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What were those honking big Polks/1986?

toxcrusadr

toxcrusadr

Omelette au Fromage
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Just reminiscing about visiting a local stereo shop about that time, give or take a year, with some college friends. We got the guy to crank up these huge TOTL Polks and I just got to wondering what those would have been. They were as tall as a man with many many small drivers. Like 5 or 6 inch woofers, a bunch of em. All black. Very expensive. I liked em but I've never owned any Polks.

What say the Polk experts? :scratch2:
 
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1986 would have been the original SDA-SRS system. Eight 6.5" midwoofers, four dome tweeters, one 15" passive radiator. Evolved into the 1.2, and eventually the 1.2TL by 1990. You could do worse.

polk12.jpg
 
Yep, I reckon that's them. Geez. I just remember all those mid-woofers pumping with the grills off. It was an awesome sound. Given the rarity and price I'm going to have to stick with my bargain basement AR9's for awhile.

Thanks guys.
 
Ahhhhhhh, yes. I absolutely HATED these speakers (but it wasn't my fault).

Back in 1987, a guy I know purchased a pair of these Signature Reference System speakers, along with a complete new system.

I went to his house during lunchtime one day to give them a listen, but others had gone over to listen earlier in the week and told me that I really shouldn't go. I didn't understand why until I got there.

He had LOTS of power to drive them, and it was all top of the line equipment. This included a 30-band stereo graphic EQ, but I didn't get a chance to get close look at all of it from half way across the room. However, the grilles were off the SDA-SRS's, so I could see those drivers very easily.

Then. . . he started up the system. . .and cranked it!!!!

Sweet JESUS !!!!!! :yikes:

I quickly plugged my ears that were already in a tidal wave of pain.

He had the last six sliders of the treble end on the graphic EQ pinned up at '+12', and they didn't start tapering down until 5K. Then went down in a fairly linear slope between 5K and 1.6K to '0'.

What an absolutely HORRID sound!. . .and HE thought it sounded incredible like that! :scratch2:

I could see him mouthing the words. . . "Listen to those HIGHS!!!"

I told him the highs were the only things I could hear, then I waved goodbye to him before the song ended and headed out the door. Back at work he asked why I left and what I thought of his new system. I was honest and told him based on what I heard, I would NEVER listen to someone else's system again until I've had the chance to check out how it's set up first.

I told him it was the worst system set up I had ever heard in my life and nobody sets up systems like that. Except him! I also told him to do himself a HUGE favor and get his hearing checked IMMEDIATELY!!!

Even though he was my boss I had to be brutally honest about the horrendous way he'd fine-tuned his system.

After he went back to his office, others at work said. . . "I told ya not to go." If they had told me WHY. . .I definitely wouldn't have gone.

Oh. . . I later found out that the audio in his car was set up the same way.

:nono: :thumbsdn: :no: :yikes: :screwy: :puke: :bash: :jawdrop: :pistols:

. . Falcon
 
I nearly bought one of the smaller versions of these monsters back in 1986 but finally decided I just couldn't afford them.

Bought a set of AR-93's instead, my first "real" hifi speakers.
 
I have the baby version, the SDA 2B(4.1TL upgrade), and tomorrow I fostering a pair of SRS 2's for a few weeks or so. :D
 
They're excellent sounding speakers, especially when fed lots of high current power. Their power handling rating of 1000 wpc is no joke! :) I've enjoyed mine since 1989 when they were shipped on pallets to me directly from Polk.
 
Weren't those Polks wired very oddly where the inside set of 6" drivers were out of phase with outside set from the opposite spk? It was supposed to cancel the "cross-talk" between the spks and give better imaging. I definitely remember reading about them, I always thought it sounded like a real gimmicky concept. But they sure do look impressive.
 
All Polk SDA speakers do that, that's the big feature. The outside drivers are the mirror ones. Supposedly allows for a more realistic listening experience rather than actually manipulating the music. Seems to work perfectly 90% of the time. I've gotten the feeling that material with mixes that purposely are far from natural stereo can get a bit odd.
 
John in MA said:
All Polk SDA speakers do that, that's the big feature.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I wonder how they would sound if you redid the Xover to a traditional style? They would definitely be a lot more efficient and the arrangement of the drivers should work well for that. Not saying they need fixing, just curious.
 
brad1138 said:
Thanks, I wonder how they would sound if you redid the Xover to a traditional style? They would definitely be a lot more efficient and the arrangement of the drivers should work well for that. Not saying they need fixing, just curious.
Click to expand...

I don't know about the other models, but on the full-size SRS family all you're missing is the 200-2000 Hz range on the mirrors. Below 200, all eight drivers per cabinet are powered in straight stereo. Above 2K, the tweeters take over.
 
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