Polk SDA 1A Speakers (Pair) - $80 (Anaheim, CA)

dkmuch
dkmuch Posts: 79
edited July 2009 in Vintage Speakers
Polk SDA 1A Speakers (Pair) - $80 (Anaheim, CA)

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/ele/1286828030.html

No affiliation.
RT55i mains, CS400i center, FX300i surrounds, RTi15 rears, Energy S10.3 Sub, Onkyo 607 / PS3
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  • everpress
    everpress Posts: 862
    edited July 2009
    Seriously?
    Too bad I'm in OH.

    ? Harmon Kardon AVR 55 (dead; replacing with Onkyo TX NR-616)
    ? Polk RTA 11TL's (FR and FL)
    ? Polk TSi200's (RR and RL)
    ? Polk CS10 (Center)
    ? Polk PSW-350
    ? Grado SR-60i Headphones
    ? Fii0 E5 headphone amp
    ? iPod touch (8 gig)
    ? iPod Classic (80 gig)
    ? Mac Mini (as media server)
    ? xbox 360
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  • AudioGenics
    AudioGenics Posts: 2,567
    edited July 2009
    nice...
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  • comfortablycurt
    comfortablycurt Posts: 6,745
    edited July 2009
    Killer price!

    If I wasn't halfway across the country, Id be snagging those.
    The nirvana inducer-
    APC H10 Power Conditioner
    Marantz UD5005 universal player
    Parasound Halo P5 preamp
    Parasound HCA-1200II power amp
    PolkAudio LSi9's/PolkAudio SDA 2A's/PolkAudio Monitor 7A's
    Audioquest Speaker Cables and IC's
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  • NJPOLKER
    NJPOLKER Posts: 3,474
    edited July 2009
    good for parts thats about it
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  • dkmuch
    dkmuch Posts: 79
    edited July 2009
    Contacted the seller, no interconnect cable.
    RT55i mains, CS400i center, FX300i surrounds, RTi15 rears, Energy S10.3 Sub, Onkyo 607 / PS3
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  • JohnLocke88
    JohnLocke88 Posts: 1,150
    edited July 2009
    I was planning on picking these up tomorrow morning. Why would these be good for 'just parts?' I don't understand why one blown tweeter makes these scrap.
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  • dane_peterson
    dane_peterson Posts: 1,903
    edited July 2009
    The 1C's are heavily favored over the A's. I believe the crossovers and cabinets are different. Still, for $80--
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  • gdb
    gdb Posts: 6,012
    edited July 2009
    JohnLocke88 wrote: »
    I was planning on picking these up tomorrow morning. Why would these be good for 'just parts?' I don't understand why one blown tweeter makes these scrap.

    People seem to lose sight of the fact that these are POLK SDAs, sure there are later, more refined models that are more desirable but the fact remains, this model was designed and approved for sale by POLK. These sound better with only one tweeter per cabinet anyway (stereo) so you could look at it like they come with a "spare" tweeter instead of being short on one. Better yet.... upgrade and modify the XO, buy two RDO tweeters and you'll have a very nice set of SDAs for not a lot of cash outlay. I have 1As that sound great, and when guests hear them.......Holy ****!! is a common response from them. I prefer the sound from my SRS2s over the 1As but, I like the looks of the 1As better than the SRS2s. As always....YMMV;)
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  • JohnLocke88
    JohnLocke88 Posts: 1,150
    edited July 2009
    Well. Pulled the trigger. Picked these up about 2 hours ago. Just going to take some time at first and clean up the cabinets. Veneers are actually in really good shape. Grilles have some gunk on them, but are other wise near perfect. The bottom "pedestal" veneer is pulled away from the bottom corner (obviously from being dragged on the floor). I was thinking about sanding/peeling off the veneer on the pedestal and painting the MDF.

    I noticed that the "dimensional" tweeter has it's own fuse. Any reason why I couldn't just pop out the fuse and run just the stereo tweeter? I know the tweeter would be a bit 'off center,' but I think it'd be a good temporary measure.

    My next question is this: As mentioned above, these do not have an interconnect cable. Would hooking these up to an amp with out the cable actually DAMAGE the speakers, or just make them sound not as good? Another thing. I was reading somewhere (can't remember now where) that somone actually rigged up an internal interconnect and bypassed the interconnect "interface." I got a link from Jesse on the connectors necessary, but by the time shipping and handling, it's up there around $30 for two connectors. Any advice anyone has on these would be appreciated.

    Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to playing with my 'new' toys. :D

    EDIT: These were sold from the Salvation Army's Orange County warehouse. Even if they're completely buggered, $80 to a good cause is alright by me.
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  • JohnLocke88
    JohnLocke88 Posts: 1,150
    edited July 2009
    What they look like once I got them home and shined up those dull cabinets a bit. :D

    sda1assides.jpg
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,748
    edited July 2009
    Any reason why I couldn't just pop out the fuse and run just the stereo tweeter?

    That would work just fine.
    Would hooking these up to an amp with out the cable actually DAMAGE the speakers

    No, but you won't get the sound that SDA's are noted for.




    Jon, as a temporary measure, simply jam the cable ends into the slots or run down to Rat Shack and grab some spade terminals, file to fit the slots and connect. The cabinets must remain sealed, so drilling holes in them is a big no-no.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • AudioGenics
    AudioGenics Posts: 2,567
    edited July 2009
    ABSOLUTELY a GREAT SPEAKER !

    easy to restore and your price to performance is like unbelievable !

    some have all the luck !
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  • danz1906
    danz1906 Posts: 5,144
    edited July 2009
    Great-Deal!
    Linn AV5140 fronts
    Linn AV5120 Center
    Linn AV5140 Rears
    M&K MX-70 Sub for Music
    Odyssey Mono-Blocs
    SVS Ultra-13 Gloss Black:D
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  • JohnLocke88
    JohnLocke88 Posts: 1,150
    edited July 2009
    F1nut wrote: »
    Jon, as a temporary measure, simply jam the cable ends into the slots or run down to Rat Shack and grab some spade terminals, file to fit the slots and connect. The cabinets must remain sealed, so drilling holes in them is a big no-no.

    The interconnect is just a two lead connector right? I actually just got off the phone with a guy in LA who did just that (crammed the cable ends into the socket).

    Running to radio shack now....Will update when I get them all hooked up.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,748
    edited July 2009
    The interconnect is just a two lead connector right?

    Yep, just be sure you connect wide blade to wide blade, small to small.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • JohnLocke88
    JohnLocke88 Posts: 1,150
    edited July 2009
    Well, call me Mr. "Replace your fuses Kids,"

    As mentioned in the original ad, the seller thought one of the tweeters was blown. When I first hooked them up, the right channel wasn't producing treble out of the stereo tweeter... the dimensional was barely doing anything either...but I figured that was normal.

    So, I got to work. I used my 'broken' 7B (with the blown tweeter) as the test rig. I swapped out every tweeter (all four) and used the Onkyo test tone to listen for good tweeter sound (I actually used this to determine the tweeter on the 7Bs was still bad, comparing the two L/R, the R was clearly more distorted)

    Anyway, all four checked out. Well maybe... Nah...I thought! Couldn't be simply a fuse issue again. Sure as ****, it was. Popped out the old fuses (four total) from the 1A's and popped in my two new fuses from the 7B's and voila...treble from both channels. I haven't tested the dimensional ones yet, but I'm sure they're working based on my test tone, uh, test...

    Still haven't got the interconnect set up. I'll wait to see if I win an auction for a set of the blade connectors. I'll probably just strap that with some 12 AWG monoprice wire. Thinking a 20' length should be more than enough for any application I could think of in the near future.

    Grilles still have a few paint marks, or something goo-y. I'll be using some parts-express speaker cloth to redo the grills. The frames are in perfect shape.

    I'll post pictures as soon as I get the grilles done and get the interconnect cable built.

    Thanks again to everyone that has helped on Vintage Quest 2009.

    -Jon
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  • zarrdoss
    zarrdoss Posts: 2,562
    edited July 2009
    http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=260-335

    also if you have a Joann's locally they also have grill cloth.
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  • Bobsama
    Bobsama Posts: 526
    edited July 2009
    Wow; that's a steal! Too bad I'm completely across the country or I would have jumped on those without a second thought--$80, and you just showed how good condition they appear to be in. That, and I have access to an octet of original SL2000 tweeters.
    polkaudio Monitor 5 Series II
    polkaudio SDA-1 (with the SL1000)
    TEAC AG-H300 MK III stereo receiver
    beyerdynamic DT-880 Premium (600 Ω) headphones
    SENNHEISER HD-555 headphones
    Little Dot MK IV tube headphone amp
    Little Dot DAC_I balanced D/A converter
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  • beemer
    beemer Posts: 155
    edited July 2009
    Congratulations Jon! Nice deal, excellent speaker. What could you possibly buy new for $80 that will come close?

    Enjoy!

    Paul
    Main system: Levinson Reference 32 Preamp/30.6 DAC/31.5 Transport/Sony SCD777ES/VPI Aries w/SDS JMW 10.5 arm/Van den Hul Frog/Levinson 33 Monoblocks/33H Monoblocks/Transparent reference XL interconnect & Speaker cable/Nearfield Acoustics Pipedream Reference 18 Line Array.
    Bedroom: Levinson 390S/380S/ML3/Sony SCD 777ES/McIntosh MC2000/Infinity IRS-Beta
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  • jimbo1421
    jimbo1421 Posts: 772
    edited July 2009
    JohnLocke88 wrote: »
    The interconnect is just a two lead connector right? I actually just got off the phone with a guy in LA who did just that (crammed the cable ends into the socket).

    Running to radio shack now....Will update when I get them all hooked up.

    Hi JL. You have a lovely pair of SDAs. You can get the matching SDA cable connectors from Allied Electronics:
    http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?SKU=7503200&MPN=P-302-CCT

    Mine took two days to deliver.

    Jim
    5.1 System:
    TCL R613 55" 4K
    Front: SRS-3.1TL
    Center: CS400i
    Surround: Monitor 10B
    PSW10 subwoofer
    Onkyo PR-SC886P Pre/Pro
    NAD T955 5 channel power amplifier
    Technics SL-1710 MK2 turntable
    Audio-Technica AT14Sa cartridge
    Parasound P3 pre-amp
    Oppo BDP-103 Blu-Ray
    2014 MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz

    2.0 Office System:
    Monitor 10A (Peerless)
    Outlaw 1050 receiver
    Parasound HCA-1000A power amp
    MacPro
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  • JohnLocke88
    JohnLocke88 Posts: 1,150
    edited July 2009
    jimbo1421 wrote: »
    Hi JL. You have a lovely pair of SDAs. You can get the matching SDA cable connectors from Allied Electronics:
    http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?SKU=7503200&MPN=P-302-CCT

    Mine took two days to deliver.

    Jim

    Thanks for the link Jim. Jesse (F1) gave me the link as well. I'm going to shop around a few more places locally to see if I can cut down on the shipping.

    I went to Joann's and got 3 yards (60 inch bolt) of the speaker cloth. Bought my self a heavy duty staple gun and what I thought where some heavy duty staples. The fiberboard just laughed at them. I think I'm going to need the ones with the angled tips. Probably have to hold off till tomorrow as Home Depot is now closed.
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  • beemer
    beemer Posts: 155
    edited July 2009
    JohnLocke88 wrote: »
    Thanks for the link Jim. Jesse (F1) gave me the link as well. I'm going to shop around a few more places locally to see if I can cut down on the shipping.

    I went to Joann's and got 3 yards (60 inch bolt) of the speaker cloth. Bought my self a heavy duty staple gun and what I thought where some heavy duty staples. The fiberboard just laughed at them. I think I'm going to need the ones with the angled tips. Probably have to hold off till tomorrow as Home Depot is now closed.

    You may want to try a hot glue gun instead. These are just dandy for lots of stuff.

    Paul
    Main system: Levinson Reference 32 Preamp/30.6 DAC/31.5 Transport/Sony SCD777ES/VPI Aries w/SDS JMW 10.5 arm/Van den Hul Frog/Levinson 33 Monoblocks/33H Monoblocks/Transparent reference XL interconnect & Speaker cable/Nearfield Acoustics Pipedream Reference 18 Line Array.
    Bedroom: Levinson 390S/380S/ML3/Sony SCD 777ES/McIntosh MC2000/Infinity IRS-Beta
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  • gdb
    gdb Posts: 6,012
    edited July 2009
    I thought that Polk still sells the blade/blade IC , is this no longer available?
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  • JohnLocke88
    JohnLocke88 Posts: 1,150
    edited July 2009
    beemer wrote: »
    You may want to try a hot glue gun instead. These are just dandy for lots of stuff.

    Paul

    Thanks for the idea. I actually got them (the staples) to work. Just had to push the gun really really tight against the particle board.

    End result...

    sda1asfrontgrilles.th.jpg
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