Hello :)

\:D/ WELCOME!!
Which Polk Audio speakers do you have?
If you still have them, they could be fixed. Polk still sells replacement drivers.
You may already be a Club Polk member, but in case you are not, here is the address.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/index.php
Lots of good info there about rebuilding crossovers etc.
IMHO Carver and Polk are a match made in heaven!

I have some SDA2's - Thanks for the info ill fix them for sure because they sound great with Carver

They sure do. There are 3 models of SDA2 speakers, and They are sweet and juicy like these nutz. speakers. They really are worth the time and $ to rebuild.
I have a set of SDA 2A's and a set of SDA 2B's. Many say the 2B's are some of the best speakers ever made by Polk.
You mentioned they were dropped, and I'd imagine the magnets shifted. This is a common problem with the older MW drivers.
Polk Audio sells new ones, which can be ordered by phone. Be sure to mention you are a Club Polk member so you get the discount!
Best of luck with this.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Carver forum. It seems you live in my old stomping grounds. Springfield, VA to be exact.

I drive through there everyday on my way to work (I was wondering whos foot prints those were)

\:D/ WELCOME!!
Which Polk Audio speakers do you have?
If you still have them, they could be fixed. Polk still sells replacement drivers.
You may already be a Club Polk member, but in case you are not, here is the address.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/index.php
Lots of good info there about rebuilding crossovers etc.
IMHO Carver and Polk are a match made in heaven!

I have some SDA2's - Thanks for the info ill fix them for sure because they sound great with Carver

They sure do. There are 3 models of SDA2 speakers, and They are sweet and juicy like these nutz. speakers. They really are worth the time and $ to rebuild.
I have a set of SDA 2A's and a set of SDA 2B's. Many say the 2B's are some of the best speakers ever made by Polk.
You mentioned they were dropped, and I'd imagine the magnets shifted. This is a common problem with the older MW drivers.
Polk Audio sells new ones, which can be ordered by phone. Be sure to mention you are a Club Polk member so you get the discount!
Best of luck with this.

I have the original SDA2's (3 midrange, 2 tweeters, 1 passive radiator per side) before I bought them I compared them to the all the Polk Speakers they had such as the Monitor 10's and the SDA1C (could be wrong on this one) as well as Klipsch, Bose, JBL, Cerwin-Vega as well as a host of Speakers from various Japanese base manufactures such as Sony, JVC, and Pioneer. With every Amp and source in the store carried (they actually had it set up to switch on the fly between the various amps, sources and speakers which made it easy to compare (it still took me over 2 months if visiting the store everyday to make up my mind) but Carver and Polk just worked so well together I ended up buying them.

Howdy.

Welcome!!! nice to have you

Welcome! I have a set of the Polk SDA-2's also- one of Polks best all time...behind the SDA SRS!

So, can the SDA's be driven effectively with a Carver amp ? I've read hear several times that our amps are not common grounded and the SDA's must be ran that way to get their full effect ! WTH ? I've past up alot of SDA's out here on the left coast because of this ! I want to know for real. Jesse, Please Help.

So, can the SDA's be driven effectively with a Carver amp ? I've read hear several times that our amps are not common grounded and the SDA's must be ran that way to get their full effect ! WTH ? I've past up alot of SDA's out here on the left coast because of this ! I want to know for real. Jesse, Please Help.

I've never had any issues driving the Polk SDA-2's with my M500t in fact I’ve driven them with a small 20w amp if I remember correctly (its late in the day for me sorry) they hook up to an amp normally but I think you can Bi-wire them (I’ll have to hunt down the manual for them and see for sure) but the carver can handle that as well the most important/unusual thing when dealing with the SDA’s is the interconnect cable (a cable that connects the 2 speakers directly together not to the Amp) but even if you don’t hook up the interconnect they are good well balanced speakers they just won’t give you the great stereo imaging that you would get with the SDA active. I’ll go home and edit this post once I verify the information.

So, can the SDA's be driven effectively with a Carver amp ? I've read hear several times that our amps are not common grounded and the SDA's must be ran that way to get their full effect ! WTH ? I've past up alot of SDA's out here on the left coast because of this ! I want to know for real. Jesse, Please Help.

I've never had any issues driving the Polk SDA-2's with my M500t in fact I’ve driven them with a small 20w amp if I remember correctly (its late in the day for me sorry) they hook up to an amp normally but I think you can Bi-wire them (I’ll have to hunt down the manual for them and see for sure) but the carver can handle that as well the most important/unusual thing when dealing with the SDA’s is the interconnect cable (a cable that connects the 2 speakers directly together not to the Amp) but even if you don’t hook up the interconnect they are good well balanced speakers they just won’t give you the great stereo imaging that you would get with the SDA active. I’ll go home and edit this post once I verify the information.

I am using my Sunfire 300 x 2 to drive mine (SDA-2B's) YES- the 2B's are bi-amp / bi-wire capable. You can run the SDA interconnect cable between the 2 speakers with bi-wire but I am not sure about bi-amping with the interconnect cable (I would assume you can as long as both amps are common ground)

So, can the SDA's be driven effectively with a Carver amp ? I've read hear several times that our amps are not common grounded and the SDA's must be ran that way to get their full effect ! WTH ? I've past up alot of SDA's out here on the left coast because of this ! I want to know for real. Jesse, Please Help.

I've never had any issues driving the Polk SDA-2's with my M500t in fact I’ve driven them with a small 20w amp if I remember correctly (its late in the day for me sorry) they hook up to an amp normally but I think you can Bi-wire them (I’ll have to hunt down the manual for them and see for sure) but the carver can handle that as well the most important/unusual thing when dealing with the SDA’s is the interconnect cable (a cable that connects the 2 speakers directly together not to the Amp) but even if you don’t hook up the interconnect they are good well balanced speakers they just won’t give you the great stereo imaging that you would get with the SDA active. I’ll go home and edit this post once I verify the information.

I am using my Sunfire 300 x 2 to drive mine (SDA-2B's) YES- the 2B's are bi-amp / bi-wire capable. You can run the SDA interconnect cable between the 2 speakers with bi-wire but I am not sure about bi-amping with the interconnect cable (I would assume you can as long as both amps are common ground)

Ok I was to slow getting home today so ill add another post for continuity - here is what the Polk SDA2 manual says:

The Amplifier used must be of common-ground type. Virtually all receivers and amplifiers are constructed in this way with the amplifier chassis serving as the common-ground between channels. When using separate monophonic amplifiers, it is a good idea to connect a wire between the two chassis to ensure a common-ground.

I can’t find my manual for the M500t to make sure but after reading this I would guess that the common-ground issue isn’t an issue for the Carver’s other then the Mono-blocks which could possibly be rectified by connecting a wire between the 2 Mono-blocks but I would venture to say if you had those you would probably be running a different kind of speaker anyway.

Oh, but it is. M-500ts and early M-1.0ts were inverting amps (there are others, too). What this does is to invert the signal on one channel so the channels are out of phase. At the output terminals, the black on one channel is hot and the red is cold (re-inverted) so your speakers are in phase. This has some interesting properties. To bridge such and amp, you simply use both hot connections. Also, with one channel out of phase with the other, when one channel is driven positive, the other is driven negative, maximizing the available current from the power supply. However, the ground is not common between the channels.

OK here it is from the M500t Owners Manual Pages 6, 7

A common ground switching system may be used you will have to connect the common ground wire to the black terminal marked “chassis”, and the two outside terminals (one black, and one red) become the “hot” signal leads and may then be routed through the switching system of your choice. (The red terminal marked “chassis” remains unused.) At this point, there is no electrical conflict in terms of ground or signal leads; however, in order to preserve phase integrity, the wires that connect to each left speaker in the system must be reversed 180. (I believe there is a diagram showing this on the back of the Amp itself)

This procedure should only be required if you use the interconnect cable for the SDA part of the speakers if that cable is not connected you can connect to the amplifier as normal and the speakers will work as normal speakers (no SDA effect) before connecting the interconnect cable the speakers must be connected to the Amplifier as described above.

So, can the SDA's be driven effectively with a Carver amp ? I've read hear several times that our amps are not common grounded and the SDA's must be ran that way to get their full effect ! WTH ? I've past up alot of SDA's out here on the left coast because of this ! I want to know for real. Jesse, Please Help.

I've never had any issues driving the Polk SDA-2's with my M500t in fact I’ve driven them with a small 20w amp if I remember correctly (its late in the day for me sorry) they hook up to an amp normally but I think you can Bi-wire them (I’ll have to hunt down the manual for them and see for sure) but the carver can handle that as well the most important/unusual thing when dealing with the SDA’s is the interconnect cable (a cable that connects the 2 speakers directly together not to the Amp) but even if you don’t hook up the interconnect they are good well balanced speakers they just won’t give you the great stereo imaging that you would get with the SDA active. I’ll go home and edit this post once I verify the information.

I am using my Sunfire 300 x 2 to drive mine (SDA-2B's) YES- the 2B's are bi-amp / bi-wire capable. You can run the SDA interconnect cable between the 2 speakers with bi-wire but I am not sure about bi-amping with the interconnect cable (I would assume you can as long as both amps are common ground)

Sorry- I was incorrect....after checking my speakers- they are NOT bi-ampable unless you tear out the crossovers and go active...
There is only one set of binding posts on the back. The statement above is correct that they can be used with any amp if the "inter-connect" cable is not used!