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Polk sda 2a

jos2832

jos2832

New Member
I recently purchased a set of polk sda 2a from CL. Brought them home hooked them up to my Marantz 2330 that was fully restored. Used a home made interconnecting cable. My receiver almost got through the first track before burning out sparks and smoke. So my unit is back at the repair shop.
 
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jos2832 said:
I recently purchased a set of polk sda 2a from CL. Brought them home hooked them up to my Marantz 2330 that was fully restored. Used a home made interconnecting cable. My receiver almost got through the first track before burning out sparks and smoke. So my unit is back at the repair shop.
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Sad. Very sad.
 
F1nut said:
That receiver is dual mono. There is a label on the back of each speaker advising that non-common ground amplifiers cannot be used with the speakers.
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I was under the impression that non comon ground amps just wouldn't produce the SDA effect. Will it really burn the amp like that? I was wondering whether it was the impedance characteristics of the SDA's since they are know to drop below 2ohm on certain models.
 
I think Polk and Infinity should post a sign on their large speakers "Warning! Don't use with valuable receivers."

Sell Polk and Infinity and buy Klipsch, that's what I did. And Klipsch is great with Marantz receivers.
 
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It's probable/possible the OP has an incorrectly wired connecting cable.

What if you prefer the sound of Polk SDA's or Infinities over Klipsch? I know I do.

Sorry if your favorite receiver can't handle the load Infinities present. With most separates there is no problem.

BTW: The OP has a pair of Polk SDA's. In addition, he made no mention of any Infinity speakers. Also, I looked at the schematic on HiFi Engine.com. It looks like a common ground amplifier to me. All the - (minus) speaker connections are tied together. Observe the section titled Speaker Systems.
 
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Mitkraft said:
I was under the impression that non comon ground amps just wouldn't produce the SDA effect. Will it really burn the amp like that? I was wondering whether it was the impedance characteristics of the SDA's since they are know to drop below 2ohm on certain models.
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You misunderstood. Not only can it damage the amp or receiver in this case, it can damage the speakers as well.
 
ymarko said:
I think Infinity should post a sign on their large speakers "Warning! Don't use with valuable receivers."

Sell Infinity and buy Klipsch, that's what I did. And Klipsch is great with Marantz receivers.
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Infinity??? The OP has Polk SDA 2A speakers.
 
Didn't Polk sell a cable interface for using non-common ground amps with SDA speakers? Seem to remember hearing about that back when I was looking at SDA speakers a long time ago.
 
try1256 said:
Won't work with the 2a's
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Yep. My curiosity got the better of me and I looked it up. Seems the interface isn't plug-and-play, and only works in some cases. A good tread here as I was considering a pair of SDA 1c to go with my Carver 6250 and totally forgot about the grounding issue.

Polk.jpg
 
One more time, according to the schematic on hifiengine.com the Marantz 2330 is a common ground amplifier.
 
botrytis said:
People need to read before hooking any equipment to speakers. Now you will also have tp probably redo the speaker's crossovers also. I bet they got damaged also.
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The speakers work fine without the interconnecting cable and still do. I have the speakers hooked up to a newer av pioneer receiver no interconnecting cable. I did check my receiver for common ground before setup.
 
Mitkraft said:
I was under the impression that non comon ground amps just wouldn't produce the SDA effect. Will it really burn the amp like that? I was wondering whether it was the impedance characteristics of the SDA's since they are know to drop below 2ohm on certain models.
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The guy at the repair shop told me it might be the impedance as you mention. I'll get rid of the polk speakers not going to risk any of my other units.
 
jos2832 said:
The guy at the repair shop told me it might be the impedance as you mention. I'll get rid of the polk speakers not going to risk any of my other units.
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You don't have to get rid of them. Just make sure you use an amp stable to 2ohms (Check your SDA version. I think one of them is more amp friendly). Fyi, I did sell the pair I tried because none of my amps were suitable for them and they didn't sound good with the ones I had. I probably had them poorly placed to.
 
jos2832 said:
The guy at the repair shop told me it might be the impedance as you mention. I'll get rid of the polk speakers not going to risk any of my other units.
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It would be well worth the effort to discover exactly what the issue is before dumping some rather fine speakers only to find out is was a problem with the Marantz receiver or incorrect polarity on the SDA crosscable or perhaps just operator error. If you do decide to pass them on then do the right thing and inform potential buyers that they may have been damaged by their previous owner.
 
JoeESP9 said:
One more time, according to the schematic on hifiengine.com the Marantz 2330 is a common ground amplifier.
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Ah, very good. I did not see a schematic only a couple descriptions saying it had two separate amplifiers as in dual mono.
 
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