This product is a vintage Polk model and is not available for sale in stores other than as a used product. The following text is taken from the original sales brochure for this product and does not reflect current realities.
Stereo Review confirmed the unqualified sonic superiority of Polk’s revolutionary SDA technology when they wrote, “Superb…has the ability to make your previous favorite speakers sound almost second rate.”
Polk’s critically acclaimed, 5 time AudioVideo Grand Prix Award winning SDA technology is the most important fundamental advance in loudspeaker technology since stereo itself. Listeners are amazed in loudspeaker technology since stereo itself. Listeners are amazed when they hear the huge, lifelike, three-dimensional sonic image produced by Polk’s SDA speakers. The nation’s top audio experts agree that Polk SDA loudspeakers always sound better than conventional loudspeakers. Stereo Review said, “Spectacular…the result is always better than would be achieved by conventional speakers.” High Fidelity said, “Astounding…We have yet to hear any stereo program that doesn’t benefit.” Now all 5 SDAs incorporate many of the 3rd generation advances in SDA technology pioneered in the Signature Edition SRS and SRS2 including full complement sub-bass drive, time –compensated phase coherent driver alignment and bandwidth-optimized dimensional signal.
SDAs – The First TRUE STEREO Speakers
Without exaggeration, the design principals embodied in the SDAs make them the world’s first true stereo speakers. The basic concept of speaker design was never modified to take into account the fundamental difference between a mono and stereo signal. The fundamental and basic concept of mono is that you have one signal (and speaker) meant to be heard by both ears at once. However, the fundamental and basic concept of stereo is that a much more lifelike three-dimensional sound is achieved by having 2 different signals, each played back through a separate speaker and each meant to be heard by only one ear apiece (L or R). So quite simply, a mono loudspeaker is designed to be heard by only one ear apiece (like headphones). The revolutionary Polk SDAs are the first TRUE STEREO speakers engineered to accomplish this and fully realize the astonishingly lifelike three-dimensional imaging capabilities of the stereophonic sound medium.
How Polk SDAs Achieve True Stereo
Polk SDA Technology solves one of the greatest problems in stereo reproduction. When each ear hears both speakers and signals, as occurs when you use conventional (Mono) speakers to listen in stereo, full stereo separation is lost. The undesirable signal reaching each ear from the “wrong” speaker is a form of acoustic distortion called interaural crosstalk, which confuses your hearing.
The Polk SDA systems eliminate interaural crosstalk distortion and maintain full, True Stereo separation, by incorporating two completely separate sets of drivers (stereo and dimensional) into each speaker cabinet. The stereo drivers radiate the normal stereo signal, while the dimensional drivers radiate a different signal that acoustically and effectively cancels the interaural crosstalk distortion and thereby restores the stereo separation, imaging and detail lost when you listen to normal “mono” speakers. The dramatic sonic benefits are immediately audible and remarkable.
Words alone cannot fully describe how much more lifelike TRUE STEREO reproduction is. Reviewers, critical listeners and novices alike are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the sonic improvement achieved by Polk’s TRUE STEREO technology. You will hear a huge sound stage which extends not only beyond the speakers, but beyond the walls of your listening room itself. The lifelike ambience revealed by the SDAs makes it sound as though you have been transported to the acoustic environment of the original sonic event. Every instrument, vocalist and sound becomes tangible, distinct, alive and firmly placed in its own natural spatial position. You will hear instruments, ambience and subtle musical nuances (normally masked by conventional speakers), revealed for your enjoyment by the SDAs. This benefit is accurately described by Julian Hirsch in Stereo Review, “…the sense of discovery experienced when playing an old favorite stereo record and hearing, quite literally, a new dimension in the sound is a most attractive bonus…” Records, CDs, tapes, video and FM all benefit equally as dramatically.
SDAs allow you to experience the spine tingling excitement, majesty and pleasure of live music in your home. You must hear the remarkable sonic benefits of SDA technology for yourself. You too will agree with Stereo Review’s dramatic conclusion: “the result is always better than would be achieved by conventional speakers…it does indeed add a new dimension to reproduced sound.”
- excerpt from 1986 promotional information
SDA 1B
"Our first all to brief, audition simply bowled us over. The width, depth and precision of the stereo image are astounding...after extended listening we were no less astonished...mind boggling powers on sonic persuasion...The SDA-1's strong suit (to put it mildly) is its imaging which ranges from very good to flabbergasting, depending on the material....devastatingly dramatic...With good classical discs, the soundstage seems to open up, presenting a greater sense of depth and enveloping the listener more fully in the recorded ambiance...but it's on fancy rock recordings that the system can really strut its stuff...it really is great good fun. We find ourselves listening to unfamiliar recordings on other speakers and saying to each other, "I wonder what this would sound like on the Polks." Get an audition...it's worth the trouble just for the experience." - High Fidelity Magazine (1986)
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