SDA-SRS in SF BAY AREA upgrade thread

[F1nut]

Min888, we'll continue here.

More to come after I get some sleep.

[min888]

Hi F1, I also found that whenever I bi-amp with each amp driving one speaker and hook up the SDA cable the speakers sound like you crank up too much on the echo knob. If I turn it loud then the speakers start to loose it with uncontrollable vibration in the woofers. If I bi-amp using one to drive the lows and one to drive the highs then everything seems fine, very weird. Eagerly awaiting your reply.

[Tour2ma]

Thank You...

min888, you're in good hands here...

[F1nut]

Let's address this first.

yes I do have tone control, set the turnover freq to 125, and crank it all the way plus a bit more with an eq. It's like you have a 15/18" sub in the room. My volume knob is only about 9~10 O'clock when it's starting to clip/bottom out, maybe I boost up the bass way too much, but I like to shake the house . I should get a Velodyne 18 incher. Also how much should I expect to shell out for the upgrades and is it worth it or try to sell and try something new like Von Shkeiwert (I read the reviews and they are all glowing but until u try it yourself u'll never know).

There isn't a speaker made that will respond well to how you're running those settings. You are correct, you're boosting the bass way too much. It's best to run the tone controls flat and get rid of that EQ. If you'll notice, the better hi-fi gear doesn't even come with tone controls. I've got no problem shaking my house with my SDA's, but if it's not enough for you, then you will need to add a sub.

Upgrading the 8 tweeters will run you about $384.00 at the Club Polk price. Upgrading the crossover parts should run about $150.00, so for about $500.00 you'll have better speakers with better clarity, better bass and much smoother highs.

[F1nut]

Hi F1, I also found that whenever I bi-amp with each amp driving one speaker and hook up the SDA cable the speakers sound like you crank up too much on the echo knob. If I turn it loud then the speakers start to loose it with uncontrollable vibration in the woofers. If I bi-amp using one to drive the lows and one to drive the highs then everything seems fine, very weird. Eagerly awaiting your reply.

Do you have a copy of the owners manual? If not, call Polk to get a copy. It will explain that you can not use non-common ground amps, mono blocks or dual mono amps with the SRS's. By running mono blocks as you described in your first sentence you run the risk of blowing up the amps and the speakers. There are ways around this though. One way would be to connect the negative outputs with heavy gauge wire, but you should check with the amp maker first to make sure that it won't harm the amps. The other way is make a special SDA interconnect cable with an isolation transformer and ground wires. You can get instructions for that from Polk. Of course, you can continue vertically bi-amping without any problems.

[Tour2ma]

These are 1.2tl's?

[min888]

Thanks for the answer. No I don't have the manual, I bought these used. When these were made I can only drool at them, I was still in college then and my parents weren't that particularly well off. I guess I'll just keep vertical bi-amp them, it just seems like a waste to just drive the tweeters with one amp. Where can I buy the xover parts? Where can I find the inst. for doing all of this stuff?

To Tour, these are SDA-SRS, the original.

[F1nut]

Here's some info on SRS crossover upgrades,

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26133

Another, http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/sho...t=SRS+crossover

And another,http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/sho...t=SRS+crossover

IMO, you should replacement the tweeters first to get the most benefit from the crossover upgrades.