New sda owner

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AHAY81
AHAY81 Posts: 1
in Vintage Speakers
Hey guys and gals,

An older Freemason brother sold me his set of Polk sda speakers at the insistence of his wife. These speakers are incredible but I can occasionally hear some imperfections that I can only attribute to age. I have browsed the forum for the last couple of months as I prep for the MCAT, and there is a ton of great knowledge being shared. I was hoping someone could get me started with some advice and direction for how to bring these speakers back to where they need to be. I'm seeing crossover replacement, tweeter replacement, driver replacement, cabinet mods.... im also attaching a couple pics of the set up. Please excuse the mess of books on my table.

Thank you all for your help and I look forward to learning from you,

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Comments

  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,794
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    Welcome to the Club. You have a pair of blade/blade SDA SRS 2. That Yamaha receiver isn't going to drive them very well as the speakers are a 4 ohm nominal load, so that is definitely part of the issue.

    The nasty SL2000 tweeters can be upgraded to the RD0194. Absolutely no reason to replace the drivers. You don't replace the crossovers, you upgrade them. Spikes are a must, IMO.
    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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  • Schurkey
    Schurkey Posts: 2,100
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    F1nut wrote: »
    Welcome to the Club. You have a pair of blade/blade SDA SRS 2. That Yamaha receiver isn't going to drive them very well as the speakers are a 4 ohm nominal load, so that is definitely part of the issue.
    Yup.
    F1nut wrote: »
    Absolutely no reason to replace the drivers.
    Unless one or more is actually defective, of course. Not uncommon for the drivers to seize due to failure of the adhesive holding the magnet to the frame and pole-piece.
    F1nut wrote: »
    You don't replace the crossovers, you upgrade them. Spikes are a must.
    Yup.

    Far as I'm concerned, outside of fixing something that's defective--failed tweeters, seized mid-woofers, air leaks in the cabinet, loose electrical connections--scrapping the OEM capacitors in the crossovers is the first order of business. Even fresh electrolytic caps would be an improvement; but ideally you'd upgrade to film caps. Most folks also replace the resistors, very few replace the smaller inductors. Replacing the LARGE "SDA" inductor in each cabinet makes for better bass response, and the pair aren't horribly expensive. Replacing those inductors will lower the DC resistance of the speakers, making them even less suitable for use with a weak, low-current receiver.

    For the record, your SDA-SRS 2 (blade-blade) speakers are nearly identical to the SDA 1B, but with a larger passive radiator, larger and nicer cabinet, and one resistor having a different value in each of the crossovers. Anything that improves 1Bs will improve your SRS-2s.


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  • engie490
    engie490 Posts: 426
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    F1nut wrote: »
    The nasty SL2000 tweeters can be upgraded to the RD0194.

    This is the easiest upgrade I can think of. 16 screws and 8 push-on connected wires later...

    I just did this last night for my SDA-1Cs and one of the unexpected benefits to my ears was the improvement in the bass. The 5 db hump at 13Khz in the SL2000s made the speakers overly bright, but now that the frequency balance is restored, I'm finding it much easier to hear what's going on in the bass.
    Sonus Faber Liuto / Coda Continuum / Anthem STR Preamplifier / Oppo BDP-105D / Technics SP-15 w/SAEC WE-308SX & Ortofon AS-309 arms / Ikeda 9C2 & Dynavector XX2 Mk II carts
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  • CH46E
    CH46E Posts: 3,546
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    Welcome to the club. You have some outstanding speakers. Upgrading the amp will yield great results.

    Fiy: put them flat against your front wall. No toe in. Have at least 6ft between them and at least 2 to 3 ft from the side walls.

    Hope you enjoy them!
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  • audioluvr
    audioluvr Posts: 5,432
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    Welcome to the rabbit hole!
    Gustard X26 Pro DAC
    Belles 21A Pre modded with Mundorf Supreme caps
    B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
    Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
    Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
    Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)

    There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus
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