Interconnect Connectors

What a silly discussion title, lol.

When I bought my RT10 speaker pair brand new in the early '90s, I thought that they were the bomb and sounded better than so many other brands in the store. Now that I have a pair of SDA-1A speakers, they're at a whole new level of amazing. However, I don't have an interconnect cable and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to use it.

My problem is that the previous owner removed the connectors and replaced them with standard speaker jacks. Does this mean that I can connect the speakers together now with standard speaker wire? Red-to-red and black-to-black?

If I do this, do I need to worry about my dual-mono HK930 receiver? I'm not sure if it's common ground or not.

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

Comments

  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,477
    Yes that is correct in the hook up. Most receivers by nature are common ground. Amps a different story.
  • gabasa
    gabasa Posts: 17
    Ok, thanks. If the previous owner wired something up backwards, could anything potentially be damaged?
  • verb
    verb Posts: 10,176
    Hello @gabasa You mean like this? Another hack in the FS Classified thread.
    q09hi3tatvgu.png
    Basement: Polk SDA SRS 1.2tl's, Cary SLP-05 Pre with ultimate upgrade,McIntosh MCD301 CD/SACD player, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Cambridge 851N streamer, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Silnote Morpheus Ref2, Series2 Digital Cables, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Series2 XLR's, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,477
    gabasa wrote: »
    Ok, thanks. If the previous owner wired something up backwards, could anything potentially be damaged?

    Yes...
  • gabasa
    gabasa Posts: 17
    edited March 2018
    Yes, similar to the photo.
    For what it's worth, I didn't avoid them because of their less-than-pristine condition, just got with the hopes that they work and sound right. I'm going to measure the resistance on my speaker negative terminals right now and try it out......wish me luck.
  • verb
    verb Posts: 10,176
    gabasa wrote: »
    Yes, similar to the photo.
    For what it's worth, I didn't avoid them because of their less-than-pristine condition, just got with the hopes that they work and sound right. I'm going to measure the resistance on my speaker negative terminals right now and try it out......wish me luck.

    Good luck! Don't worry lot of help here on CP! You can easily restore the IC interface back to stock, lot's of Polkies here have spare parts.

    I believe your's probably had the blade/blade style IC. However some of the early 1A's used a 3-pin type. I would post some pic's of the XO's and let the CP community help identify which ones you need.

    II just checked ebay and they have the blade/blade cables. Heck I just gave one away recently, as I upgraded to the SpeakOn connectors.

    I think I donated my blade/blade sockets to @westmassguy as he performed my electronics upgrade.

    I'm sure you can get that type of socket for little or no cost. :smile:
    Basement: Polk SDA SRS 1.2tl's, Cary SLP-05 Pre with ultimate upgrade,McIntosh MCD301 CD/SACD player, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Cambridge 851N streamer, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Silnote Morpheus Ref2, Series2 Digital Cables, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Series2 XLR's, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
    Office: PC, EAR Acute CD Player, EAR 834L Pre, Northstar Designs Intenso DAC, Antique Sound Labs AV8 Monoblocks, Denon UDR-F10 Cassette, Acoustic Technologies Classic FR Speakers, SVS SB12 Plus sub, MIT AVt2 speaker cables, IFI Purifier2, AQ Cinnamon USB cable, Groneberg Quatro Reference IC's
    Spare Room: Dayens Ampino Integrated Amp, Tjoeb 99 tube CD player (modified Marantz CD-38), Analysis Plus Oval 9's, Zu Jumpers, AudioEngine B1 Streamer, Klipsch RB-61 v2, SVS PB1000 sub, Blue Jeans RCA IC's, Shunyata Hydra 8 Power Conditioner
    Living Room: Peachtree Nova Integrated, Cambridge CXN v2 Streamer, Rotel RCD-1072 CD player, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Polk RT265 In Wall Speakers, Polk DSW Pro 660wi sub
    Garage #1: Cambridge Audio 640A Integrated Amp, Project Box-E BT Streamer, Polk Tsi200 Bookies, Douglas Speaker Cables, Shunyata Power Conditioner
    Garage #2: Cambridge Audio EVO150 Integrated Amplifier, Polk L200's, Analysis Plus Silver Oval 2 Speaker Cables, IC's TBD.
  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,477
    Those will be blade/blade. Only the very first SDA1 had the RTA type.
    Problem is lets say that the wire colors are black and white
    On one speaker the black will go to red speaker connect on the other the black goes to black speaker connect.

    And the white would go to the other speaker connection.

    If someone fouls that it could be seen as a direct short.
    Bad things happen.... You might let the magic smoke out
  • gabasa
    gabasa Posts: 17
    Ok, I just measured the grounds on my speaker terminals and got 0.1 Ohms from one negative to the next, so I figure it's common ground.

    I hooked it up backwards on one of the speakers and the sound got narrower! I guess that the SDA drivers were playing in-phase with the opposite speaker as opposed to out-of-phase. So I reversed the interconnect connection on one speaker and everything widened immensely.

    I guess it's working! I also noticed that they brightened up quite a bit with the interconnect cable for some reason.
  • gudnoyez
    gudnoyez Posts: 8,056
    edited March 2018
    Thanks for the photo I was struggling picturing your first post, the original owner did a conversion wonder why? Blade /Blade cables are easy to find.
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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,477
    gudnoyez wrote: »
    Thanks for the photo I was struggling picturing your first post, the original owner did a conversion wonder why? Blade /Blade cables are easy to find.

    True but sometimes the interconnect sockets get very loose and wonky.