First SDAs.

ibewbrother

I have my first pair of SDAs in the other room....haven't even unboxed them yet. Pretty sure they are 2b. I have 2 questions...

First....Would a Carver TFM-45 be a good amp on these?

Second...I do not have the interconnect cable....I would like to build one myself. What are the specs? Shielded? Twisted-pair? To put a not so subtle point on it...I have access to a large variety of cable ...and soldering skills....plus 20 years of electrical experience to call upon; I just need to know what kind of wire they want.

Any help would be appreciated...

Thanks in advance,

ibewbrother

F1nut

You need to know the model before doing anything including asking those questions.

ibewbrother

So....your input is to unbox first...Thank you very much.

My questions were meant in a more general fashion..

MrBuhl

Hey Congrats on your SDAs and welcome to the forum. The Carver has all the juice you need and many fans here, a great amp, but Jesse is right, you need to know which model so we know about potential common ground issues and the like. Generally speaking, the accepted program is use the same high quality wire for your SDA cable as you are using for your speaker cables. Open those babies up!

george daniel

Congrats ,,welcome,to,the. forum. Let,us know,what model and then we can snswer the amp question about amplification.

westmassguy

ibewbrother wrote: »

So....your input is to unbox first...Thank you very much.

@F1nut is correct. The 2A and 2B are different generations, and put different demands on the Amplifier. The 2As require a common ground Amp, while the 2Bs can use a common ground Amp or a non-common ground Amp or mono-blocks with the proper AI-1/Dreadnaught Isolation Transformer Interconnect. The 2Bs came in two versions, one had a slab top and bottom with wrap-around grill, the other was the Studio version, with wood grained vinyl and a grill on the front only. The 2B Studio version looks nearly identical to the 2A, hence the reason for Jesse's reply. All 2As had blade/blade Interconnects, while full production 2Bs had pin/blade Interconnects. Early production 2Bs of either type, may also have blade/blade interconnects (Polk was using up leftover 2A cabinets and other components).
The Carver will work with either generation out of the box. The 2As are 4 ohm nominal, and the 2Bs 6 ohm.
You may run into a problem if they're 2As, and all recommended upgrades are done.
Some upgrades will lower the nominal impedance to < 4 ohms.
The Carver manual warns about sustained loads < 4 ohms.

In either case, as @MrBuhl stated, you'll want to use the same type and quality speaker cable for the interconnect that you plan to use for the amp to speaker connections.

If you want to do it right the first time, I'd advise changing to SpeakON plugs and sockets, whether you have blade/blade or pin/blade connectors.

If you want to make a temporary cable to check operation, the 2As will need a 2 conductor cable (make sure you observe proper polarity). If they're 2Bs, you can use a single conductor. If they have a pin/blade connector, only the pins need to be connected. If it's a blade/blade connector, only the small blades need to be connected.

ibewbrother

I wish I could post pics....but my computer skills are major fail...

Anyway...serial number L SDA II 13140
R SDA II 12128

Blade blade connector....the tweeters are different...left side is silver dome....right looks like a bolt on. One of the mids on the right is rotated 90 degrees.

Looks to me like these are 2 different models....or at least sub-models.....
I used some wire i had to do the interconnect....small to small....big to big.

These sound good......but the Carver doesn't like them...I shut it down for the first time. Never thought I would engage the protect circuit on a 375wpc amp.

The cabinets also look different..more wear on the right.

The bases are shot....need some spikes...and the grille is bad on my right and needs an emblem....anyone have any for sale.

pitdogg2

You may have something going on with speakers or amp. I run both tfm 25 and 45 on both my SDA's SDA 1 signature and SDA 2a both with complete xo recap never have had either amp shut down. Then again you may very well overdriven it past safe zone..

F1nut

ibewbrother wrote: »

So....your input is to unbox first...Thank you very much.

You're welcome. It's scary how correct my input is, eh?

westmassguy

The only way we'll be able to help you, is if you or someone else posts photos of the speakers. Remove the grills, take some photos. Remove the passive radiators, and take a few photos of the crossover in each cabinet. A few shots of the rears won't hurt either.

pitdogg2

You could also pull the midwoofers as sda2a used mw6510 on all spots. SDA2b used mw6503 and mw6511 just remember to put them back in the right spot if it is the 6503/6511 combo

PolkieMan

You need to check all the electrical on those and replace the tweeter(S)



tweeter>>>>right looks like a bolt on. One of the mids on the right is rotated 90 degrees.