SDA SRS Signature & WOPL Amp
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skipshot12
Posts: 1,002
in Speakers
Have been searching and cannot find an answer to my dilemma.
A pair of these speakers have come up for sale recently and I found some previous posts related to Phase Linear amps driving these.
What I have are Clair Bros 700 Series II's that have been White Oak Audio upgraded. Essentially the guts are taken out with just the transformer, chassis and cooling fins being original. What this does is bring these amps up to 500w a channel and can do low impedance all day with proper cooling.
As I understand it, the SDA SRS speakers require a "Common Ground" amp and the blade/blade cable for the SDA to do it's magic.... been wanting a pair of these for years!
My dilemma...
The Phase Linear amps are not a grounded amp, they have a two prong plug internal hookup. The ground is not hooked up internally to "Earth" via the power cable.
But, the negative speaker terminals have been Star Grounded internally to a common bridge. Just not referenced to ground as in "Earth Ground".
So after reading about checking amps as to whether common ground or not...
I did the Ohm check with my Fluke on the negative speaker terminals and my readings are 0.2 ohm on both amps.
Being a Lineman I have very little knowledge as to low voltage amplifier technology.
"Common Ground", to me, I interpret as Common (together or same reference point) and Ground (reference to Earth). As in a 3-Pot Bank all "Neutrals" are "Common" to each other at the same point just not to a "Ground". In essence that's what the amp looks like to me.
Well, the Phase Linear amp negative terminals are common to each other just not to Earth Ground through the cord plugged into the outlet.
But, they are called Ground and they are common to each other.
After all that goo going on in my brain I guess my question is...
Does the Common Ground have to be common to each other and to ground (Earth)?
Or do they just have to be common?
I don't want to destroy any speakers or amps.
Also , I don't want to have SDA SRS speakers without the ability to do SDA.
If the amps won't work with these speakers I'll just have to stay with my Infinity Kappa 9's.
Please help...
A pair of these speakers have come up for sale recently and I found some previous posts related to Phase Linear amps driving these.
What I have are Clair Bros 700 Series II's that have been White Oak Audio upgraded. Essentially the guts are taken out with just the transformer, chassis and cooling fins being original. What this does is bring these amps up to 500w a channel and can do low impedance all day with proper cooling.
As I understand it, the SDA SRS speakers require a "Common Ground" amp and the blade/blade cable for the SDA to do it's magic.... been wanting a pair of these for years!
My dilemma...
The Phase Linear amps are not a grounded amp, they have a two prong plug internal hookup. The ground is not hooked up internally to "Earth" via the power cable.
But, the negative speaker terminals have been Star Grounded internally to a common bridge. Just not referenced to ground as in "Earth Ground".
So after reading about checking amps as to whether common ground or not...
I did the Ohm check with my Fluke on the negative speaker terminals and my readings are 0.2 ohm on both amps.
Being a Lineman I have very little knowledge as to low voltage amplifier technology.
"Common Ground", to me, I interpret as Common (together or same reference point) and Ground (reference to Earth). As in a 3-Pot Bank all "Neutrals" are "Common" to each other at the same point just not to a "Ground". In essence that's what the amp looks like to me.
Well, the Phase Linear amp negative terminals are common to each other just not to Earth Ground through the cord plugged into the outlet.
But, they are called Ground and they are common to each other.
After all that goo going on in my brain I guess my question is...
Does the Common Ground have to be common to each other and to ground (Earth)?
Or do they just have to be common?
I don't want to destroy any speakers or amps.
Also , I don't want to have SDA SRS speakers without the ability to do SDA.
If the amps won't work with these speakers I'll just have to stay with my Infinity Kappa 9's.
Please help...
Answers
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A common ground amp it does not need a dedicated ground pin on the power cord. Many many amps are common ground with just a two bladed power cord. The Carver M500 is not a common ground amp because one channel is inverted for instance.
That should be a common ground amp, all gounds all lead to one location.The negative speaker terminals have been Star Grounded internally to a common bridge. -
I hell yea! Whoo Pea Nut!
That's great news to my ears... -
Picked up the pair.
Found them on craigslist.
Absolutely pristine, and untouched, original owner.
Pressure test was excellent.
Before sliding them out of the back of my Tahoe i found a couple screws that needed attention on the passive. Easy fix, now on to the other one.
Need to find out how to post pictures.... -
"A common ground amp it does not need a dedicated ground pin on the power cord. Many many amps are common ground with just a two bladed power cord. The Carver M500 is not a common ground amp because one channel is inverted for instance.
That should be a common ground amp, all gounds all lead to one location."The negative speaker terminals have been Star Grounded internally to a common bridge.
My one concern was that the two prong plug is not polarized. It can be plugged in either way.
I did contact the person that rebuilt my amps... he is the man when it comes to these.
He said the above about the amps being star grounded and common to a bridge.
I do feel better but, there's always that one little doubt in the back of my mind.
Only one way to find out.....
