Is there any speaker out there that can do what an SDA does???

Hello bobt,
I worked for Polk's CS department for close to 15 year, some of it as manager. Now I'm considered a "contractor" minding the forum, but still maintain a friendship with the folks who work there. To quote a line from "Fury", best job I ever had. You would send the driver to: Polk Audio, 5601 Metro Drive, Baltimore, MD. 21215 attention: Kim Jasper. Please include a short note giving him your name, address and a daytime telephone number.
I'll let him know to expect it.
Thanks for sending it in.
Best regards, Ken

@bobt Did you ever send it in? Curious what Kim Jaspers conclusion was.

I hate for this to be my very first post on the Polk Forum, but after sitting here for the past couple of hours reading this entire thread, I just had to say something...

For starters, I have to say that working in retail for quite a while now, one thing I hate more than anything else with people is arrogance. There's absolutely no need for it whatsoever and just comes off as being rude. Well actually, it IS rude. Period.

Okay, with that said, it seems that nearly ALL of bobt's posts pretty much say the same exact thing time and time again. Almost like every post of his is cut n' paste for the past 9 pages of this thread. Grammar, spelling, sentence structure (or the lack thereof), responses to very trying, helpful members is atrocious. Not to mention all of the questions asked that have still gone unanswered by bobt, even after four full months in this thread.

Early on in this thread as well as the "speaker cable" thread that bobt started five years ago (yeah, I read a bit of that one too), he stated that he has high-end equipment. Sorry to tell you this bobt, but you don't. The Adcom preamp is mid-fi consumer grade, the Integra amp is mid-fi consumer grade, the Jolida tube CD player is mid-fi consumer grade. Is it all junk? No. Is it high-end? No. However, that is all irrelevant. I just wanted to make it clear to you that the equipment you have is NOT high-end gear.

First off, the amp... It's old. It's needing a major re-cap among other things, especially if it's been constantly ragged on all of these years, which it has from what ole' bobt keeps telling us. Sure, it's a good amp, but the thing is probably running way out of spec, bias is probably way off, and it's probably not putting out nearly as much power as it once was. This means that the amp is running into clip mode a lot sooner than you think. Clipping and speakers do not get along very well.



Second, these replacement Polk drivers you keep getting and every one of them "popping"...

Are you even giving these drivers any kind of break-in period at all at low volumes or are you simply slapping them into the enclosures and blasting the heck out of them?

And the reason these "cheap junk China drivers" as you keep referring them as continue to pop when you remove them and put them in the other enclosure is because you already blew the poor thing. If you take a blown driver out of one speaker and transfer it to another speaker, it's still blown. It's still going to make horrible noise. That's like asking the question "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it actually make any noise?"... What do you think? Do bears **** in the woods? Yeah, same answer for both questions.

You know bobt, you keep calling everyone on this forum fools, telling them they don't know what they're talking about, telling them to get a grip, and overall just being completely condescending with everything you say to everyone that tried to help you, even Ken!

Seriously, are you that arrogant and have that much pride that you can't accept help from others when that help is given countless times from a bunch of willing members, and have that much pride that you can never ever admit that you just might be wrong or that your amplifier might be the root of the entire problem?


And lastly, the RTi 12's... I have a pair that I've been running for about the past six months and really have no major complaints about them. They replaced a pair of mint NHT 2.9's that just don't seem to work well in my room, so they are being stored at my brother's house for a while. Believe it or not, the RTi 12's sound an awful lot like the NHT's, and the 2.9's have also been accused of being "bright" just like the RTi 12's. With that said, they do tend to be tipped up a little bit, but I certainly won't call them bright by any means. Then again, that could also be the contribution of my gear upstream. I'm not going to list everything here as you can see it all in my signature below. What I can say though is that my receiver (which I'm using as a preamp only) is known to be a bit on the warm side, which is why I chose it. My amp I had custom built to my specs by Klaus and he did an excellent job as always. It's biased pretty hot into Class A, a lot more than typical because that's what I asked for. Anyway, it's also a bit on the warm side. Then you've got all of my interconnects and speaker cables, chosen for the same reasons.

That's not to say that my system lacks detail or is rolled off on the top end, because it isn't. It's just as airy and extended as anything, but it's not over the top and in your face. However, if there's a crappy recording, it's going to let you know about it as well. Mids and vocals are natural and open, and the bass is fantastic. The RTi 12's bass extends just as much as the NHT's, if not a little more, but also have a little more usable output down there as well. The best part about the bass though is the dynamics, detail and control, especially with the amp I have. The amp's damping factor puts a massive "clamp" on those six 7" drivers and never lets go. This is where the Polk's excel over the NHT's. Even though the 10" woofers in the NHT's are in a sealed enclosure, they just don't have the speed and control of the Polk's smaller, lighter, multiple drivers, and it's quite obvious. And I haven't even mentioned anything about the wide and deep sound stage or the imaging that these RTi 12's are capable of in my system. Very three dimensional. I'm sure they don't compare to the SDA line, but they certainly do a very good job nonetheless, extending well beyond the boundaries of the room.


Anyway, that's about it. It's a bit more than I had originally planned on saying, and it isn't what I originally had in mind for my first post on the Polk Forum, but there it is.

I'm sure I'll be told I don't know what I'm talking about and that I need to get a grip, and that I'm a fool, but that's to be expected. And no, I never mentioned what I do for a living or what my other hobbies are, because they have no bearing on the subject. Oh, not only am I a musician, but I also know plenty of musicians, most a LOT better than I, and I can tell you right now they don't know squat about stereo equipment and loudspeakers. Just because they are in the business of making music doesn't mean they know anything about the electronics that reproduces that music. In fact, I'm the only one out of all of them that has a somewhat decent system and knows or cares about stereo equipment. That goes for the guys/girls that I deal with in the IT field as well.

Anywho... Hello everyone else! Glad to be here!!!

Not that I am aware of.

nbrowser wrote: »

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F1nut wrote: »

Chops, great first post! Welcome to Club Polk.

Jesse, I'd have to strongly agree, nice way to make one's self known to the forum, very good post.

Thank you guys. Like I said, that's not exactly how I start off on a new forum, but that guy just got the best of me seeing the way he treats everyone.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Chops wrote: »

Thank you guys. Like I said, that's not exactly how I start off on a new forum, but that guy just got the best of me seeing the way he treats everyone.

I read of few of your other posts before I saw this one and I thought you were going to be a nice addition...and then I read this gem and it confirmed my suspicions.

No, I'm complimenting you.

Your post in this thread confirmed my suspicion that you'll be a great addition to the forum. I hope you stick around and post often.

Chops wrote: »

..... trying to watch a weird movie on HBO (A Million Ways to Die in the West)

It's Seth McFarlane, not Martin Scorsese. Everything he does is weird, funny, but weird.
Welcome to the CP Family, and hold on to your wallet.