Need advice on receiver purchase for SDA 2 speakers

Roemer

Nope. Still looking for pointers.

oldrocker

FWIW, audioadvisor sent me an email yesterday, they are selling some inventory surplus of Parasound gear. Not sure what all they have but they might have something that will fit your needs.

RandyCroissant

^^^Parasound would be a great choice, on my bucket list.

afishkind

I drive my 2Bs with a Carver TFM-25 amplifier ... they sound fantastic. Are you set on a receiver?

littlewoodboats

I wanted to check before I posted so am a little late to your thread. All that said the Outlaw Audio RR2150 is a common ground receiver that might fit your needs and comes in well under your limit. It might be worth look.

Roemer

I picked up a steal of a deal and am told that it'll power these speakers with no problem. I went with a Yamaha RX-A2050 receiver. Retail is $1600, I got a display model for $719! Can't find them on eBay for that price so I pulled the trigger. I have 15 days to return it if it don't work out / or you guys tell me I'm an idiot... Going to attempt hooking it up later today. I'll check back Friday evening and update you all and see what you have to say.

Nightfall

That's an awesome AVR and you can save up for a stand alone amplifier now as it has preouts.

F1nut

Get rid of those SL2000 tweeters. Order the vastly superior RD0194-1 directly from Polk. Tell them you are a member for a discount. You will thank me.

Roemer

F1nut wrote: »

Get rid of those SL2000 tweeters. Order the vastly superior RD0194-1 directly from Polk. Tell them you are a member for a discount. You will thank me.

What kind of money are we talking?

Roemer

Nightfall wrote: »

That's an awesome AVR and you can save up for a stand alone amplifier now as it has preouts.

Still not understanding all the hype about amplifiers. And either has anyone I've talked to at any of the audio stores I've been to. But most of them have been young kids. Can you explain why this receiver won't produce enough power for these polks?

F1nut

I think they are $48.00 each for members. Worth every penny.

AVR's have a power supply that all channels share and due to real estate issues are not as beefy as a dedicated power amp. Your AVR is rated at 140wpc with only 2 channels driven. Add more driven channels and the wpc drops, with most AVR's like a stone. Anyway, it's more about current (amperes), which is something AVR's lack.

Your AVR will drive the speakers, just not as well as a good power amp.

Nightfall

Roemer wrote: »

And either has anyone I've talked to at any of the audio stores I've been to.

Best Buy is, for the most part, a horrible place to get audio advice. I'm sure there is the occasional real life audiophile that happens to work at Best Buy but for the most part they'll just regurgitate what's on the box.

Roemer

Got her hooked up to the television so far (Been busy with work). But I plan on tackling some more installation this week. I'm new to all of this so it takes me a while to figure things out. I'm impressed so far with how they sound. My girlfriend has a phobia of birds and was watching something the other night that had birds and she thought there was a bird in the house. LOL I got a good laugh out of it!

TennMan

Roemer wrote: »

Still not understanding all the hype about amplifiers. And either has anyone I've talked to at any of the audio stores I've been to. But most of them have been young kids. Can you explain why this receiver won't produce enough power for these polks?

The receiver will probably produce enough power for your Polks but it's not the same as a power amp.

If you look at the first photo below you will see that an AVR is stuffed with circuit boards to do all the input/output switching and to provide all the bells and whistles. The transformer in it (bottom center) almost looks like an afterthought.

Then take a look at the second photo of my Adcom 555 200 watts per channel power amp. As you can see there are a few small circuit boards to handle the input signals. The rest of the box is dedicated to a large transformer and four huge capacitors, about the size of beer cans, that store reserve power (high current capacity) so it is there when you need it.

The AVR and power amp transformers just don't compare in the power department even though the watts per channel aren't to different. If you A/B them side by side the power amp would give a more defined and tighter bass response. Just my 2 cents...

YAMAHA AVR


ADCOM AMP

Roemer

F1nut wrote: »

Get rid of those SL2000 tweeters. Order the vastly superior RD0194-1 directly from Polk. Tell them you are a member for a discount. You will thank me.

OK. I'm stumped. I received the tweeters you all recommended. Installed them hooking black wire to red colored terminal on new tweeters and they sounded horrible! I thought maybe I hooked them up wrong but according to what I've read on here, I had it right. Re-installed the SL2000 tweeters and my sound was back to what I was used to, sounding great to me. Am I doing something wrong???!!!

Nightfall

Describe horrible.

Roemer

Nightfall wrote: »

Describe horrible.

Lost my bass. Had what I call a "static" noise. Neither of which are a problem with the SL2000s

Roemer

DSkip wrote: »

Did you recalibrate?

No. Just plugged in and installed. Im new to all this. What's that consist of?

Nightfall

Static... seems Polk has a bad batch of RDOs, send them back for new ones. You shouldn't have lost bass though.

Roemer

Ugh. I'll be calling them Monday I guess.

Nightfall

Did you put them back in the same position or did you pull them away from the wall a bit? Are you sure you have correct polarity after unhooking everything and putting it back together?

Roemer

Nightfall wrote: »

Did you put them back in the same position or did you pull them away from the wall a bit? Are you sure you have correct polarity after unhooking everything and putting it back together?

They're definitely in the exact same position, I have them both marked on my floor.

As far as correct polarity, I don't see how I could've messed that up. Black wire to red terminal, white wire to other terminal. Unless I'm misunderstanding you...

From what I understand, black wire is positive and positive terminal on tweeter is red. Correct me if I am wrong.

Nightfall

Check polarity between the AVR and speakers I mean.

Nightfall

Not for the SL2000s but the gaskets are a good point.

Nightfall

Make sure they aren't torn or bunched up anywhere.

Roemer

Nightfall wrote: »

Check polarity between the AVR and speakers I mean.

I didn't unhook the speakers from the AVR. Simply uninstalled the SL2000s and installed the new 194s. Four screws and two wires for each tweeter. Gaskets appeared fine. I am now listening to the speakers with the SL2000s reinstalled and no problems. I'll try reinstalling the 194s again later this weekend and let you know if anything changes.

Thanks for everyone's tips and advice. And being patient with me.

jhatl513

ROEMER; How does the story end? What was your next step or issue?

[Deleted User]

A late 80's Luxman R-117 receiver is worth considering. Last of the then Japanese made receivers. Has an excellent phono section. Remote. 2 ohm stable. Common ground. And the strongest, yet warm sounding like a Marantz 2325, receiver I've ever heard. An old Pioneer 1980SX was rated about twice the power but the Luxman made better music.

Take the Pepsi challenge with a Luxman M-117 amp vs Adcom 555 and you'll really be a Luxman fan. They're just hard to find. Stock and modified Adcoms are plentiful and cheaper. I'm not sure if the M-117 is common ground or not though.

Roemer

Polk is sending me a replacement pair of tweeters. I'm waiting on them to arrive. Should be here any day. I'll keep you posted.

Roemer

Question: the manual for my SDA-2B speakers states they're 6 ohm nominal impedance. With that being said, I have my AVR set to 6 ohm. I'm assuming this is correct?