Minty Fresh!

bert26

They're here! Thanks to Tide in Florida, I now have a minty fresh pair of SDA 1B's to enhance my life.

If anyone is keeping score at home, I bought this pair from a lady in Florida that HBombToo, dorokusai, and nebborjk turned me onto in another thread. Doro also mentioned that there is a fellow Polkie in Florida that may be able to do some recon for me as I live in Ohio. I contacted Tide, and he agreed to check out the speakers and even cart them over to the shipper for me. I can't emphasize enough the role that Tide played in my purchase. He was willing to do whatever it took to help me out (and never once asking what I could do for him), and went far above and beyond my expectations. He is indeed a credit to the Polk community, and I would not hesitate to do any business with him.

In any event, Tide looked at the 1B's, and let me know they were in excellent shape. A few days later after I made payment to Rina, Tide picked up the speakers and took them to his local UPS store. There they were packed in the original box, and then double boxed with plenty of packing material. Now I have read several UPS horror stories, but I am here to tell you that UPS did a wicked good job this time. The 1B's arrived last Thursday (3/3), WITHOUT any shipper induced damage. In fact, these babies look showroom fresh! I couldn't be happier!

Unfortunately, I did not have any time to set them up until well into Saturday afternoon. Around 5 o'clock they were ready to go being driven by the old Carver. Instant permagrin! Everything worked flawlessly, and I couldn't be happier. I even broke out the old Denon DCD 1500 II and played some CD's that hadn't seen the light of day in years. All I can say is that I am happier than hell.

Thanks to everyone that helped me get to this point.

I am going to try to attach some pics for your viewing pleasure.

dorokusai

Rock on Bert! and kudos to Tide for being a true Polkie

bert26

Using the 1B's as mains in the HT set up.

bert26

Close up of the left channel.

bert26

So everything doesn't fit perfectly....

bert26

Here is a longview including the Monitor 30's being used as surrounds. The SDA's really add to the 360 degree experience.

Tour2ma

Ever seen a picture of Tide?



"Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But uh, until that day, accept these SDA's as a gift on my daughter's wedding day."

Dennis Gardner

Congrats on your SDA 1s! I'm finding music truly enjoyable on my 'new to me" set.

You might try swapping places with the shelf towers and towing them in a little to your couches sweet spot, to let them breath a little. This would allow you to set them back almost in line with the shelving without hurting the imaging.

Glad to see that CP is really helping out each other get into SDA!

There is a set of SDA 1s in Norman OK. on ebay that I could help someone with if needed.

SDA 1As in OKC. OK.

Cheers,

Dennis

Tour2ma

Agree on splitting them out a bit more... will broaden the sweet spot...

As for the toe-in.... no. Changes the distance/ delay for the SDA drivers.

MacLeod

Im jealous. I want a badass HT. Plus I want to NOT live in an apartment where I can actually have a badass HT.

Tour - LMAO!!

F1nut

I agree with Tour, never toe-in SDA's.

beardog03

bert26,

Right on..!!!

I`m glad to hear you made out and got some killer speaks...
That was above and beyond what TIDE did for ya man...

These guys on this forum are among the best I have ever met, and I haven`t even met them (face to face)..!!!!

Great guys, great forum, great speaks..

greatgoogliemooglie..I love this place...:D

steveinaz

Man those are clean! Great grab.

amulford

Have to agree with the fella's on the placement. Spread them some and NO toe in.

Nice...

TroyD

anthony!

Where you been, brocheese?

BDT

bert26

Thanks for all of the kind words! I am so very happy to finally have some SDA's back in my life.

As for the placement, I may have to keep them where they are. If I swap them with the "bookshelves", the distance between the speakers becomes greater than the distance to the listener. That and those bookshelves are a **** to move! ; ) I am well satisfied with the soundstage as it stands. I was listening to some music while doing some computer stuff, and I actually found myself turning my head to look for something I heard! Amazing!

Holy crow Tour! I literally laughed out loud at the Godfather bit!

[Deleted User]

Is that the 65" Toshiba? I have the same one. How do you like it?

bert26

Hi Josh,

Mine is a 57" Toshiba. Couldn't talk myself into the 65" at the time... I really like it! Some of the cable channels are a bit fuzzy due to a weak signal, but DVD's look really good. I like that it is easy to use, and that it has enough inputs/outputs to get the job done. I have had it for about 18 months, and I have no complaints whatsoever. The thing has even made it through two moves without issue.

How do you like yours?

Tide

I'm glad they got to you in good shape. I was tempted to hook them up while I had them to see what they sounded like.

I was a little surprised with how much UPS charged to ship these. Even though they were in their original packaging and boxes, UPS would not insure them for any damage, only lost replacement, unless they double boxed them.

One more thing. He needs the IC cable. bert26, I've forgotten, what configuration is the IC?

[Deleted User]

I've had mine for 3 weeks. Yes, I have the same feeling about cable. I have HD cable available but they don't have converters right now. DVD's look pretty good. On mine, the corners are a little darker than the rest of the screen. The reason for this is I've heard that manufacturers use the same projectors for 65" as they do for the 55" or 57". Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20, but I think I should've gone with an LCD or DLP. I am scared that I'm going to have image retension (burn-in) because it's CRT. All in all, I love it and it's friggin huge! Big step up from a 36".

bert26

Hello Tide! I wish you would have hooked them up just to check them out. Yeah - shipping nearly broke my back, but it was worth it.

These have the blade/blade IC type. I have something cobbled together based on other posts I have found here, and it seems to be working fine. If I turn the balance all the way to the right, I still get some sound out of the left, and visa-versa. If I recall correctly from my SDA 2 days, this means that the IC is connected right, and that ths SDA effect is functioning.

However - If anyone has a Polk IC, I would be happy to talk purchase .... ; )

bert26

Hey Josh,

I was super paranoid about burn in at first, but I got over it after talking to my uncle and cousin that have had a rear projection TV for years. I now feel comfortable watching letter boxed movies, or even playing video games with my PS2. The only rule I have is to flip back over to live TV about every 45 to 60 minutes when playing games with static displays. Living by this rule, I have had no issues.

I also purchased the Avia set up DVD to calibrate the TV. I have only used it twice, but it made a big difference.

F1nut

Bert, You are correct, they are working properly.

Tide, Try FedEx Ground the next time, much cheaper.

madmax

Nice catch!

A good idea would be to pull the PR's off and look at the xover. There is a great big coil attached to it which often times breaks off if you move them around much. No big deal, if it is broken you just re-wrap the wire on the spool and glue it back where it was.

BTW, are the passives damaged or is that just a photographic thing?

In any case, nice setup!

madmax

bert26

Hi Madmax,

I think the PR's are ok. In fact, I have switched off the PSW12 as I really don't think it is needed anymore. The outer layer of the PR's was a bit loose, but I lightly pressed it back into place. Just seems that the top "foam" layer had peeled away (looked like air bubbles really) over time. As far as I know, all is well with them. I will pull them tonight to double check xovers as you recommend.

Tour2ma

dcarlson grabbed a pair with significant bubble issues. Here's a nice thread on their "repair"...
http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=23579&goto=newpost