What AMP Options are other SDA 2 owners using? New SDA and love them

jhatl513

Hi, I was offered a pair of Polk SDA 2's for free. The cabinets are in tact, and looked like decades of people setting their drinks on top. Luckily I am good at reviving wood and now they look like art. When I set them up just to test them on my Sony STR-6800; no crossover cable but just to see if they worked. They sounded pretty amazing.

My best amp has 65 watts. I wonder what amp others are using with their SDA 2's? Places to hunt, names, types, and setting up? I'm a big fan of Links if you want to share them.

Legender

Welcome to Club Polk... your journey has just begun.
A quick search on the site that many will use older amps that pair well with the SDAs,
parasound is a proven choice and many use Adcom.
Bit thing is to make sure you're using amps/receiver with common ground.

I'm using a Harman Kardon PA2400 with mine and have no complaints.
Check Craigslist in your area and audiogon for some used units.

Have fun.

pkquat

Welcome.

Plenty of amps to choose from. What is your budget? New? Used? What is your goal for a final system?

jhatl513

So, some of what you are asking is ahead of what I'm asking so for now the goal is to find an amp and crossover cable; set it up and looking to build around this. Budget is I'm open but just not sure as I"m a vintage buff with Marantz and Sony but don't have anything as large as what I hear you need to run these speakers.

pkquat

If you don't have the interconnect cable. We need to know if it is a blade/blade connector or pin/blade. Pictures are helpful.

In short, a common ground amp is required if you want to use the interconnect cable. The interconnect cable will open up a whole other level. The good thing is most receivers are common ground. You can check this with an Ohm meter between the two negative terminals. First try it with the volume off. If it is not zero or very near zero, turn the volume all the way down, make sure there is no input signal, power it on and then check again. Some receivers have relays for the speakers that do not engage unless the power is on.

I have a vintage Kenwood rated at 45W I think. It punches above its WPC rating for sure. It ran my 1C's without any issues. A bigger amp and separate higher quality preamp and amp combinations do give a better sound, and richer bass. I have a Hafler 220, and that was an improvement. I now have a Parasound P5 preamp with a 250WPC Parasound amp. It was also an improvement. A 100WPC amp worked just fine, and could overdrive my 1c's. The 250W amp is an improvement, but for a majority of listening, a 100W amp would work fine.

While the picture in the post below is for modern equipment, the analogy is similar.
http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2291085/#Comment_2291085

Then there is the world of tube amps which I know little about.

jhatl513

Legender: You have the HK; what else are you using in your set up? I've only owned integrated, so I"m not sure about how you use or set up an Amp, pre, etc...

pkquat

First is some information on SDA speakers.
http://www.gimpod.com/sda-id.html

Pictures of yours would help and knowing what the connector is for the interconnect cable is a good start for more helpful information.

Manuals and other information can be found here.
http://polksda.com/

Think of a preamp as the input source selector knob(s) on your receiver and the volume control knob. The preamp chooses between a number of input sources. The preamp also amplifies those signals to a small degree (pre amplification) via the volume control knob. This part is very similar to what a receiver does.

The preamp is the connected to an amplifier with cables, often RCA cables. The amplifier boosts the signal a large amount to drive your speakers. The advantage to this is you can have a higher quality, and often much more powerful amplifier than what is found in a receiver. You can change amplifiers or preamplifiers as desired.

A receiver essentially has the to hardwired together, which does make a nice package. Often to combine everything into a smaller package small sacrifices in sound quality are made, and the closeness of components can add electronic noise which effects the sound quality.

That said, there are plenty of people who like the sound of older vintage receivers and still use them today.

I hope this helps. I am still not sure of your final goal?