Polk SDA1's in Chicago

kawizx9r

No aff.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/ele/1255936956.html

dracoskeeper

This is my man cave setup that I am selling, I picked up some Maggie's (2.7/QR) so I regrettably have to get rid of these or buy more amps! I am willing to work with any interested polkies.

AudioGenics

more than fair value....

messiah

I'm in Lombard, but unfortunately have no need for the center channel. I've been waiting for these to come up locally! How much for a fellow polkie minus the center?

kawizx9r

Consider these sold subwoofer replacement will have to wait, this worked out great having the need of a new center channel as well for my RTs.

comfortablycurt

kawizx9r wrote: »

Consider these sold subwoofer replacement will have to wait, this worked out great having the need of a new center channel as well for my RTs.

Nice! Congrats man! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on them.

kawizx9r

Thanks, I can't wait to hear them BUT I will unfortunately have to deprive myself of using these. I have no seperate amp to power these things once I get them. I been looking around at audiogon and ebay but not sure what would be suitable...at around 200 dollars used?

comfortablycurt

I'm running my SDA 2A's with an Adcom GFA-545...it does an excellent job of powering them, and sounds absolutely fantastic. The guy I got the amp from used it to power his 1C's for quite a while too.

My ears run out of room far before the volume knob does. The 545's can be had for around $200 all day long. Don't be scared of the 100 watt rating that it has. The 100 watts from the Adcom will absolutely walk all over a 100 watt AVR.

Whatever amp you decide on, make sure it's a common ground design.

edit-Here's a nice looking 545 on the 'gon. The seller says it was just cleaned and checked by an Adcom service center. $180+shipping, which is a pretty good price.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampstran&1249611646&/Adcom-gfa-545-Great-Amp

kawizx9r

Hey comfortablycurt, so I found an adcom 545 locally, and I'm trying to reason a good price from him. So far 180 seems to be ok with him, but its an Adcom GFA-545 II, any difference from the one you mentioned and the one I'm looking at? Hes the original owner btw.

leroyjr1

$180 is a great price. Go get it.

I have a 555II for sale if interested.

kawizx9r

PM sent

comfortablycurt

kawizx9r wrote: »

Hey comfortablycurt, so I found an adcom 545 locally, and I'm trying to reason a good price from him. So far 180 seems to be ok with him, but its an Adcom GFA-545 II, any difference from the one you mentioned and the one I'm looking at? Hes the original owner btw.

The original 545 and 555 were Nelson Pass designs, and were fairly simple in their design. With the MKII versions, Adcom engineers re-designed them, without Nelson Pass. Some people say that Adcom didn't really improve on the original design, but made it more complicated than was necessary. Some people think that the originals sound better, some think the MKII's sound better. From everything I've gathered though, they do sound pretty similar to one another. I've never heard the MKII versions myself.

There were several differences. The original 5x5's were direct coupled, the MKII's had coupling caps between the inputs/outputs. These coupling caps have been known to go bad from time to time.

The II's also have a beefier transformer, and larger heat sinks.

IIRC, the II's also used a darlington output stage, which makes them a bit more stable driving extremely low impedances.

There are a few other small differences too, such as the thermal protection indicator on the front panel, and higher quality binding posts on the rear panel.

There are several threads on that topic around the forum if you want to read into it more.



Either way though, $180 is a great price for either version of the 545. I'd also talk to Lee about the 555II he's got for sale.

edit-Here's a Stereophile article describing a lot of the differences between the two. Credits to John Atkinson of Stereophile.

Introduced in 1985, the original GFA-555 was the subject of a rave review in Vol.8 No.4 from the patrician Anthony H. Cordesman, who felt that its natural presentation of upper-octave detail and its "extraordinarily holographic" imaging might well make it a "legitimate rival" to the Krells and Audio Researches of this world. Three issues later, in Vol.8 No.7, the venerable JGH pretty much agreed that the '555 was something special, rivaling his then reference, the Electron Kinetics Eagle 2.

Personally, I felt the '555's high frequencies to be somewhat emphasized, perhaps even grainy, which for me somewhat offset its superbly defined, massively weighty low frequencies, its excellent dynamics, and its wide, deep, and well-focused soundstage. It would also mean that the '555 required rather more care in the choice of matching source components and loudspeakers than AHC's original review would suggest. Nevertheless, the 200Wpc Adcom, priced at an eminently affordable $600, was superb value and went on to become one of the best-selling amplifiers of all time. Two Stereophile reviewers, TJN and RH, used '555s for much of their listening; and GL was also impressed by its virtues when he reviewed an early 1989 sample in Vol.12 No.12.

At the 1990 SCES, Adcom finally announced a revised version of the '555 to sell for $800, the GFA-555 II. Before continuing the amplifier's inclusion in Stereophile's "Recommended Components," therefore, I thought it a good idea to compare the new with the old (in this case, the same sample we had purchased for GL's 1989 review).

Superficially, the new '555 appears identical to the old. A closer look, however, reveals a greater number of cooling vents in the case and a cooling fan lying just under the top plate. (This fan, a $100 option, is triggered by heatsink temperature and didn't turn on during my auditioning, where average output levels were generally below 8V RMS into the 6 ohm Avalons—just under 11W.) There is now a red LED on the front panel labeled "Thermal Overload," a greater number of fuses between the rear-mounted, curved-edge heatsinks, and the input sockets are now much higher quality and use Teflon insulation. The power transfomer has been increased in size, potted to improve heat transfer, and offers greater regulation. The output circuitry has also been changed, and the LF signal path has been stripped of polarized (electrolytic) capacitors. A new DC-servo circuit minimizes output DC offset.

Both amplifiers are polarity-correct, but the Mk.II version has slightly higher gain—27.75dB vs 26.9dB at 1kHz when loaded by the Avalon speakers. The 0.85dB difference was compensated for during the auditioning. Each amplifier was fed from a Mod Squad Line Drive Deluxe AGT via 1m of AudioQuest Lapis interconnect. Source was exclusively CD from a Meridian 208 CD player/preamp, connected to the Line Drive via 10' of Audio Research interconnect. Loudspeakers were Avalon Eclipses, bi-wired via 8' lengths of Mission spaced-conductor cable. (The fact that the Adcom's output binding posts are placed between the heatsink fins meant that there wasn't sufficient clearance to use the bi-wired sets of AudioQuest Clear that I used for the other follow-up reviews I carried out for this issue.)

The first difference wasn't hard to spot. After three hours' warmup, the heatsinks of the '555 II were appreciably hotter than that of the Mk.I, suggesting a higher degree of output-device bias current. The first track I played was Drew Minter singing Handel's "Va Tacito," from the Harmonia Mundi USA CD Arias for Senesino (HMC 905183). While I felt the older amplifier's high frequencies to be still a little grainy, it drove the Avalon speakers with a degree of authority that was musically satisfying. The voice was a little smaller-sounding than via the Audio Research Classic 60, which has taken pride of place in my system. Nevertheless, the soundstage was well-defined,the low frequencies weighty, and the music communicated well. Switching to the Mk.II '555 revealed an even deeper soundstage—the accompanying French horn could be heard to be set further behind Mr. Minter—while the voice was more robust in its midrange tonality.

Turning to my recording of Anna-Maria Stanczyk playing Chopin on the Stereophile Test CD, the same differences manifest themselves. Via the original '555, the sound of the Steinway was a little lightweight, even "tinkly" in its upper registers, while the Mk.II '555 presented it with what I feel to be a more natural tonal quality. This is not to say the new amplifier is dark-sounding; instead, it has what I feel to be significantly less grainy high frequencies. It's fair to point out, however, that many listeners unfamiliar with the subtleties of live piano sound will prefer the original '555 as being more clear, more vivid.

The new amplifier again threw a better sense of depth than the old. Anna's Steinway was set further behind the plane of the loudspeakers, despite its now having a more robust, more forward midrange tonality.

Both amplifiers sounded pretty well equivalent in the bass with these kinds of music. I therefore reached for something with a bit more low-frequency oomph: Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop album (Epic EK 44313), which has some killer drum sounds. Here, the GFA-555 Mk.II had as good an LF extension apparent, but its upper and midbass registers were, depending on your tastes, better defined/less weighty than its Mk.I incarnation. Both, however, were more than adequate in presenting Terry Bozzio's thunderclap drum sound with more than sufficient weight and dynamic impact.

To sum up, I feel the GFA-555 Mk.II to be significantly more neutral as regards midrange and treble tonal quality than the Mk.I, while preserving its virtues: excellent imaging specificity, a deep, well-defined bass, and a superb sense of dynamics. Currently ranked in Class C of Stereophile's "Recommended Components" listing, the Mk.II '555 could well deserve an even higher rating. I have passed it on, therefore, to Tom Norton for a more detailed evaluation.—John Atkinson

kawizx9r

Yea, I PMed him and if its reasonable for me given I've already been spending more than I wanted AND I didnt get a new sub as intended lol....we'll see. I'm also checking out pre amps, and if Leroy still has his pre as well I'll probably get both if the price is right. The guy selling the 545 also has a NAD Monitor Series Pre 1000 for 150 bucks but I bet I can talk him down some, any thoughts on that?

Conradicles

That set that Lee has for sale is a great combo if you can afford it. I would jump all over that if I had the extra cash.

Congrats on your new SDA's!!!

kawizx9r

335 for both the NAD Monitor Series Pre 1000+Adcom GFA-545 II delivered right to me even though he isn't too far, good deal?

danz1906

kawizx9r wrote: »

335 for both the NAD Monitor Series Pre 1000+Adcom GFA-545 II delivered right to me even though he isn't too far, good deal?

Seems like a good deal.

kawizx9r

NEW SDA OWNER! Going to go pick them up after I get a haircut

Edit: I'll put up some pics once I get them

kawizx9r

All I have to say....is WOW! Dracos is an awesome guy to deal with, definitely recommend buying from him if hes ever selling anything. Got a parasound d/as 1000, kenwood pre amp (free), some banana plugs, cs350 and a pair of virgin SDA 1C's in absolutely beautiful condition. Let me also add, I got to hear the sda srs running on a moscode tube and it BLEW me away, now i can speak from experience where all this SDA hype comes from, and I am glad to now be an owner of these SDA 1C's. Will post some pics up just gotta go pick the wife up from work, its going to be a shocker for her seeing them considering the SDA's are also in their original factory boxes and theyre huge! lol...

AudioGenics

now there's a happy audio guy

kawizx9r

Ok just before I go thought Id toss in a pic, once Im back Ill be setting them up

comfortablycurt

Very nice man. Congrats!!

Conradicles

Man those boxes even look new!!!

thsmith

Congrats on a very nice upgrade. A lot of us here have 1Cs and love them.

leroyjr1

Did he throw in the dog with the deal?:D

Congrats on a nice deal.

dracoskeeper

Freddy's a class guy! Glad these SDA's went to a grateful new owner. I have no problem giving the younger audiophile a chance to get into nice gear. Plus the fact that hes a fellow veteran, who was wounded in combat, says everything about his character (five tours in Iraq!!!). Good luck with your "new" setup!!

kawizx9r

Oops im sorry dracos if that came out wrong when we were talking! I have 3 tours in iraq, when I said 5, i meant 5 yrs in the service!

kawizx9r

On another subject, now I'll be opening stuff up and moving furniture around. Ill post how they sound in my smaller place. I know they need room to breathe as curt said but my apt is just a temporary thing, cant wait to give them their own room