of the SDA SRS 2.3tl's....happy to let you listen to them to your hearts content.

    I've spent time with the 2b's and the 2.3tl's in my house. The sda effect is as good with the 2b's as the 2.3tl's but overall, the 2.3tl's are superior, IMHO.

    BDT
    I plan for the future. - F1Nut
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  • steveinaz
    steveinaz Posts: 19,538
    edited August 2004
    Absolutely bring back the SDA, it's the Polk Audio cornerstone and a milestone. It would be like having B&W's without the dorky tweeter thingy for god sakes, or Klipsch without horns, or Bose without 9, $2 cones.......:D
    Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amp: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi - Shop Rig: Yamaha A-S501 Integrated - Shop Spkrs: Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2
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  • keith allen
    keith allen Posts: 734
    edited August 2004
    What are they all about?Im a big fan of Magnpans,love the natural sound they produce,are sda'a simuliar?There must be something very special about them,what would a good pair go for these dayz,in good shape?
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  • TroyD
    TroyD Posts: 13,085
    edited August 2004
    Do a search, I'll bet fully half of the speaker posts on the forum revolve around SDA......

    Far as cost on a used pair...check audiogon and ebay...

    BDT
    I plan for the future. - F1Nut
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  • steveinaz
    steveinaz Posts: 19,538
    edited August 2004
    SDA stands for "Stereo Dimensional Array" and involves using a proprietary cable that interconnects the speakers. This cable provides a small signal from the opposite channel, (long story, short) thereby creating a "headphone effect" by giving the sonic illusion that the channels are completely seperated by using crosstalk cancellation.

    Similar to Carver's Sonic Holography in effect, but different approach. It gives a very wide soundstage that, if implemented properly, extends beyond the cabinet boundries.
    Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amp: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi - Shop Rig: Yamaha A-S501 Integrated - Shop Spkrs: Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2
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  • I-SIG
    I-SIG Posts: 2,243
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by Polkmaniac
    I WANT the music coming from the front speakers becuase that's where it comes from naturally. If I go to a concert, all the performers are in front of me, not over to my right and left and behind me...

    So is this the SDA effect...to make the music appear to come from other directions??

    Maybe I'm just skeptical becuase I haven't heard SDAs yet...I don't know...

    Just think about the last concert you went to. The sound didn't simply come from venue loudspeakers did it? You were much enveloped by the sound while still being able to locate each instrument or musician, right?

    This is what SDA accomplishes. Big, wide, enveloping soundstage, but still with strong imaging and lot of sound!

    Wes
    Link: http://polkarmy.com/forums

    Sony 75" Bravia 4K | Polk Audio SDA-SRS's (w/RDO's & Vampire Posts) + SVS PC+ 25-31 | AudioQuest Granite (mids) + BWA Silver (highs) | Cary Audio CAD-200 | Signal Cable Silver Resolution XLR's | Rotel Michi P5 | Signal Cable Silver Resolution XLR's | Cambridge Audio azur 840C--Wadia 170i + iPod jammed w/ lossless audio--Oppo 970 | Pure|AV PF31d
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  • Zen Dragon
    Zen Dragon Posts: 501
    edited August 2004
    Originally posted by pjdami
    Polk really needs to get back to its "roots" with some high end two channel speakers.

    I'm talking about the sound I hear from the Monitor 10s and the SDA CRS+ that I own. The LSi are nice, but I can tell that something is missing or muddied in the sound compared to the older speakers and other speakers I own.

    edit for typo

    Amen brother. I would just like to hear SDA's with modern drivers.
    I also own the Monitor 10's and the 5 jr's, and the SDA-1C, and the LSI-9. When I hooked the LSI's up, my first feel was the imaging is not as good as the Monitor 10's. Test after test on my ears confirmed a crisper sound from the LSI driver, but lessened imaging. I eventually found some SDA-1C's for sale locally and my LSI-9's are temporarily stored in a spare bedroom. Obviously driver technology has advanced, but theres something about those old tri-laminate drivers that was special. :cool:
    The Family
    Polk SDA-1C's
    Polk SDA-2
    Polk Monitor 10B's
    Polk LSI-9's
    Polk Monitor 5's
    Polk 5 jr's
    Polk PSW-450 Sub
    Polk CSI40 Center

    Do not one day come to die, and discover you have not lived.
    This is pretty f***ed up right here.
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  • rskarvan
    rskarvan Posts: 2,374
    edited August 2004
    I have two sets of SDA's (CRS+ & 3.1TL) and I have to say that I would be in the market for a new SDA speaker if Polk made them available.

    Polk should, at minimum, make a new SDA speaker available to Club Polk members via the internet. That would require no marketing mess from Polk and the technology could go directly to the fans. No brainer. Come on Polk. Time to execute a good plan.
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