SDA 1 need advice

TSWisla

Hello, I have a pair of SDA 1 speakers. I do not have the interconnect. 2 of the tweets do not work and a couple of the woofers are not working. I have played them a few times and the fuses go out pretty often. Is it worth it to upgrade these or should I dump them and get some 1c? Can I bypass the fuses and upgrade to the type of protection in the newer units? Any instruction or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

ben62670

I would look for some 1C's. We can help you get these running though. First push on the passive radiator, and see if all the mids are moving.
Ben

lightman1

Set fire to them and buy Bose cubes..





...Or the good people at Polk Audio offer a wide array of replacement drivers to rebuild your lovely 1's. Lot's of info for upgrading and mods abound can be found here. Hang around and look around. I just wish I knew all this before I set fire to three sets of SDA's I had.
Ben's a dork by the way.....;););)

inspiredsports

TSWisla wrote: »

Hello, I have a pair of SDA 1 speakers. I do not have the interconnect. 2 of the tweets do not work and a couple of the woofers are not working. I have played them a few times and the fuses go out pretty often. Is it worth it to upgrade these or should I dump them and get some 1c? Can I bypass the fuses and upgrade to the type of protection in the newer units? Any instruction or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I'm sure you were looking for something more constructive than using them for kindling.

I had the same questions and decided to totally renovate a pair of SRS 2's using all new parts.

You need to determine if this is a "cost" based project, sentimental, or both.

If you choose to rebuild, are patient, and find parts here in the group or on eBay, you can put them back into stock shape for a reasonably small amount of money.

You can make the Interconnect Cable or pick one up brand new from Polk for about $40. Used SL2000's trade from $10-13 each delivered ($48 New as RDO194-1 From Polk). The MW6501 6-1/2" drivers (but check to be sure this is the number printed on the back of your drivers) are from $20-40 used and $48 new from POLK (if Polk has them in stock). The crossovers can certainly be upgraded too, and you can get into a fair amount of dollars there as some of the high frequency capacitors are a bit pricey. It's probably not a great return on investment to rebuild the crossovers if you don't upgrade the tweeters.

If you gently depress and hold in the passive radiator, the 6-1/2" drivers should extend outwards with no audible air leaks or scratchiness and remain out for 2-3 seconds. Lack of movement of a driver could indicate a shifted magnet or overloaded wire coil inside. A bad coil could cause constant fuse problems. You probably really shouldn't be running them with blown tweets or drivers as it's hard to tell what kind of load you are presenting to your amp, but the fuses blowing indicates you should repair before using.

I'm sure other will chime in and give you valuable ideas. Of course there are newer/better Polk models out there. Nostalgia and sentimental value com into play.

The posts ("Sticky's") at the top of this area (like http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55888) will give you a good place to learn more about your model.

What kind of amplification are you using?

TSWisla

Thank you for the replies. I am not home right now and will check on the woofers. The interconnect is not available anymore (I called Polk), if there is info on how to make one, I would appreciate it. As far as amplification, I am using tfm 35 or 45 or an m-1.5t. Thank you.

Tom

bsoko2

TSWisla wrote: »

Thank you for the replies. I am not home right now and will check on the woofers. The interconnect is not available anymore (I called Polk), if there is info on how to make one, I would appreciate it. As far as amplification, I am using tfm 35 or 45 or an m-1.5t. Thank you.

Tom

I have an interconnect cable that is a "pin - blade" configuration. Is that what youi need?

Bill

inspiredsports

bsoko2 wrote: »

I have an interconnect cable that is a "pin - blade" configuration. Is that what youi need?

Bill

Thats right . . . yours is Pin / Blade . . .

If you are halfway handy there is a thread at http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2872 on making one yourself, ben62670 who posted earlier builds them with higher grade wire, and the one from Bill (above) would keep your system stock.

Schurkey

TSWisla wrote: »

Hello, I have a pair of SDA 1 speakers. I do not have the interconnect.

I deliberately quit using my interconnect with my SDA 1Bs; I don't plan to sell it--but at least for now I'm not using it. At this point, I like the speakers MORE without the interconnect attached. More articulate; more "clear". Less "phase-y". I don't know how else to describe it except overall it's better without than with the interconnect.

TSWisla wrote: »

2 of the tweets do not work and a couple of the woofers are not working.

Maybe that is because there isn't an interconnect??? My first guess is that there's nothing wrong there. Have you swapped drivers and verified that the questionable drivers are dead???

TSWisla wrote: »

I have played them a few times and the fuses go out pretty often.

Got the correct fuses in them?

Problems with the amplifier?

TSWisla wrote: »

Is it worth it to upgrade these or should I dump them and get some 1c? Can I bypass the fuses and upgrade to the type of protection in the newer units? Any instruction or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Only you can answer whether it's "worth it" to upgrade. IF (Big IF) the drivers aren't acutally bad--all you'd "need" is the interconnect cable and to discover the problem with the fuses.

Beyond that, it's a matter of being handy with a soldering iron so as to replace ancient capacitors on the crossover boards (you wouldn't HAVE to install special expensive "audiophile" capacitors--removing defective caps and installing similar--but functional--caps could be very inexpensive); and perhaps adding the newer tweeters. I haven't done any of that--maybe that's why my speakers are so weird with the SDA interconnect cable in place.

lightman1

See... I told ya these guys know their stuff......

6'&glassy

My Sda-1's utilize a pin+,pin-/blade interconnect cable for enabling the SDA effect, which in my humble opinion sounds fine. Like other posters have suggested, running your SDA's with 4 drivers not functioning would change the impedence of your system and cause problems for your amplifier rather than blown fuses on your speakers...sounds like a short in your amplification??? How does your amplifier perform in unison with different pair/s of speakers? As others have said, you can realistically replace woofers and tweeters SL1000/Peerless for under $100. Good luck

F1nut

The SDA 1, SDA 1A and SDA 1B's use the blade/blade interconnect cable, which is still available from Polk. Since the OP's speakers utilize fuses instead of polyswitches, they have to SDA 1's.

As mentioned, one tweeter and one mid-driver per cabinet will not work without the SDA interconnect cable.

6'&glassy

F1nut wrote: »

The SDA 1, SDA 1A and SDA 1B's use the blade/blade interconnect cable, which is still available from Polk. Since the OP's speakers utilize fuses instead of polyswitches, they have to SDA 1's.

As mentioned, one tweeter and one mid-driver per cabinet will not work without the SDA interconnect cable.

Maybe it's a matter of semantics, but my SDA-1's interconnect module have two pins protruding from it's casing with a hole for a " stablization blade" . Each pin corresponds to either a positive or negative signal path. Having never seen the original interconnect cable, blade/blade dosent seem to fit the bill for my particular SDA's...blade/blade sounds as if the blades would fit into two openings which dont exist on my cabinets. Do the blades(hollow) fit over the pins???

F1nut

Ok, you have one of those very early cables, which is very different from the blade/blade or pin/blade cables.

lightman1

F1nut wrote: »

Ok, you have one of those very early cables, which is very different from the blade/blade or pin/blade cables.

Jesse, correct me if I'm wrong. He has the first version of the SDA 1? Rare.