A good power amp that works well with SDA 1 C's.....??

naturallight

I have pulled my old SDA 1C's out of the back room. Found out that the cross overs need to be redone (like duhh..should have done that a while ago) So they need to go off to VR3 to get fixed.

Now I don't feel it's use full to throw the Onkyo M-504 at them again once there redone. So i'm looking for a power amp that will work well and sound nice with the SDA's.



My first thought is of course the Adcom 555. There are plenty of them out there. Plus plenty of info. If i can find one that has at least been checked, and is "supposed" up to "spec". Pretty much should work fine. Even if it needs some upgrading...not that hard to do for most shops. The Carver amps..(on the other hand need to sent to only a few shops, that really know how to work on these) Plus.... some people on here seem to like them, but it seems to be a love, or hate thing. Meaning you either love the sound, or hate it. Not sure i want to jump on the Carver band wagon. Don't remember hearing the Carver amps. The Adcom stuff i've heard., plus easy to pick up in the $300 buck range. The "flame on" stuff from years back still sticks in my head, about the Carver stuff..altho i'm sure thats not really the case, but they do seem to have more problems then the Adcom amps. If you have any other power amps you think work well with SDA's I'd like to know, and what you think about them. Keeping in mind a used price range of max $400.

mesquitehead

Carver TFM-25 or TFM-35, and they can be completely recapped/refurbed for less than $200 if needed. I prefer the Carver "sound" with my SDA's. Check out www.thecarversite.com lots of good info over there. You can buy Carvers that have already been refurbed as well. Get a C-1 pre amp too and you will be in heaven. The Carver M-1.0t amps are great as well and lots of mods available by good techs.

Oldfatdogs

I'm using a Belles one with my 1Cs,some said it was a little lite but has been working like a champ.My room is small13x13 I don't run at concert levels.Maby try one of the bigger Belles amps for larger room.To my ears its a great amp with the Dared pre I'm quite happy.

Schurkey

I don't know why Adcom would be any less sensitive to repairs/upgrades than Carver. The main difference is that Carver amps have a more-or-less factory upgrade/repair depot--and Adcom doesn't.

Pick most any brand of amp; they've all got models that will work just fine provided they meet the common-ground requirement OR you invest in an AI-1 with the large transformer.
Acurus
Adcom
B&K
Bryston
Carver
Hafler
HK
Parasound
Soundcraftsmen

and so many others. The trick, of course, is to get one in proper operating condition since some of these companies are long out of business, and most of the models in the "Under $400 range" are quite old. The capacitors are well beyond the 20-year service life--if the service life was even that long.

Just don't fall into the trap of buying a "new" Chinese bottom-feeder amp thinking it's a "good value".

PolkieMan

What happened to your crossovers in the backroom?
Do you mean because of their age?
Is there a way to tell they are bad by listening?
Is sending them to VR3 better than doing it yourself?
I have a Carver TFM-25 but your probably not local.

naturallight wrote: »

I have pulled my old SDA 1C's out of the back room. Found out that the cross overs need to be redone (like duhh..should have done that a while ago) So they need to go off to VR3 to get fixed.

Now I don't feel it's use full to throw the Onkyo M-504 at them again once there redone. So i'm looking for a power amp that will work well and sound nice with the SDA's.



My first thought is of course the Adcom 555. There are plenty of them out there. Plus plenty of info. If i can find one that has at least been checked, and is "supposed" up to "spec". Pretty much should work fine. Even if it needs some upgrading...not that hard to do for most shops. The Carver amps..(on the other hand need to sent to only a few shops, that really know how to work on these) Plus.... some people on here seem to like them, but it seems to be a love, or hate thing. Meaning you either love the sound, or hate it. Not sure i want to jump on the Carver band wagon. Don't remember hearing the Carver amps. The Adcom stuff i've heard., plus easy to pick up in the $300 buck range. The "flame on" stuff from years back still sticks in my head, about the Carver stuff..altho i'm sure thats not really the case, but they do seem to have more problems then the Adcom amps. If you have any other power amps you think work well with SDA's I'd like to know, and what you think about them. Keeping in mind a used price range of max $400.

Phasewolf

The M-504 is a fine amp to drive those speakers what about it are you not happy with?

falconcry72

I like the Parasound HCA's. You can find a HCA-1000A (125 WPC) for about $250, or you could step up to the HCA-1500A (205 WPC) for $400-500. Both will drive your 1C's very well, but the 1500 is a special amp.

nhhiep

I have been very happy using them with HK Citation 5.1. This is the last Citation series...I've 2 5.1 and 3 more 7.1 on the way next week. there is one on ebay now

PolkieMan

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/amplifiers/products/xpa2

I like this and the price is good for new, great reviews

Drenis

Check the local FM here. Always great deals from other members.

naturallight

No, the 1C's were put in the back room, because they no longer played well with the M-504. Drivers would pop, tweeters would shut down, so you could never play them loud anymore.



Now i really pulled them out of the back room to see if they would play well enough to sell. The QSC amp was just sitting there, so i hooked them up to that. Now the QSC doesn't care what load it see's...It's good down to 2 ohms, and has stupid amounts of power. The 1C's play pretty well with that amp, altho i was playing them yesterday, and again on some music it will pop some drivers but is way louder then it was before.



Now my "hope" is these cross overs are just way to far gone. Everything in the speakers is from 1987. So replacing everything in the cross over will bring it back to what it used to be....BUT...if i have to replace half of the drivers on top of that, then that may be an undo able task. You never see the MW 6510's or 6511's for sale used, and there is for sure no bet that there in any better shape then the ones i have now. I have called a number of speaker referb places. None of them will touch these Polk drivers, something about the way Polk produced them, and they don't have the right equipment to redo them.



So it's a gamble. As far as VR3 doing the updates, depends on what he wants to charge, VS the cost of all the parts.

Dawgfish

I tried many amps with my SDA-1Cs that I uses to own and the two amps that sounded the best to me with it were a B&K ST-202+ and an Anthem Amp-2.

pitdogg2

naturallight wrote: »

You never see the MW 6510's or 6511's for sale used, and there is for sure no bet that there in any better shape then the ones i have now.

Dude wake up and smell the ebay... less than 1mo. ago a dude parted a pair of 1c's on Ebay had all drivers. Now yes you must ask questions and take a small chance but I've bought several 6510's in the last year and got a pair off Ebay for 25.00 + shipping. look brand new and sound just fine for spares for my SDA2A's. They're there you just need to be on the ball. Not to mention a club member just released some here....

Schurkey

naturallight wrote: »

The QSC amp was just sitting there, so i hooked them up to that. Now the QSC doesn't care what load it see's...It's good down to 2 ohms, and has stupid amounts of power. The 1C's play pretty well with that amp, altho i was playing them yesterday, and again on some music it will pop some drivers but is way louder then it was before.

Now my "hope" is these cross overs are just way to far gone. Everything in the speakers is from 1987. So replacing everything in the cross over will bring it back to what it used to be....BUT...if i have to replace half of the drivers on top of that, then that may be an undo able task. You never see the MW 6510's or 6511's for sale used, and there is for sure no bet that there in any better shape then the ones i have now. I have called a number of speaker referb places. None of them will touch these Polk drivers, something about the way Polk produced them, and they don't have the right equipment to redo them.

TEST the drivers before digging into the crossovers? Beats speculating.

If the drivers that "pop" are the tweeters, polyswitches are the likely problem. They're known to become defective as they age and they change characteristics as they're used.

naturallight

I have never heard the tweeters "pop"....at most they will just shut down. The pops are coming from the drives, probably the MW 6511's, not the "SDA" side...but thats just a guess. But this is also random. When i first tried out the speakers. The right side speaker POPPED , now yesterday, the left side Popped. It seems to be source driven, as to what CD your playing...and what Freq the drivers are being handed that they don't like.



So, best guess would be the cross overs are not in good shape. What load there presenting to the amp at this point, who knows, and what it's feeding the drivers with..again, pretty much unknown. So seems the better why to start, and certanly can't hurt.

naturallight

Now there is a kind of insane thing going on here also. I pulled these speakers out 2 days ago. When i first pluged them in, they got dam loud, I had SDA type stuff flying all over the room. They were played for maybe an hour.
Now yesterday...they just did not seem so "SDAish" (yes i know, now such word) Now maybe i got used to the SDA sound real quick again. But the speakers didn't seem to be able to handle the same power, they would POP at a lower volume.

Now logic (or at least my logic) would say....the drivers can't be doing this...the caps in the Cross overs really have to be bleeding stuff all over the place..or pretty much shot. Not any kind of test for sure....but enough to make me just want to pull the Cross overs.....

naturallight

Let me put it this way. Drivers just don't magically fix themselves. Or at least none that i have ever owned. When i put these in the back room. They would not play very loud with the M-504 with out Popping. Now they have sat there for a year. I pull them out 2 days ago. Plug in the QSC They got loud enough to blow your face off.

Now if there was something wrong with the voice coils in the drivers.....they should have gone to crap in that first hour of playing...but that did not happen.



now i go back the next day..play them again...not the same result..the volume is now down as to were things start to pop.



Now there is NOTHING wrong with the QSC...it's pretty much brand new, has at most 10 hours of play time on it. Really is not even breaking a sweat handing the SDA a few hundred watts....nor dose it care if it's even at 2 ohms.



Now the drivers..If the voice coils were damaged before, or whatever, as they would not play past a certain volume.

For the most part..just don't come back and blast your face off. Now yes you can say...well the QSC is throwing so much power at them..that they will work better.....but there slowly going down to the same area, that the M-504 was at.



If the drivers were damaged in anyway...I just don't see a different power amp making them better. It's not like the M-504 was underpowered, or clipping these. Your pretty much dealing with the voice coils, if the surrounds were damaged....they would just never play well. If the voice coils were burnt..again, just not going to work to well..certainly not spring back to life. Now OK..maybe they heat up too much...but they should have done that in the first hour of play.



The only electronic variable in here...between the power amp and the drivers...is the cross over.



Now maybe i'm missing something..not sure. But if anybody has a better idea Please let me know.

pitdogg2

naturallight wrote: »

Let me put it this way.

With that analogy you would think that your tweeters would be getting some good low end signal and pop the PS or just pop from signal they can't reproduce. I cannot explain why they get softer in sound but if it's doing it with two different amps something is amiss. My first thought was that that amp(onkyo) was not common ground.

EndersShadow

Try switching out your speaker cables maybe they are having issues? Try different interconnects, etc.

If you think the speakers are ok, then you need to start working back to identify where the issue lies, in the cables, the power at the wall, your source, etc.

PolkieMan

mw 6511'S used, are not as easy to find as 6510

SDA1C

Didnt I see a Sunfire 2x 300 in the flea market recently? IO doubt youd beat that for the price. I think it was 700 or so.

dekuda

falconcry72 wrote: »

I like the Parasound HCA's. You can find a HCA-1000A (125 WPC) for about $250, or you could step up to the HCA-1500A (205 WPC) for $400-500. Both will drive your 1C's very well, but the 1500 is a special amp.

I agree, I had a Parasound HCA1500A and loved it. I now wish I would have kept it. tried selling it here about 1 year ago and got no takers. But have been receiving emails from Polkies recently to see if I still have it for sale. The HCA line is comparable to the Halo line in my opinion. But the word is out and it is hard to find a higher output HCA at a bargain price. Anyone know of a HCA 2205AT for sale?

mesquitehead

Have you checked the interconnect cable? You can use speaker wire as a substitute to check it out, just keep the polarity right at the connections. Just twist the wire ends good and place it in the interconnect holes on the speakers.

dekuda

SDA1C wrote: »

Didnt I see a Sunfire 2x 300 in the flea market recently? IO doubt youd beat that for the price. I think it was 700 or so.

Yep, Erniejade is selling his Carver 300 x 2 Sunfire here for $700.00 shipped.He just had it checked out. Nice amp and great person to deal with. Get it while you can.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?135368-sunfire-original-300X2

nspindel

I use a Krell KAV-2250 with my 1C's. It's a pricey amp, but it just rocks the 1C's. Sound is superb.

edwardm10

I have used both a Carver TFM55 and Adcom 5500 series with the 1C's. They both work nicely, though I prefer the sound of the Carver for music and the Adcom for HT.

PolkieMan

My 1c's I just use a Onkyo mid-range receiver and they don't pop and carry on like that. I think that you have a problem with your amp or preamp. I had a Tfm-15 that used to blow my 2-way Advents it would be fine sometimes next time a week or so later it would pop and blow the 8" driver at first I thought the speakers were crappy but after the second time well you what I did out with that Carver!

philr168

My 1c's are hooked up to a carver m1.5 and will sing all day .

george daniel

I have a Sumo Polaris that is in mint condition that I'll be putting up for sale in the FM,,good little amp for 2B's and 1C's,,, sweet midrange.

hewlew1

George , I will trade you a pair of Dahlquist DQ-8's if you are interested.

hewlew1

George, I forgot to ask you how is the Carverfest amp holding up?