My 9.2 Setup Sounds Amazing!

[fafner]

I now have a 9.2 setup with SDA2B's as fronts, Surrounds #A and Surrounds #B, and Monitor 10's as rears with two M&K subs. It sounds fabulous and my Denon 3808 AVR has no problem driving all of the speakers; there is plenty of head room. It may be a bit of self-indulgence but so be it :)

Now. What do I do with the pair of SDA2B Studios one of which has dead midwoofers? Do I fix them and sell them? Use them in another TV room in my house, or sell them as is? Break them down and sell them for parts?

Something to ponder the rest of the evening while I am enjoying my new setup.

Thanks to every one who has helped me understand more about Polk vintage speakers. I look forward to trying to help others as much as I can.

fafner

[thsmith]

Pictures !

[RuSsMaN]

Fix them and use them, or sell them as is - there are more than a few members that would probably be interested in taking them off your hands.

Cheers,
Russ

[Toolfan66]

Yep we demand pics of this!!!

[cnh]

I don't understand how you have these speakers configured...and in any case, you haven't listed a center. So there are only 8.2 speakers there.

Also, are you running ALL of that off a Denon AVR??? And it doesn't clip, overheat and shut down?

So let me try to imagine what you are doing?

You have two SDAs up front...no center?

Then you, somehow have configured the Denon to run two SDAs on the left side of the room and 2 on the right BECAUSE you have a HUGE ROOM and TONS of space...right? And in the back are some, almost as big Monitor 10s. Oh, and two subs.

I just can't believe an AVR 3808 with no external amplification can run that!

Also, in terms of how the SDA effect works....one gains nothing from SDAs facing each other from the left and right walls? And as far as Dolby and DTS effects...delays, etc., wouldn't that many SDA's just completely throw off any 5.1 soundtrack? I mean it may look cool. But I doubt it sounds right!

[Toolfan66]

I smell fried tweeters coming soon..

SDA's as surrounds makes no sense to me anyway, you could say a waste really..

But this is my Opinion, and they are your speakers to do as you please. you paid for them so ENJOY!!

[fafner]

I did forget to list the center. I have a vintage Yamaha center with a Polk CS350 being delivered today to replace it. The room yes is set up with the speakers as you describe. My house was built in the 1920's so all of the rooms are large; my den where this is set up is approximately 20' x 17' with 9' feet ceiling and rectangular so it is not huge but large. I am running all sources as DPLIIx Music mode except for natively encoded 7.1 Blu-Rays.

My objective was to create a sound field similar to that in a concert hall or theatre, ie, to "eliminate" the ability to "hear" any particular speaker's out put except when an sound event in a movie was supposed to come from the rear right, rear left, move sideways, move front to rear, etc. I have achieved more than that. I hear "sounds" coming from various places in the room consistant with the video content but am completely unaware of hearing any one particular speaker.

I do have all of the SDA2B IC's attached and I have no idea if and how they specifically contribute to the overall sound I hear. But I do not worry about that because I am hearing what I want to hear. I do know that sound localization however is excellent as is placement of various instruments in an orchestra or special effects in a movie.

As for the Denon AVR it was specificlly designed to power the exact number of speakers I have. At comfortable listening volumes the sound is warm and sweet and fully satisfying. For extra loud special effects I can turn the volume up extremly high with no sense of distortion. Of course many of the special effects involve deep bass and the power for that comes from the two powered subwoofers.

As far as looks are concerned, that is of no particular interest to me so long as the room does not look ugly which it does not. I stated somewhere that this was an experiment to see how it sounded, not that I knew that it would sound right. All I can say now is that the experiment has more than exceeded my hopes and expectations. How it all handled by the SDA effects, the DBLIIx processing, I have no idea. I simply know that it works the way I wanted it to.

fafner

[fafner]

I smell fried tweeters coming soon..

SDA's as surrounds makes no sense to me anyway, you could say a waste really..

But this is my Opinion, and they are your speakers to do as you please. you paid for them so ENJOY!!

Maybe you are not aware that DBLIIx processing sends full range sound to all speakers. It is not at all like "old" DBL or even DBL 5.1.

fafner

[wayne3burk]

well i'm intrigued -- and would really like to see pics. Actually i'd like to hear how it sounds.

I think you could have achieved the same thing with all 10bs, but thats just my humble opinion.

Enjoy - and invite us all over to audition your system.

-- wayne --

[fafner]

I'm working on some pics and if you ever get to the Cincinnati area let me know and you can stop by and listen.

Last night I watched an episode of Band of Brothers and the envelope of sound was totally engrossing. As I said earlier, I could not identify any sound coming from a particular speaker...it just came from the location it should have as shown in the video.

fafner

[thsmith]

good for fafner, sounds like you are happy and enjoying yopur setup.

The 3808 is a beast of an AVR, I have the 2808 but lust for the 3808.

Takes some pics !

[Conradicles]

Can't wait to see some pictures of that sweet set-up. If I had the room I'd do it too just because of my fondness for Vintage Polks. Congrats and enjoy!

[dpowell]

Certainly sounds interesting. Pictures please! If you think it sounds good on your AVR then you have a lot of thrill left unexperienced at the moment. It may sound good to you now but a nice power amp added to the mix would change your mind in an instant.

The 2B's only have 3 drivers ea. so I don't understand others' concerns about running out of power but still, with those speakers, get a power amp and let the AVR do what it is good at; surround processing.

[fafner]

Ok, time for some pixs. Two caveats first; this is not a home theater, it is just a room in my house I use for listening and watching and using my PC. Second the picures were taken with a cell phone so the quality is not very high. At least you can see the positioning of the speakers and I hope you can understand why I am "surrounded" by the great vintage Polk sound.