Polk Audio SDA common ground amps

[Cylontymany]

What are some good common ground high current amps that would work for SDA2Bs and run them realy nice-I want good sounding ones vintage or newer with at least 400wpc into 4ohms Just one amp to run one set of SDAs

 

[try1256]

Odyssey Khartago or Stratus stereo amps. I drive my 2a's with a Khartago. Hi current, plenty of power, common ground and it will easily drive down to 2 ohms. I don't think the mono block version will work even with the AI 1 or dreadnaught, because they are bridged stereo amps.

 

[motorstereo]

A couple important considerations are missing.........Budget?? New or used??

 

[Dennis Gardner]

Parasound, Odyssey, Emotiva, Outlaw, ATI, all build nice amplifiers in the middle range of pricing that work great with SDAs. In the vintage world,
you must look for designs that were not built on a dual mono chassis design. Harman Kardon Citation are nice, Denon POA line, Sony ES,
Pioneer Elite M90 and 91.

There are virtually 100s of amps that will work great, while there are dozens of designs that cause issues.

I have used Odyssey Stratos, Harman Kardon Citation 24 myself with success.

 

[Johnny_Law]

I use an NAD C370. NAD makes great high current gear but watch out not all are common ground.

 

[Cylontymany]

What about carver amps? Like the M-4.07 and TFM-45 I would like at least 400 wpc into 4ohms vintage or newer amps fine! Any more suggestions in the $500.00 range and I don't want monos-just one nice amp to drive one set of SDA2bs

 

[motorstereo]

A Carver TFM 45 and SDA's are a great match up. I ran my 2.3s and CRS's with one back in the day with very good results. You'd have to break the budget and then some for the next improvement

 

[onplane]

What are some good common ground high current amps that bwould work for sda and run them reaaly nice-I want good sounding ones!

If you want reasonable cost and terrific voice control over your SDA's you might consider passive bi-amping. Here you use separate amps to power the woofers and the higher frequency drivers. "Voice" control is achieved by varying the power sent to the respective halves.

This is what I do. A few months back I stumbled upon a rather unique Sherwood Receiver. This unit has 4 full range amplifiers rated 100 wpc @ 4 Ohms in a single box. This is by far the easiest way to bi-amp.

As for reasonable cost, I paid $160 delivered. Attached you'll find the receiver's datasheet.

Regards,
Jerry

 

[bigaltx24]

I ran my SDA 1Bs with a Denon PMA 900V, only 120 watts into 8 ohms, but 200 watts into 4 ohms. I actually ran a 2.4 ohm load with it and it never even flinched. Really nice sounding amp with a great phono section.

 

[avguytx]

I ran my SDA SRS 2's with either a Soundcraftsmen A5002 (250x2 @ 8, 375x2 @ 4ohm), a Carfer TFM-55 (380x2) or my Carver M1.0t MkII Opt 002 (460x2). The M-1.0t sounded the best. I tried a buddy's Adcom GFA-555 once years ago on them and it sounded like crap on them.

 

[Davew11_98]

I have my Polk SDA 1s matched with a Carver TFM 35. I think there's good synergy between the paring. No problem filling a large room with a huge soundstage, sounds sweet to me.

 

[gladiator335]

You have to be careful: some amplifiers above (in particular Denon POA-1500) are not common ground (if I'm not mistaken that is...). But most of the amps are.
I run my SDA-SRS with Parasound Halo A23. Enough to shake the whole house...

 

[TomReceiver]

Ever since I saw my Polk 2Bs at a desperate house wife's sale I just had to have them. Not knowing whether or not my Adcom GFA-555 was common ground and it is so that's a great match in both power and current. 200wpc they can push anything I ever owned and still have the Polks. Oh I got mine sight and sound unseen from Audio Classics bought on their reputation alone and it came slippery clean $300..No affiliation just a customer.

 

[hionfi]

We've run several pairs of SDA's using Adcom 555 or 555 MKii.

 

[Gerres26]

Keep an eye out for a B&K amp. The older ex 442 sonata series is great as are the newer Reference series amps. They are very strong high current amps that are never "bright" sounding. I had an Adcom gfa 555 pushing a set of sda 1cs and it did well but when i switched to B&K i fell in love.

 

[Richard Zoll]

Parasound, Odyssey, Emotiva, Outlaw, ATI, all build nice amplifiers in the middle range of pricing that work great with SDAs. In the vintage world,
you must look for designs that were not built on a dual mono chassis design. Harman Kardon Citation are nice, Denon POA line, Sony ES,
Pioneer Elite M90 and 91.

There are virtually 100s of amps that will work great, while there are dozens of designs that cause issues.

I have used Odyssey Stratos, Harman Kardon Citation 24 myself with success.

Hi. I actually use the Mitsubishi Dual Mono amp on SDA 2Bs and they seem to sound great. Please expand on the idea that dual mono is to be avoided? I really don't want to wreck any of my equipment. Thanks.

 

[onwardjames]

Shouldn't we simply tell the OP that one can test for common ground with a basic multimeter?

 

[F1nut]

Hi. I actually use the Mitsubishi Dual Mono amp on SDA 2Bs and they seem to sound great. Please expand on the idea that dual mono is to be avoided? I really don't want to wreck any of my equipment. Thanks.

The way SDA works requires a common ground amp or the use of an isolation transformer, which can only be used on SDA models with the pin/blade SDA cable. Polk sold a cable with an isolation transformer in line called the AI-1.

So, not all dual mono amps are non-common ground, but the better ones are. You should test your amp at the negative binding posts.

 

[a_retent]

Shouldn't we simply tell the OP that one can test for common ground with a basic multimeter?

Shear genious!
I wished I wudda said that.

The way SDA works requires a common ground amp or the use of an isolation transformer, which can only be used on SDA models with the pin/blade SDA cable. Polk sold a cable with an isolation transformer in line called the AI-1.

So, not all dual mono amps are non-common ground, but the better ones are. You should test your amp at the negative binding posts.

Absolutely correct here.
Of the m-class Carver amps the only common ground unit is the m1.5 and m1.5t the others are not.

 

[Cylontymany]

I went with a Sunfire 300x2