SDA-1C black studio version

bluecomet

I recently won a ebay auction for SDA-1C studio version speakers. Is there much of a differance between SDA-1A, B and C's and if so what is it. They did not come with the interconnect cable. Is this cable still available from Polk. Can I run them without the cable without damaging them. Are these speakers good for surround sound or better for 2 speaker music. I was going to hook them up to my Kenwood 9600 receiver or I could put them with my Yamaha 6.1 receiver setup. There in very good condition. I can't wait to hear them. I also bought the first series of Monitor 10 speakers that was also on ebay. Are these better that Monitor 7's. I have heard good things about both speakers. Any advice would be appreciated. I have owned Polks since the 1980's but am relatively new here. I enjoy this site very much and have learned many interesting things. Thanks. Jim

danger boy

nice. the SDA 1C's are a favorite of a lot of people over the 1A's and 1b's.

Congrats!

ESavinon

Listen to them for a few days. Let us know how you like them.
No toe in, 6 feet appart make sure they have about 3 feet of space between the side walls. Once you listen to them for a few days, then get yourself a long rca cable (subwoofer cable) plug it in the pin/blade terminal disregarding the blade part.
Let us know if you notice anything before/after rca cable.

ESavinon

check out this linky: http://www.polksda.com/pdfs/SDA1C.pdf

nadams

Hey Jim. Let me know if you need any help with anything... I'm only about an hour from Jessup

bluecomet

Are you saying a RCA subwoofer cable will work for these speakers. I like the SDA link you posted. Good information.

ESavinon

If they have a pin/blade terminal, yes.

bluecomet

I appreciate the offer Nadams. I will let you know. I just unpacked these bad boys. They are huge. I am glad they arrived in one piece. I have had some good experiences with some guys on ebay except for a guy in Atlanta who sold me RT800i's. They were packaged very poorly and damaged, Plus a driver was blown. I replaced the driver and the sound is now good. Luckily the damage was on the backside of the RT800i's. I hope everything is good with the SDA's. I will let you know tomorrow. Thanks.

nadams

Check all your mid drivers for functionality. The glue that holds the magnet in place on these older drivers is known to let go during shipping. The voice coil then shifts and binds up, rendering the driver useless.

billbillw

Welcome to the Club!

The studio 1C are what I have in my living room. They are suited well to both 2-channel music and movie sountracks in 7.1. I actually find that they blend pretty well with the Polk RTxxxi series speakers.

You are very lucky that you received them without damage. I would normally suggest that these are the type of speaker that shouldn't be shipped due to weight and the fragility of both the mid drivers, and the crossovers.

In addition to what Nadams said above, I would take out the passive radiator and make sure that the crossovers are not hanging free. Polk used plastic standoffs to mount the x-over board to a large inductor. These break off easily and if left un fixed can cause a short or other broken components.

Anyway, hope you enjoy them and don't find any 'hidden' damage. These are a very nice compromise between size and sound output. Feed them good clean power (150wpc or better if possible) and fashion an interconnect cable as mentioned above. Down the road, there are a few upgrade options for the 1C that are definitely worthwhile, namely, replacing the tweeters with the new Polk silk domes.

Joe08867

Nice grab Blue Comet. Hope they shipped ok. I have heard som serious horror stories about shipping.

Are you a train enthusiast? I have a Blue Comet Train Car near my home in NJ. It is attatched to the Clinton Diner. Its an observation car named Biela. I think it was a conversion from a standard passanger car and not originally an observation car.



Here is a small pic of it.

bluecomet

Well I just talked to a Polk technician. They said not to use the subwoofer cable to plug the SDA's in. He said to get 16 guage speaker wire and use a pin for positive and blade for negative. Can I turn these speakers on without the cable to see if they work o.k. without damaging them. How important is this cable. I noticed on ebay someone is selling the non ground cable for these speakers. They are pin/blade. Is that what I need. If not I guess I can rig something up going to radio shack. Does anyone know what size the pin and blade should be.

bluecomet

Yes Joe I am a train guy also and a fan of the Blue Comet. Here on the outskirts of Scranton everyone is a Lackawanna Railroad fan. I will be going to the big Allentown train show this Saturday. Check it out if you can. It is worth it if you like model trains.

Joe08867

Trains are pretty darn cool. My dad and I had the Lionel version of the Blue Comet but somehow during a move it was lost. I may take you up on that Allentown Idea. I am only about 40 minutes from allentown. Where is the show going to be??

I also have Northlandz not to far from me. If you don't know it is a huge model rail setup for viewing in the Flemington area of Hunterdon County NJ. The craftmanship this guy does is awesome. You should check it out.

ben62670

If you take a cheap set of RCA's you can break the petals off of them, and the center pin is the right size. Solder at least a 16ga wire to the center pin(any bigger may be hard to work with), and disregard the blade part of the connector.

Ben

billbillw

Bluecomet,
To answer one of your questions: Yes, you can play the speaker without the SDA interconnect cable. It will not do any harm. However, you will not hear sound from all of the mid-woofer drivers in full range. Only the inner (stereo) drivers will play full range. The outer (dimensional) drivers will play bass frequencies (below approx 200 Hz).

Having the SDA interconnect cable is what will give you the SDA effect, which is what these speakers are all about. It is well worth your efforts to construct one. Like Ben said above, use a cheap RCA connector for the center pin, solder to a single 16 ga (or greater) wire. The blade portion is not part of the circuit and can be left unconnected. Good luck.

bluecomet

Joe the train show is going to be at the Allentown fairgrounds. Thanks everyone for your responses. I may take your advice and pull some drivers to see if they are o.k. The guy did a great job packaging the speakers but I am sure they got bounced around a little. I hope nothing broke internally. I will try the speakers tonight and let you know how I made out. Why is the blade part of the interconnect cable unimportant. Thanks guys.

billbillw

bluecomet wrote: »

I may take your advice and pull some drivers to see if they are o.k. The guy did a great job packaging the speakers but I am sure they got bounced around a little. I hope nothing broke internally. I will try the speakers tonight and let you know how I made out. Why is the blade part of the interconnect cable unimportant. Thanks guys.

For the most part, you can tell if the drivers are OK by gently pushing in the passive radiator. Watch all the mid-woofers to make sure they are not binding. They should move in and out freely when you press/release the radiator.

The Blade portion of the interconnect is not wired. Its just to make the connection more secure.

bluecomet

When I talked to Polk today. They said they had a pin/pin cable not pin to blade connection cable. Should I just buy the pin/pin cable and not worry about the negative pin because it has no affect.

ben62670

Nope you need the Pin part, and not the blade.
Two of these will work very nicely.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=092-112
The petals come of pretty easily, and the rest is pretty solid.
Ben

nadams

Are you sure he doesn't have a blade-blade, ben? That's what it sounds like to me...

blue- can you take a picture of the interconnect socket?

ben62670

Studio 1C's

bluecomet

O.K. guys I tried the SDA-1C's without an interconnect cable. It did not sound right. My left speaker tweeters were not working. I took them out and found the blue wire was hanging off the bottom tweeter. Hooked it up and that solved that problem. The sound was better but I felt it was lacking something. I pressed the cones on all of the mid woofers. On the right speaker I found one is frozen on the outside speaker and one is almost frozen on the inside speakers. They are original drivers. They look to be in good physical shape. Is there anything I can do beside replace these drivers. Does Polk have replacements drivers for these speakers. I found a cable with two RCA plugs at the ends. I put the in the pin holes. I think I am getting the SDA effect since when music is playing both sides of the speakers are moving. Any help would be appreciated.

ben62670

Polk has replacements. You can not fix them. I have, and many others have tried to fix them. Not happening. As for the IC cable for now just strip some speaker wire, and put it in the holes. An RCA cable is 22ga max. Not near enough. you need 16ga or better to fully enjoy. Mention you are a Club Polk member to get the Polkie discount;)
Ben