SDA 1 vs. SDA 2B

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  • nspindel
    nspindel Posts: 5,343
    edited July 2008
    Ah whatever, I've threadjacked my own threads before. Read the history on this thread, we're talking about Duke Ellington a few days ago...
    Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
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  • nspindel
    nspindel Posts: 5,343
    edited July 2008
    So the good news is these babies work. I snapped a binding post on the ride home, so I had to swap it out for one of the spares from when I fixed up the 2B's. And I don't have a blade/blade interconnect, so I had to improvise there a bit. But I have 'em fired up and all drivers are working fine. Been a while since I listened to SL2000's, all I can say is that 4 of them will be up for sale soon enough...

    Time to call Soniccraft tomorrow, been a few months since I spoke to Elliot. I'm sure he'll be psyched to take my credit card number again!!!
    Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited July 2008
    Can you post his number. I need to place an order for a fellow Polkie.
    Glad to hear they work. Trietz knows someone looking for the SL2000's. That will help offset cost a bit.
    Thanks
    Ben
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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  • treitz3
    treitz3 Posts: 19,196
    edited July 2008
    Well, Lightman1 got hooked up with the set he was looking for so that idea's a no go. Sorry nspindle
    ~ In search of accurate reproduction of music. Real sound is my reference and while perfection may not be attainable? If I chase it, I might just catch excellence. ~
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  • nspindel
    nspindel Posts: 5,343
    edited July 2008
    ben62670 wrote: »
    Can you post his number. I need to place an order for a fellow Polkie.
    Glad to hear they work. Trietz knows someone looking for the SL2000's. That will help offset cost a bit.
    Thanks
    Ben

    http://www.soniccraft.com
    (800) 689 HIFI (4434)
    Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
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  • nspindel
    nspindel Posts: 5,343
    edited July 2008
    So they were definitely building speakers out of spare parts back then! Another bit of weirdness besides the blade/blade connector is the fact that on one of the tweeter xo's, the 7.5ohm resistor is actually 2 15's in parallel. If I remember my high school physics correctly, 2 15ohm resistors in parallel is 7.5ohms. Guess they were low on resistors that day too, not just pin/blade connectors....
    Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
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  • nspindel
    nspindel Posts: 5,343
    edited July 2008
    Sonicaps, Mills, Cardas posts, and RD-0194's all ordered. I'm not going to do the AI-1 mod at this point. It's a small room, likelihood of needing (or affording) monoblocks at any point in the foreseeable future is pretty nill, not to mention I don't want to wait!
    Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
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  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,204
    edited July 2008
    nspindel wrote: »
    Sonicaps, Mills, Cardas posts, and RD-0194's all ordered. I'm not going to do the AI-1 mod at this point. It's a small room, likelihood of needing (or affording) monoblocks at any point in the foreseeable future is pretty nill, not to mention I don't want to wait!

    Don't forget it's not just mono blocks. There are many more amplifiers out today that are NOT common ground. Just something to think about. I have my short list of amps and several are NOT common ground and my list only includes one model that are mono blocks.

    All I need is an AI-1 cable as my 1C's are close to the last run and don't need further modification

    H9
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
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  • nspindel
    nspindel Posts: 5,343
    edited July 2008
    true. If it ever became an issue, would they do the required mod after I've pimped out the xo with the sonicaps?
    Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
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  • heiney9
    heiney9 Posts: 25,204
    edited July 2008
    nspindel wrote: »
    true. If it ever became an issue, would they do the required mod after I've pimped out the xo with the sonicaps?

    I'm sure they would as no warranty issues are involved. I'm not even sure what the mod is and or if it's user serviceable. I simply mentioned it because you were going to be in there doing work I thought it was a user mod.

    H9
    "Appreciation of audio is a completely subjective human experience. Measurements can provide a measure of insight, but are no substitute for human judgment. Why are we looking to reduce a subjective experience to objective criteria anyway? The subtleties of music and audio reproduction are for those who appreciate it. Differentiation by numbers is for those who do not".--Nelson Pass Pass Labs XA25 | EE Avant Pre | EE Mini Max Supreme DAC | MIT Shotgun S1 | Pangea AC14SE MKII | Legend L600 | BlueSound Node 3 - Tubes add soul!
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  • nspindel
    nspindel Posts: 5,343
    edited August 2008
    Houston, we have liftoff.....

    Tweeters, Sonicaps, Mills, Cardas posts all arrived, I spent all night pulling the 1C's apart and overhauling the xo's and mounting the posts. Same configuration as my 2B's (the DarqueNight mod) using the single Cardas post for the SDA interconnect replacing my mysterious single-conductor blade/blade setup.

    These were definitely trickier boards to pull apart than the 2B's, e.g. the polyswitch was mounted underneath one of the inductors, and just generally a bit more delicate work. But nothing I couldn't handle.

    I'll post pictures tomorrow night, I took a bunch, but I'm just way too tired right now and I need to get up for work soon!

    Long story short, I fired them up and they both worked right out of the gate. Of course I had a bit of jitters when I powered up the amp, thinking "Oh god, please don't let these explode!" But the I heard Dark Side come to life and I knew we had a winner.

    Sound is ok starting off. A bit of the crackles like I had with the 2B's, the Sonicaps take at least ten hours just to calm themselves down, then they really start coming into their own in the 50-75 hour range, and then they open up big time after 100 hours. I've got the Squeezebox on repeat right now, I'll let them go for 200 hours with intermittent listening sessions along the way.

    I can definitely tell that these are going to be a nice bump up from the 2B's. They need a lot more time to open up, but I could tell just by my preliminary listening session that they just sound "bigger" if that makes sense.

    Next thing to work on are the grill cloths, these are really ratty thanks to the original owner's cats. I need to re-cloth the side panels as well.

    I'll probably start a fresh thread tomorrow when I put the pics up. Don't want the introduction to these new beauties to come on page 4 of a thread....

    G'nite...
    Good music, a good source, and good power can make SDA's sing. Tubes make them dance.
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  • ben62670
    ben62670 Posts: 15,969
    edited August 2008
    Pffft
    Get bent dude. No friggen pics.













    J/K
    :)
    Please. Please contact me a ben62670 @ yahoo.com. Make sure to include who you are, and you are from Polk so I don't delete your email. Also I am now physically unable to work on any projects. If you need help let these guys know. There are many people who will help if you let them know where you are.
    Thanks
    Ben
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