Newbie, Intro, SDA questions

sbolt

Hi everyone, I just recently won on auction a pair of decent Polk Monitor Series 4's with the tweeters replaced with Peerless M4 soft domes. Haven't received them yet and I have my fingers crossed. The reason for this purchase is I because I finally bought a flat screen and BluRay, and I need some decent sound for it and satellite music. This setup is for an apartment that is not conducive for a surround setup and I am not totally impressed with the superstore offerings in that regard. I decided to be conservative and buy used vintage.

After lurking in the forum for a few hours, I am convinced that a pair of vintage SDAs are in my future when I buy a home, and even now, I see some for sale on CL. My question is, what kind of wattage and/or current (I am ignorant about what to look for as far as current is concerned) is needed to properly drive these? Solid state or tube? I do know a little bout tube amps in the musical instrument sense, not so much about Hi-Fi.

Great forum here, and thanks in advance for your help!

cnh

WELCOME TO CLUB POLK!

That's a difficult question to answer simply. For example....H9, one of our members, runs a Pass Aleph 30 watt/channel amp that powers his SDA 1Cs fine... but that's a little pricey and I won't get into the class A amplification, at this point?

I think most members would agree that tubes really bring out the best in many of the SDAs...though not everyone. And a lot of us use SS (solid state) amps to good measure on SDAs as well. The general consensus is to try and give them 200 watts or more per channel of SS power, there--but as noted above that is not a hard and fast rule.

With many of the SDA 2s you can get away with 100 watts if they're good clean high current watts. Suffice it to say that there are many options out there and ONLY budget and availability will bottleneck you!

Use the search function on this site to read more about all this and also about the various models of SDAs that are available and which one you might want to go with.

There is also a lot of information, here, about SDA modifications that go a long way in improving/perfecting the SDA experience. And I'm sure others will chime in soon!

Hold on to your wallet and enjoy your Polks!

cnh

dcoil

Welcom sbolt,

The SDA experience is quite something if you've never heard it. But this is best appreciated in a 2 channel system. The interesting thing is, the SDA 2 channel is better (more immersive AND realistic) than any HT (surround) system I've ever heard. If you decide to go the SDA route, as CNH said, there is a ton of info in the forum on correct placement, upgrades, necessary amplification, etc. If you do, expect to also drop some real $, but I think the SDA is the best bang for the buck out there.

dpowell

Welcome to CP! I'm driving my 1C's with a 40WPC tube amp and that seems to be plenty of power for them. Definitely +1 what cnh had to say. You'll want to do the mods if you have the $$.

george daniel

depends on what size/efficiency speaker,, in the case of SDA's,,such as 1C's,,40-80 watts of tube power is gracious plenty,,solid state,, I prefer 150-200 watts of clean high current,YMMV,,but remember,,start with a good source.

Fongolio

I was driving my SDA 1C's with a Carver TFM-45 which is rated at 375wrms and they sounded spectacular. Just yesterday I hooked them up to an almost 50 year old Eico tube integrated rated at 35 watts per channel and was blown away by how good they sounded. I think the general guidlines offered above are very good. It's more about quality than quantity of power to drive SDA's or any other speaker for that matter. If considering SDA's also consider they require a common ground amp to work properly, however there are some work arounds and right now an entire thread dedicated to an excellent work around for non common ground amps. Welcome to the club!!

comfortablycurt

As others have mentioned, it's not necessarily so much about the number of watts, as the quality of the watts.

I'm driving my SDA 2A's with a 100 wpc Adcom GFA-545, and they sing! It can easily drive them to levels as high as I ever care to listen to. There are some merits to having a higher powered amp(more headroom, and all out dynamic slam for instance)...but 100 GOOD high current watts are quite capable of driving the smaller SDA's. The previous owner of my amp drove a pair of SDA 1C's with it, with great results.

A lot of people around here throw around the "200 wpc minimum" as if it's a universal law. This simply isn't true.

Unless you're someone that likes to listen at 115-120db regularly, 100 good watts is plenty ample power. As I said, higher powered amps definitely do have their advantages...but don't sacrifice quality in the name of having a higher wattage rating. My Adcom 545 can easily drive my 2A's to 100db for extended listening sessions...and 100db is by NO means quiet.

Joe08867

Like the others have said good, clean, high current watts are the way to go.

I have run SDA's with a 25watt tube amp and they sounded awesome. I have also run them with 150 high current watts and they loved that as well.

I would never recommend a receiver for SDA's personally. But that is only because I haven't found one yet that does them justice.