Polk SDA SRS 1.2's midrange issue

davepf
davepf Posts: 8
edited July 2006 in Vintage Speakers
Purchased the pair back in 1989. Love the imaging aspects. With vinyl they sound great however, with Redbook cd's the midrange is way to bright. Is it the sl2000's causing the issues? I'm running a California Audio Labs CL-15 CDP into a Nad 2200 PE. I have on order a Jolida JD1501RC (sub out) in hopes that the Tube preamp section will tame down the midrange. My musical tastes are progressive rock and blues at fairly intense levels. Room is 16X25 feet with carpeted floor. I have followed the manual in regards to speaker placement. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Post edited by davepf on
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited July 2006
    Yep, dump the SL2000's and order from Polk, the RD0194-1.
    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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  • davepf
    davepf Posts: 8
    edited July 2006
    Thank you for the reply sir. So the RD0194-1's bolt right in without having to make changes to the crossovers?
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  • dorokusai
    dorokusai Posts: 25,577
    edited July 2006
    Correct.
    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.
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  • davepf
    davepf Posts: 8
    edited July 2006
    Thanks for the input. I'm going to order those up.
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  • madmax
    madmax Posts: 12,434
    edited July 2006
    davepf wrote:
    With vinyl they sound great however, with Redbook cd's the midrange is way to bright.

    Mine at one time were way too much with the midrange and later the problem went away. It turned out the preamp was causing the problem, a tube going bad.

    I bring this up because it sounds odd to me that vinyl sounds great but CD's don't. I'm betting you have a connection problem or a component in the CD (or that section of the pre-amp) going bad. It just doesn't make sense that there is that much difference between the two sources.

    The tweets are a worthy upgrade in any case though.

    madmax
    Vinyl, the final frontier...

    Avantgarde horns, 300b tubes, thats the kinda crap I want... :D
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  • davepf
    davepf Posts: 8
    edited July 2006
    I had just switched from a Sony CDP to the Cal Labs and the problem followed the upgrade. The Cal Labs did tame it down some though. Is there a widely held view that the NAD 2200's are bright sounding? I thought I had read some user reviews here and there where some were complaining about that. I guess I do prefer vinyl over redbook. Redbook has always seemed a bit harsh but, the SL2000's seem like the likely suspect.
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  • madmax
    madmax Posts: 12,434
    edited July 2006
    The SL-2000's are somewhat harsh. This harshness was everybit as noticeable on my vinyl as on my CD's though. Don't know anything about the NAD.
    madmax
    Vinyl, the final frontier...

    Avantgarde horns, 300b tubes, thats the kinda crap I want... :D
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited July 2006
    Taming a bright set up can be challenging. There's no question that the SL2000's are bright with their 5dB spike at 13kHz, so that would be a good starting point. Like MM, I have no experience with your NAD, but if others say it's bright........

    You say that with vinyl it's smoother, but then vinyl doesn't have the resolution that CD's do, so that may explain the difference. It appears that your CAL cdp dates from 1997. There have been vast improvements in CD players since then, so something else to consider. Cables can make a huge difference too. Do you use the same type for vinyl and cd playback? What about your room, is it hard or well damped?
    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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  • davepf
    davepf Posts: 8
    edited July 2006
    I'm Using mid-fi interconnects. (Monster Cable Interlink 400) I do run quite a bit of vinyl and CD from the eighties. Yes I suspect the room is probably on the hard side. Maybe some acoustic tile would be in order? The midrange spike does seem to center in around 4khz to 8khz but, maybe it's the harsh top end giving the allusion of mid-band brightness?
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,729
    edited July 2006
    CD's from the eighties are a definite problem.
    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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  • danger boy
    danger boy Posts: 15,722
    edited July 2006
    when you place the order for the replacement tweeters.. let them know you are a Club Polk member. for a discount. it's well worth it... i replaced all 8 tweeters in my SRS's and i have never regretted it once.
    PolkFest 2012, who's going>?
    Vancouver, Canada Sept 30th, 2012 - Madonna concert :cheesygrin:
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  • davepf
    davepf Posts: 8
    edited July 2006
    Thanks to all for the assistance. I have contacted Ken @ Polk customer service. Hope to have the RD0194-1's by next week.
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  • davepf
    davepf Posts: 8
    edited July 2006
    I gotta say I'm impressed with the Jolida JD1501RC. The imaging and tonality was much improved over the old NAD 2200. Considering that the unit has stock tubes which aren't broke in, it was a surprise. I project that with the new tweets and this Jolida, one will be further on the way to audio bliss.
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  • madmax
    madmax Posts: 12,434
    edited July 2006
    To each his own but if you still have any brightness or harshness issues after you are done you might want to consider trying a different interconnect. I've never yet met a Monster I could stand. :)
    madmax
    Vinyl, the final frontier...

    Avantgarde horns, 300b tubes, thats the kinda crap I want... :D
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  • davepf
    davepf Posts: 8
    edited July 2006
    madmax wrote:
    To each his own but if you still have any brightness or harshness issues after you are done you might want to consider trying a different interconnect. I've never yet met a Monster I could stand. :)
    madmax

    Not having experienced other cabling, what are some of the sonic qualities that have been attributed to the monsters? Do you have any favorites?
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