Ever have this moment?

GUNTHER

Have had my 3.1TL's since 1986 (darn thats 21 years) and still can't get rid of them. Every couple of years a wild hair raises and I want to go out to get the latest technology and best speaker there is. After auditioning the "new and improved" I go and count my excess $$$ to rush back to the dealer in the morning. That night I turn on the amps and put my favorite music in the CD and kick back only to end up saying to myself, Self, what the@#$% are you doing? These speakers sound as good or better than what you have heard at the dealer. Why do you want to destroy what you love the most? Invariably I fail to "upgrade" the speakers. This has occurred at least 10 times over the years and to date I'm grateful that my "Self" has been wise enough to put a well placed kick in my brain-butt and kicked some intelligence back into the rest of the brain. I'm still in love with my Polks after 21 years and will be for the rest of my days, even the ex only lasted 18 years.

Anyone else out there feel like that?

hearingimpared

Yeah Bro, I owned a pair of SDA/SRSs back in 1985 and due to hard times had to give them up in 1989. Actually I had to give up the entire hobby as well as an audio business in the early 1990s. This past June I found myself able to get back into the hobby and the first thing I did was to drive from Philadelphia to Medford MA to pickup a pair of SDS/SRS 1.2TLs. I have them in my new home in Newark, DE and wouldn't give them up for all the tea in China.

read-alot

"Anyone else out there feel like that"?

Yes and have the same amount of trying to upgrade attempts.

sda2mike

it helps when they weigh as much as a small car;)

SLOCOOKN

I am at the other end of the spectrum. I dreamed about sda's for a long time. I finally have a pair. They are (were) damaged, I have epoxied the insides new tweets and 1 new driver. I should have pre back from B&K to day. I CANNNN NNNNOOOOTTTT WAIT!

read-alot

"If you're like most of us here, you'll probably find something you like better than Polk"

Quote from an Audio Asylum member.

I don't fit in with the "most of us" over there.

tonyb

Had some TL's for a long time...1st wife made me get rid of them.
Had to get rid of that wife.
Had theSRT's,3000p's,FX1000's....2nd wife made me get rid of them.
Had to get rid of her too.
Now have the Legacy Focus 20/20.....so far ,she's diggin them.
Have to keep this one...........:D

danger boy

yeah i have those kinds of thoughts running in my head every so often about my SRS's too.. i'd like to sell these and try the last version of SRS"s that came out.. the TL version.

But yeah... i wonder what else is out there that I'd be happy with in a 2 ch only rig that would put a big smile on my face and not cost upwards of $5000 for the speakers.

Reagan

I have been listening to almost exclusively either the SDA 1A's (which I still own) and the SRS 1.2TL's which I use on my main system for over 20 years. Well, I have been reading on Audio Asylum for several years about how the technology has advanced so much over the last 20 years that the Polk technology is easily outperformed by speakers in the less than $2000 range. I finally bought into this belief and decided to go and auditioned some of today's speakers. I listened to Magnepans, Martin Logans, Thiels, Vandersteens and B&W's. The Magnepans had a good soundstage which completely disappeared if I moved my head out of the 1 cubic foot focal point. In each instance, I found the speakers in the $1800 to $2200 lacking when compared to either the SDA1A's or the 1.2TL's. This was truly an objective comparison because I seriously was expecting the new speakers to sound better, especially with the pristine listening environments and along with the high end cables and amplification. Still, the POLK's sounded better with my modest amplification (B&K Reference 200.2) and very modest pre (the pre section of my NAD receiver !). I am anxiously awaiting shipment from Mapletree for a tube pre. I would expect the Polks to prefer the signal.

Refefer

You gotta remember to account for inflation. Sure you're SDA's cost $1800 to $2200 in the 1985, but to be fair, that is equivalent to $3194.39 to $4797.87 (as calculated by the inflation calculator from those era's to 2005 money).

For that price, yes, you can purchase better sounding speakers with better detail and more precise soundstage. Will it have as big of a soundstage? Hell no. Would I trade a pair of 1.2TL's for a pair of $5000 speakers? Honestly, probably not. But ya gotta keep the for the same money argument accurate.

If you wanna compare dollars to dollars, keep the ratio right

mikesd

Yes, I feel that way about by LS90's. Every once in a while I get the urge to check out whats new, but cannot bring myself to pull the trigger.

Dennis Gardner

Money well spent would land on crossover/tweeter upgrades for your SDAs.

Deadof_knight

Upgrade them you ll love them all over again. I havent seen anything that was that impressive yet to even want toooo.

Ricardo

SDA's are definitely great speakers,....

Here's my story:
Summer 05: got my 1B's
Fall 05: got SRS's
Winter 05: got 1.2TL's; upgraded tweeters & crossovers and swore I would never let them go.
Winter 06: got a pair of Carver AL-III's; sold the 1.2's
A month later I got the 3.1TL's, and have now the new tweeters and upgraded crossover.
I enjoy both, but right now I'm listening to a pair of monitors that hardly get down to 50Hz...but have a mid/high accuracy that is scary. Everything sounds as real as it can get.

I guess my point is that even though the SDA's are great speakers, there are others out there; not better, not worse, but each has its strenghts. The variety makes this hobby more enjoyable.

TroyD

Hell yeah...SDA goodness.

BDT

Reagan

I definitely understand the mechanics of inflation. My $1800 to $2200 listening range had nothing to do with original cost but rather what the market value is for the SDA 1.2TL's.

Please educate me more on the suggested upgrades. I have heretofore been blissfully ignorant. My tweeters are SL3000's. The crossovers are original.

Ricardo

Reagan wrote:

I definitely understand the mechanics of inflation. My $1800 to $2200 listening range had nothing to do with original cost but rather what the market value is for the SDA 1.2TL's.

Please educate me more on the suggested upgrades. I have heretofore been blissfully ignorant. My tweeters are SL3000's. The crossovers are original.

You can get new silk tweeters from Polk for $48 each shipped to your door (yeah...that's a lot of money for your speaker..). You will get improved highs, but the difference is not as dramatic with the SL3000's as it is with the Sl200's.

For the crossover, changing resistors and capacitors will give you improved bass extension and more detailed mids/highs. Here's the thread from when I upgraded mine (I used Solen then, but used Sonicaps for my 3.1's and the difference is noticeable).

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37333&highlight=1.2+TL%27s

Good luck.

Reagan

Any recipes for SDA speaker interconnect upgrades?

Ricardo

Use the search function; lots of info.

You're welcome.

schwarcw

Try this link for some infor on SDA cable upgrades. Click Here!

hearingimpared

HTrookie wrote:

You can get new silk tweeters from Polk for $48 each shipped to your door (yeah...that's a lot of money for your speaker..). You will get improved highs, but the difference is not as dramatic with the SL3000's as it is with the Sl200's.

For the crossover, changing resistors and capacitors will give you improved bass extension and more detailed mids/highs. Here's the thread from when I upgraded mine (I used Solen then, but used Sonicaps for my 3.1's and the difference is noticeable).

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37333&highlight=1.2+TL%27s

Good luck.

I have to disagree with only one thing here.

I have just upgraded to the RD0198s from the SL3000 and there is a difference in the highs as you said; to describe it best I would say with the RD0198s it sounds more vinyl than digital but I also have been noticing (and as each day passes it becomes more dramatic) that there is much more inner detail in the high mids and the overall treble. To give an example, if a drummer is using both sticks on a cymbal you clearly hear the one - two - one -two and the space between each stick, as well as the sound of the stick strike on the cymbal not just the sizzle after the strike. I also notice more and more that female vocals and upper tenor males are crisper and less in-your-face.

These puppys still have about 20 more hours of break in left. I can't wait to hear this.

dbnh

GUNTHER wrote:

Every couple of years a wild hair raises and I want to go out to get the latest technology and best speaker there is. After auditioning the "new and improved" I go and count my excess $$$ to rush back to the dealer in the morning. That night I turn on the amps and put my favorite music in the CD and kick back only to end up saying to myself, Self, what the@#$% are you doing? These speakers sound as good or better than what you have heard at the dealer. Why do you want to destroy what you love the most? Invariably I fail to "upgrade" the speakers. This has occurred at least 10 times over the years and to date I'm grateful that my "Self" has been wise enough to put a well placed kick in my brain-butt and kicked some intelligence back into the rest of the brain...

Anyone else out there feel like that?

I've been tempted to go for another set of speakers at odd times, and I feel some of those speakers provided a better listening experience than the Polks. However, in my system with my gear to my ears, the overall performance difference between the auditioned brands and my pair of Polks was not enough for me to pull the trigger. I will say that upgrading the tweeters on my SDA 1Cs helped to narrow the perceived performance gap with some of the speakers I've considered.

Since I purchased my Polks in 1989, I've changed over every other piece of my gear (amps, preamp, cables, TT, cartridge, CDP, tweaks, etc.) except for the Polks. With each permanent change of non-speaker gear, the performance of, and my satisfaction with the Polks, has increased. Having a dedicated listening room has also been an important ingredient in optimizing the Polks' performance. I note that I have a crossover upgrade in the offing and am interested to see what that will bring to maintaining sonic satisfaction with the ICs. YMMV.

Mike Reeter

I have a mint pair of SDA 1C's I've been thinking about parting with,but once in a while I will hook them up and have a listen...I ask myself,why in the world would you want to let these awesome speakers go?

I bought them with the thoughts of setting up a second 2-channel rig,but I just can't afford to have two "decent" rigs around...but I still can't bring myself to sell them...

Reagan

Thanks all for the info.

hangon

How do the RTi12's compare to them? I own the monitor 10's and RTi12's. I can not find any SDA's in my area to compare. Any thoughts?

Mike Reeter

I have a pair of RTi12's and two pair of SDA's

Believe me when I say,there is no comparison between the two styles of speakers.

I can't speak on the 10's...the SDA's just have a "lush" midrange and upper end along with a lower end that will hold its own.

The SDA "effect" to me is what sets them apart from anything in the RTi line...

Keep asking around here and maybe someone close by will chime in and give you a listen.