Polk SDA 1b or Polk LSi7 ??

BigMac

Hi. I am new to this site so first I wanted to say, "hi". Well, here it goes. I currently have a pair of Polk LSi7's and love the detail and sound I get from these speakers (I use these for my main speakers). I do miss the low end bass of a powered sub BUT I am not looking to add a sub for that. I am powering them with a NAD 7045 receiver and it powers them very well (80 watts into 4 ohms.....is that good enough for the SDA's as well?). Cannot go above the 9 o'clock position cause if I do I would blow the speakers. All settings in the neutral position.

A friend of mine has the Polk SDA 1b's and we are considering trading speaker for speaker. His speakers are in great condition and have the cable with them as well. What I am wondeing is........will I still get the same level of clean-ness and clarity with the SDA's? Will the vocals sound as clean and accurate with the SDA's? I think you all see what I am trying to ask here. Just want to make sure both parties will be happy. I know the best way to do this is to hook them up and listen to them here on my receiver BUT he lives almost 2 hours from me...he's not just right down the street. Thought I would ask you Polk experts for advice and opinions. Thanks for all who help me out with this dilemma.

ben62670

Welcome to Club Polk. I would do the trade. You need the room for SDA's though. 1b's are very nice.
Ben

leroyjr1

Value wise I think the 7's are worth more and good deals on sda's can be had

candyliquor35m

welcome to the forum. The 1b's will have more clarity and detail than the 7's. I would do it in a heartbeat without thinking about it. Make sure you check the waf (willing accomplice factor) tho.

Edit: sometimes these used sda's need a little maintenance like the polyswitch replaced or bypassed which is very easy to do. All my sdas are stock and have never had any of the caps replaced.

Pauly

If you do trade you might want to consider an amp upgrade, i had a pair of 1c's a ran a carver m1.0t that would damn near peak out when i really got them going and it would do 200 wpc at 8. just a thought before you get in over your head then you get the upgrade bug

Welcome to CP

Pauly

danger boy

swap them out for two weeks... maybe he won't like the 7's and maybe you won't like the SDA 1B''s. try em out before swapping would be my recommendation.

Sami

candyliquor35m wrote: »

The 1b's will have more clarity and detail than the 7's.

LOL, quite the opposite if the 1B's are anywhere close to 1C's that I have. For clarity and detail I'll take the LSi's, while SDA's have their own strengths.

heiney9

They are apples and oranges and both have their own respective strenths and weaknesses. They are both completely different approaches to the same end. I like both the LSi line and SDA line for different reasons. I finally settled on SDA's and I won't be changing anytime soon.

The best advice I can give is to try them out. If you replace the sl2000 tweeters in the SDA's with the RD0194-1 Polk replacement tweeter they will sound much closer to LSi's. The sl2000 to most peoples ears can sound harsh and strident and has a resonance at certain frequencies.

Polk and others have documented a +5dB peak at about 13kHz which is where the annoyance occurs. The Vifa tweeter in the LSi's is what makes them special. I have a pair of SDA 1C's with RD0's and Sonicap (capacitors) upgrades and they are simply stunning. I'd choose them over any LSi.

YMMV

H9

BigMac

Thanks to all that gave me valuable advice. I asked another ? in a different room and someone contacted me about buying them. I was hesitant at first but then when I saw the cold hard cash I could not resist. Guess I will be buying the SDA 1b's from my friend. Do you all know of anyone in the Richmond Virginia area that does the tweeter upgrades that is mentioned in the reply right before this one? I have almost no experience modding anything audio related and don't want to mess up my speakers. If there is not anyone near me who would you all recommend.......like the top 3-4 places. And once again, thanks for helping my noob butt,lol.

fourwheels0

hey bigmac the speakers your refering to are sda 2b's just to let you know lol.

for everyone else here i say this because i am bigmac's freind he's refering to and we were talking about trading and i did think about the both of us trying out each others speakers for a couple weeks but that is moot now. if i was him i would have jumped on the cash offer also so no hard feelings mac.

Ron Temple

The tweeter is a drop in replacement...unscrew, disconnect/reconnect 2 wires, screw back in, done. 2Bs are still worth the change.

candyliquor35m

BigMac wrote: »

Thanks to all that gave me valuable advice. I asked another ? in a different room and someone contacted me about buying them. I was hesitant at first but then when I saw the cold hard cash I could not resist. Guess I will be buying the SDA 1b's from my friend. Do you all know of anyone in the Richmond Virginia area that does the tweeter upgrades that is mentioned in the reply right before this one? I have almost no experience modding anything audio related and don't want to mess up my speakers. If there is not anyone near me who would you all recommend.......like the top 3-4 places. And once again, thanks for helping my noob butt,lol.

I think you'll be surprised at how good the stock 1b's sound. Give them a good hard listen (1 month) before venturing into any upgrades. I have 4 pair of stock sdas including the 1b and they sound so good that they will stay stock as long as I own them.