Here after watching Paul McGowan talk about damping factor on his youtube page tonight. Googled my 1980's specs after, knowing it to perform poorly in this column, and ran into this thread. An owner first and currently, of a sx-3900, and also, a fully serviced and spec'd sx-1980(291x2). I'm so grateful to own them both. I was chasing scale, when I happened upon both of these units separately, before prices skyrocketed. I was scourering craigslist for "quality" monster power, at cheap prices. My home has an open floor plan, with the kitchen/living room sharing the same space, and high, vaulted ceiling. Measuring 26x30ft, 11 1/2ft. ceiling peak. Nothing I had when I bought this home could put a dent in that airspace. First I bought a pair of JBL 4430's. Nothing I had could push them, traded some guitar gear for a QSC RMX-1450. Got them moving but not something I wanted permanently, as part of my system. Found the sx-3900, a bit beat up, owned by someone who had no clue what they had. Better sound, still not enough spl. Then I found a pair of 4435's, shortly thereafter. Now we're getting closer. Then the sx-1980, closer yet. Then, yet another pair of 4435's. Currently, the 1980 is running both pairs of 4435's in parallel(4ohm) stacked, yes stacked. This equates to scale that of a small club, or really over the top car audio system. It moves so much air when I crank something really clean and walk outside, it moves the whole house, the whole house 1750+ square ft. Yes it's obnoxious. But I grew up in the early days of really large scale car audio, and I still crave that horsepower from time to time. That said, most of my listening is in the the high 70-80db range, 9 o'clock or so on the dial. This combination is amazing. Everything is just coasting, yet it still has the ability to let you know what your sitting in front of, with no effort at all. Whether a great lp, or a really nice stream, how revealing it is, is something I'd never experienced before, from lesser gear. So what the 3900's doing these days. It's part of my desktop system, which made it's way into my master bedroom, when I had to make room for a family member during covid. Even running my noisey desktop through the 1/8in. output, the 4430's, in addition to a pair of JBL 4610ok's, sound fantastic. To my knowledge, the 3900's never been serviced. I plan to recap it soon. That said, in roughly a 17x17ft bedroom, bass is no issue, like someone mentioned earlier. This is driving them in series, using both speaker outs. Again, it just coasts pushing both pairs. Tone bypassed, no loudness, just pure pioneer grunt. And, as well as the 1980, at low to moderate volumes, it just sounds fantastic. Both these systems reveal more than enough to let you know the quality of the source material, with ease. Do you lose some of that at unrecommended volumes? Sure but I'm talking the kind of volumes most would never listen. All that being said, I know for sure, the 4435's would love more headroom. And sure, more control from something with a higher damping factor. But because of their high efficiency, and my lack of hearing anything even near this scale, with similar resolution, I don't know what I'm missing, and I consider that just fine for now. Lastly, the 3900 to me is everything you'd want from the earlier sx's, if you can get past, or prefer the digital display. It's every bit as competent, just without the provenance, or price tag.
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