Driving SDA 1 B

vintagenut

I own a set of SDA 1Bs, and am wondering what I need to drive them? I'm finding out, that for whatever reason, my vintage recievers don't like them. The only thing I have that even comes close is my JVC JA amplifier. It's only rated at 40 WPC but drives them better than my Pioneer SX950 at 85 WPC. The breakers in the speakers trips with the 950 before they reach the volume of the JVC. Any suggestions on vintage, or new amps that will work would be appreicated.

jimbo1421

I believe that whatever amplification you use should be capable of feeding into 4 ohm nominal impedance. The specs for the amp should say something like "125 watts RMS x 2, 20 Hz-20 kHz, 4 ohms, both channels driven". I copied that from my Parasound HCA-1000A manual which drive my SDA-1B very nicely.

Jim

Big Dawg

That Pioneer is handsome and will handle 4 ohm loads, but probably not so well. A decent common ground amp will serve you better.

FWIW, I'm currently driving my SRS2s with a 35-40 watt tube amp with nice results.

Schurkey

Any quality amp that will handle a 4-ohm nominal load, AND has the common-ground design will be fine.

I used a late-'70's JVC receiver for years, before changing to an Aragon amp in the early '90's.

bigaltx24

To do those speakers justice you need an amp that will put out at least 150 to 200 watts per channel into a 4 ohm load. Very few vintage amps or newer home theater amps can handle 4 ohm loads. When you try to crank them driving the 1Bs you run the risk of damaging both the speakers and the amp. As mentioned above the Carver TFM and Parasound amps are popular around here as well as Adcom and Sunfire. I use a Denon PMA-900V to drive my 1Bs and am really happy with it.