Thank you all, so much

ChrisD

I just can't get over how much of a fantastical learning experience my life since being introduced to Polk speakers has been. I'm currently a 21 year old Junior enrolled at North Carolina State University.

I started getting into speakers with a set of computer speakers by Logitech, the Z-2300s. A few more (bad) choices later, I decided to get into the REAL deal and purchased a couple of Monitor 50s, by polk. Also grabbed a center channel (CSi3) and a pair of Monitor 40s for the rear. I was lucky enough to find someone selling their RTi12s for very cheap, and grabbed them (selling my Monitor 50s at the same time).

Along with these purchases, I went from a lackluster Sony receiver to a much better Yamaha RX-V663, and found a nice Kenwood separate amp (KM-207) for powering the RTi12s.

Well, during the times I was purchasing these speakers, I had of course read into and researched the hell out of speakers (with a focus on Polk), and learning all about how everything works, becoming almost obsessed with the fundamentals of sound. Not to knock college, but I have no doubt spent magnitudes more time reading into and learning about speakers than I have all my classes combined (haha).

Then, my life changed: I met the SDA series by Polk. I was looking for an older pair of Monitor 7s for my step dad, and found a seller in Wilmington, my home town, who also apparently is a user here. I saw he had a pair of SDA SRS 2s, and I asked if I could hear them, which he gladly obliged.

To put it bluntly, I was insulted. These 20-something year old speakers sung a song with such clarity and evanescence, trumping my current top of the line Polks. So, I thanked him, and went on to getting rid of all my other speakers, and finding a pair of SRS 2s, as well, haha.

I couldn't bring them to college, since they were obnoxiously heavy, so I was able to find a pair of CRS+s, and had them shipped to my dorm. Unfortunately, they came damaged (the seller didn't use any sort of foam or protection, just in a straight box). The two SDA drivers were seized, and the rear metal grills were ruined. The crossover in one of them also had all of its standoffs broken, so is currently just jerry-rigged to stay in place.

I've been fortunate enough to be able to get replacement woofers (and tweeters, yay RDO-194s), though, so they're able to still give me the SDA effect that I crave, but those little issues will always be in my thoughts until I eventually am able to totally fix them up.

But I just wanted to say thank you to the Polk community. I've never met a group of people so friendly and helpful in every way. I continue to learn and grow, but I would not be at the level I am now without the spark you all gave.

Sincerely,
Chris D

AudioGenics

....a journey to wisdom from such a young "grasshopper".... very impressive !

Pycroft

Very nice post Chris! Keep enjoying those speakers, and learning...like me

James

Fireman32

Very cool Chris!

disneyjoe7

Enjoy but got to add it's all down hill now Wallet wise.

ChrisD

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Enjoy but got to add it's all down hill now Wallet wise.

Haha, no kidding. I don't (nor ever did) have the money to afford this stuff, but I still find ways of getting it.

Luckily I've gotten pretty happy with my receiver + amp combo, Yamaha RX-V663 as pre and Kenwood Basic M2A as amplifier. I just have to work on these speakers. Note the "have to", hah.

snow

Great post. Everytime I sit down to listen and I turn everything on and I hear the first few notes a big smile appears and someday you may even get to the point where you neither feel the need or the desire to upgrade because you have reached your personal nirvana. I know that at least as far as speakers go I have attained that with the SDA's. I am not saying that given the right set of speakers that I wouldndt switch but I am no longer looking to upgrade.



REGARDS SNOW

ChrisD

Haha, snow. I ALMOST was able to purchase a pair of CRS+s recently that would have gotten me to that level. They were listed on ebay as the latest rendition of the CRS+, with the pin/blade. The guy had put in new woofers, new tweeters, redid the crossovers with Sonicaps and Mills, and JB Welded the woofers.

He was listing them for 375 + 90 shipping, which was ungodly good shipping, btw. They were going to be shipped in separate containers, each waterproof, corner protected, and weight rated to 275 lbs each. I didn't have the funds at the time, but a bit of me died when I missed it, haha.

They would have given me peace of mind at least. But alas, I still have my "regular" CRS+s that I can slowly improve.

Fireman32

Chris I see that you are going to NC state. I live 15 minutes away let me know if you want to listen to MY RTA12b's one day

tonyb

Keep hanging out here Chris, a wealth of knowledge exists here for all things audio. In your search,keep in mind to visit our For Sale section. Buying used speakers from a stranger can be risky,but I kid you not when I say buying speakers here,from upstanding members,is like buying from a family member.

ChrisD

Fireman32 wrote: »

Chris I see that you are going to NC state. I live 15 minutes away let me know if you want to listen to MY RTA12b's one day

Sure, buddy! RTA stands for Real Time Array, am I right? What was the advantage of that again? They aligned the drivers (and positioned the tweeter) so everything got to you, well, basically perfectly right? I can't imagine what that would sounds like, so, being as curious as I am, I'm definitely interested.

tonyb wrote:

Keep hanging out here Chris, a wealth of knowledge exists here for all things audio. In your search,keep in mind to visit our For Sale section. Buying used speakers from a stranger can be risky,but I kid you not when I say buying speakers here,from upstanding members,is like buying from a family member.

Definitely! I've never seen such a welcoming community as you all. It literally moves me, how total strangers look at each other like best friends, because of the shared enthusiasm for this hobby.

cnh

I was going to say that you have a ton of Polkies 'near' you--those N.C. guys know how to roll..but.....watch out for Lightman1 (Russ) he may be hiding behind your bushes. lol

Why don't you PM these guys and get together as Fireman32 suggests.

I'd also spend just a bit more time on my college texts than Club Polk--it's good for you.

And good luck with your studies whatever your field may be!

cnh

ChrisD

cnh wrote: »

I was going to say that you have a ton of Polkies 'near' you--those N.C. guys know how to roll..but.....watch out for Lightman1 (Russ) he may be hiding behind your bushes. lol

Why don't you PM these guys and get together as Fireman32 suggests.

I'd also spend just a bit more time on my college texts than Club Polk--it's good for you.

And good luck with your studies whatever your field may be!

cnh

Yeah, I would spend more time studying, but I made a lot of bad choices, beginning as early as last August, that could have cost me a lot more than they did. This semester is a pit fall as far as academia goes, but hopefully with the help of my residential director, we'll be able to get this semester expunged.

But for all you polkies, here's the new and improved (and now clean) ChrisD in living proof:

cnh

ChrisD wrote: »

Yeah, I would spend more time studying, but I made a lot of bad choices, beginning as early as last August, that could have cost me a lot more than they did. This semester is a pit fall as far as academia goes, but hopefully with the help of my residential director, we'll be able to get this semester expunged.

But for all you polkies, here's the new and improved (and now clean) ChrisD in living proof:

Been there done that then 'recovered' and attended one of the top three Grad Schools in my field....so hang in there. You'll be fine. Maybe you'll even get yourself on the other side of student desk someday with one of those Doctor of Philosophy parchments...

cnh

danger boy

Chris D, cool post and thanks for sharing it. Really enjoy hearing stories where this forum helped people make good choices for their home audio listening.

You're well on your way to a lifetime of good audio.

reeltrouble1

most excellent and good to see the countertrender's of SDA did not do there mind trick wordsmith on you, SDA is still phenominal. Once heard Matt Polk say his designs were ahead of the time, you can see RTA principles now being applied by many hi-end speaker makers, enjoy the ride, get school squared away, your going to need pay to play......

RT1.

Tony M

Gratitude is the granfather to all other virtues.If you have that ,then your full of the others too. Your alright!;)

Well Chris , I just heard my first SACD yesterday or so and I've got to say, I would like to replace every CD with SACD versions now. And I heard the Carpenters Greatest hits disc! But what clarity and spaciosness! I felt like I was in the studio and it was so sureal. Remember listening at a low volume and still hearing everything well.That's what I did again. The volume was too low but I was injoying it so much I stayed glued in my couch untill the 14th song and I HAD to come in the house.

Have you heard SACD on a nice system yet?

ChrisD

No, I have not yet, but I know who to go to when I'm able to, Tony, haha. You really are the catalyst for this, buddy. I owe you a bunch, starting with all those receipts and denied charges, haha).

tony millard wrote: »

Gratitude is the granfather to all other virtues.If you have that ,then your full of the others too. Your alright!;)

Well Chris , I just heard my first SACD yesterday or so and I've got to say, I would like to replace every CD with SACD versions now. And I heard the Carpenters Greatest hits disc! But what clarity and spaciosness! I felt like I was in the studio and it was so sureal. Remember listening at a low volume and still hearing everything well.That's what I did again. The volume was too low but I was injoying it so much I stayed glued in my couch untill the 14th song and I HAD to come in the house.

Have you heard SACD on a nice system yet?

Sherardp

Nice post Chris, enjoy the toys bro.

hearingimpared

Great post Chris. You're great character is glaring!

lanion

In over in Chapel Hill if you want to hear some well powered LSis anytime.

Fireman32

I think we need to have a triangle mini meet

Hillbilly61

This is a great thread!!! We physical "old timers" took that slide into "Alice's rabbit hole" into audio and Polk land at one point or the other. I am glad to see that ChrisD is showing to all of us old geezers out there that there is hope to found in the latest young adult generation for a similar ride down that rabbit hole! :D:D:D

ChrisD

Haha, I almost consider this more of a curse than a blessing. I literally can't talk speakers with friends without bringing the topic to Polk's SDAs and how menial regular stereo is to me, haha.

And it's also the most frustrating thing in the world explaining what the effect is, and how intense it can be. People will listen to me explain it, and nod, but they aren't taking it seriously... at least until I show them my speakers. Then they are looking up, down, left, and right, then forward and smiling, a quick, but happy defeat.

ChrisD

Thought I'd include a picture of my setup.

There's a Yamaha RX-V663 acting as a preamp, followed through with a Kenwood Basic M2A Amp (220 watts 8 ohm both channel driven continuous, damping factor 1000 at 50hz), to my Polk CRS+ (blade/blade) with RDO194 tweeters, and new RD6519-1 (MW6510 replacements) woofers.

Have the computer going to the receiver with an optical cord, using foober and wasapi so bit-for-bit perfect transfer.

comfortablycurt

Looks like you're kind of cramped for space, but you need to get those CRS+'s farther away from each other. 4' apart at minimum.

The left channel looks like it's extremely close to the side wall as well. Ideally, you want at least 3.5' or so of breathing room on the outside of either speaker.

But...it looks like you might not be able to place them as such in that room.


Either way though, good to hear you're enjoying your rig! SDA's kick ****!!

dorokusai

Or you could just listen to them and never worry about how far apart they are from this or that for the rest of your life. Either way, good luck.

wutadumsn23

Welcome aboard Chris, good story. Good to have guys like you here, and I second the suggestion on looking out for Russ, he is probably in your bushes right now and you don't even know it, lol.

-Jeff

george daniel

Great post-- have fun with the rig and n'joy

Tony M

If your getting a great sound now, just wait till they have room to really make magic. I like the touch of color to.

.. I was getting more space until I bought a pr. of big cerwin vegas to practice refoaming surrounds on. Also bought a pr. of med. size Infinitys to practice on to , or just take out the working E-mit tweeters and throw the rest away.

And I was doing so well riding on that wagon for quite a while too..:mad: