Polk Audio SDA-2

All the bass in every SDA I've heard was plenty tight. Maybe not overly tight, but natural, musical, and low distortion. That passive is a real wonder if you ask me.

Now, I have heard loose bass on SDAs, but that was when they were hooked up to a receiver that wasn't giving them enough current.

It didn't cut it for me when I listened to jazz with an upright bass. I had some M10s and 5JRs too.

I'm not dissing Polks. They are fine speakers and I like them. I've gone through dozens of vintage and new speakers. It's made me picky and I know what I like.
 
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It didn't cut it for me when I listened to jazz with an upright bass. I had some M10s and 5JRs too.

I'm not dissing Polks. They are fine speakers and I like them. I've gone through dozens of vintage and new speakers. It's made me picky and I know what I like.

No disrespect to the vintage monitor series, as I've enjoyed the ones I owned in the past, but the SDA line is quite a step above them. Especially in the bass department.
 
Hmm, i could tell a difference each time i stepped up from the monitor series, to the SDA 2b, to the SDA 1c then finally to my 1.2tls. Although i will be honest, im not much of a jazz guy so our preferences may be different. Just curious, what speakers did you find you prefer in the bass department?
 
I don't really like my SDA-2b, but the bass was what I liked most about them. It was very placement sensitive though, placed just the right distance from the wall it was glorious. Shift it too far from the wall by a couple of inches, and the bass pretty much disappears.
 
I love jazz and I think the SDAs are excellent jazz speakers because they’re so tonally balanced.

Agree, they need to be less than a foot from the back wall to make enough bass. Also, adding spikes helps tighten up the bass, although again, I found it plenty right to begin with.

Also agree that going from The Monitor series to the SDA series is a huge step in sound quality and bass quantity.

Bass complaints with SDAs usually comes down to poor placement, inadequate current, or an air leak.
 
For floor standers, I like the Theil 04a, CS1.2 and CS2 2. The CS 2 2 is a 3-way and has a passive radiator. The combination sounds way better than the SDA-2's.

I can clearly hear the individual bass notes, string twang and vibrations on good live stand up bass, jazz recordings.

I'm not complaining, placement and room acoustic are near optimal and I have plenty of power.
 
I too have a set of these and I actually like them. Have never used them without the cable so will try that. Hooked up my newly acquired Pioneer SX-1250 and haven't had any problems.
 
Not all SDA 2s are created equal. I had some 2s with interconnects and they sounded fine, but I'm not a fan of their passive woofers.

View attachment 1045786

I know I'm really late to this post but I have a pair of these and they are great. I've kept them all of these years because of their sound. Like one pixel I'm not crazy about the passive woofers and mine are not set up correctly and they sound really nice.
 
I know I'm really late to this post but I have a pair of these and they are great. I've kept them all of these years because of their sound. Like one pixel I'm not crazy about the passive woofers and mine are not set up correctly and they sound really nice.
The Polks are one of the better "vintage" speakers. But I was always striving for better sound. There is also two variations of the SDA-2. One has one tweeter and two mids. Mine had two tweeters and three mids, along with the passive woofer.
 
The Polks are one of the better "vintage" speakers. But I was always striving for better sound. There is also two variations of the SDA-2. One has one tweeter and two mids. Mine had two tweeters and three mids, along with the passive woofer.

There are two models of the SDA 2 that have two tweeters, three mid-drivers and a single passive radiator. The original had SL1000 tweeters while the next version had SL2000 tweeters. One tweeter is stereo and the other dimensional. Both of those models are subpar examples of SDA speakers. The later models are vastly superior.

Other later SDA models that include the number 2 are as follows,
SDA 2A
SDA 2B
SDA SRS 2
SDA SRS 2.3
SDA SRS 2.3TL

Using a passive radiator instead of a port offers considerably lower distortion resulting in tight, accurate bass. However, you need to drive SDA's with a high current power source to get out of them what they are capable of. Receivers, AVR's and budget amps aren't going to cut it
 
The Polks are one of the better "vintage" speakers. But I was always striving for better sound. There is also two variations of the SDA-2. One has one tweeter and two mids. Mine had two tweeters and three mids, along with the passive woofer.

Mine are like yours. They look like these...
 

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There are two models of the SDA 2 that have two tweeters, three mid-drivers and a single passive radiator. The original had SL1000 tweeters while the next version had SL2000 tweeters. One tweeter is stereo and the other dimensional. Both of those models are subpar examples of SDA speakers. The later models are vastly superior.

Other later SDA models that include the number 2 are as follows,
SDA 2A
SDA 2B
SDA SRS 2
SDA SRS 2.3
SDA SRS 2.3TL

Using a passive radiator instead of a port offers considerably lower distortion resulting in tight, accurate bass. However, you need to drive SDA's with a high current power source to get out of them what they are capable of. Receivers, AVR's and budget amps aren't going to cut it

What's up F1nut, always great to hear from you.
 
Not to go too far off-topic, but have you heard of these guys? They customize speakers and have their own custom crossover modules. Will have to visit Japan to hear some of these in person. Here's a few of my "favs" from their YouTube videos. What do you think?

JBL KRS 4344 (FF to 3:52 into the video to hear music)

JBL Custom Paragon (FF to 14:55 into the video to hear music)

JBL 4311 (LOVE that Stevie Ray Vaughn track)
 
IMG_20181124_184045.jpg F1nut, I appreciate your knowledge on these. I'm now trying to figure out which speakers exactly are supposed to play WITHOUT the interconnect cable. I mentioned that one of my 12uf caps had no continuity, but my multimeter actually reads no RESISTANCE, compared to the same cap in the other speaker box. I'm not great at troubleshooting this stuff but nevertheless, I'm trying to get these things working. 1 box seems like all speakers are performing well and I liked the sound compared with my definitive bp10.
Matt
 
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