Polk SDA-SRS 1.2tl Initial Impressions

[Old-School]

Wow, @xoaphexox , thats super cool. I would say that is a perfect room for those. I'd like to hear them in that room. You really went the distance with them. I'm glad you are enjoying them. The main thing with these speakers is plenty of room, something I expect most people that owned them found out the hard way, like me.

Give us a rundown on the system you are using. Is that 2 subwoofers I spy on the floor?

I'll bet some area rugs and room treatments will help out a lot.

After just getting the notification on the reply to this thread. I rethought my experiences and time with my 1.2tl's...
I still don't regret selling mine.

 

[xoaphexox]

Give us a rundown on the system you are using. Is that 2 subwoofers I spy on the floor?

Sure, I use an old Microsoft Surface Pro 6 tablet computer as the streamer. The audio is either sourced via Spotify or via files sitting on my NAS.

I feed that via USB into a Topping D70 Pro Sabre DAC https://www.toppingaudio.com/product-item/d70-pro-sabre
which is connected via XLR cables to a Topping A70 Pro headphone amp which I use as a preamp https://www.toppingaudio.com/product-item/a70-pro
which is connected via XLR to the Adcom GFA-5802 power amp https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/adcom/gfa-5802.shtml

The SVS SB-2000 Pro subwoofers are connected to the RCA output of the Topping preamp and run with an 80hz LPF at 12db/oct slope.

Frankly this adds too much bottom end so I am in the process of tweaking position/levels.

I hear what you are saying and agree re: room treatment; I am excited to iterate through some room improvements to bring out the best of the speakers.

Sadly, today is the funeral of the buddy who helped me pick up and transport these speakers back home. I want to do them justice not only for myself but as a tribute to a good friend.

 

[Old-School]

Well dang man, sorry for your loss. You are definitely doing the speakers some justice.

I just lost a friend and had helped him build up a system, so I get what you are saying. He had a Adcom 555..

 

[RVT1K]

I can't believe it's been 16 years since my original post!

I bought a new house about a year ago and finally gave the Polk SDA SRS 1.2tl speakers the room they needed to breathe and they sound great.

They're in a 34' x 14.5' x 8' rectangular room now. Speakers against the wall per the Polk manual, no toe-in, and about 7' apart from each other.

Using a UMIK-1 mic via Room EQ Wizard allowed me to take some measurements and apply EQ filters via Equalizer APO. Researching room treatment next to cut down on the reverb from the untreated (rectangular, drywall) room.

Its very cool that you've been around that long.

And HOLY SMOKES are those big speakers!!

 

[motorstereo]

^^^^^^Beautiful room and I'm glad to hear they're still with you. I bet they sound wonderful in that big room. Good luck with your room treatments. In my case I didn't get the startlingly beyond the box soundstage till I did some well placed treatments.
At the beginning of this thread in 2009 I was still listening to my 2.3s non tls. 2 years later in 2011 I brought home my 1.2tls and they're still here sounding better than ever with lots of mods. Many many speakers have come and gone here since then but the 1.2tls are still easily my favorites.

 

[xoaphexox]

Installed six 4" broadband absorption panels on the sidewalls to cancel the first reflections. Installed three 6.5" bass traps with a 6" air gap behind the listening position.

This made a huge difference.

Also lowered the crossover point of the subwoofers from 80hz to 60hz.

It sounds _very_ good now. I'm glad I never gave up on these speakers.

 

[xoaphexox]

Here's the before and after room treatment measurements. You can see the reverb time dropped by about 50%.

Next project is to install 6.5" bass corner traps to fix the 50-100hz region.