Well, a neighbor in the apartment complex experienced SDA

[Jstas]

He was thumping away with his stereo. He has some Sony reciever and speakers for an HT setup and was blasting music as I arrived home.

I heard another neighbor bitching about the stereo on the phone to a friend while I was outside throwing salt on the walkway to melt the ice. Just as I was opening the door to go back in, the neighbor comes out. I looked at him and told him that the neighbors were bitching about the music and not to be surprised when he gets a call from the office. Just as I said that, I hear the bass line from Paul Oakenfold's "Starry Eyed Surprise" come out of the second bedroom where the SDA shrine is.

The wife turned on the SDA rig and didn't realize how high the volume was so it played kinda loud. Boy did it sound sweet! It was shaking the planks on the landing outside the apatment. The neighbor's jaw dropped and he started walking over to get a peek and asking me "What the hell was that?!"

I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep him away so I flexed the Adcom GFA-535MKII a bit (still haven't managed to get that thing hot yet!) and pushed the SDA's pretty hard. I backed off when they vibrated hairspray cans off of the dresser in the other bedroom. I figured I didn't need my neighbors getting pissed at me too.

Anyway, he's super interested now and was asking about all my gear. Probably because he's never heard of dbx, BSR, NAD, Adcom, Behringer or Carver. He said he listened to Polks before but never thought much of them. Then again he never heard the SDA effect. I think it's sucked in another minion to do it's bidding. He's probably scouring the 'bay for a set now.

[RuSsMaN]

The Adcom 535 won't get hot, period. Most don't, they just blow up if those clip lights start to glow.

Blew up the modded 555 the other day. It benched at nearly 800w/ch. Had it hooked up to some GR Research Alpha Line Source and the clip lights just started to blink, then dead silence and a SHOWER of sparks (and some actual flames) and smoke out of the top.

It's covered in soot, but fixable. Probably because we took a short cut and ran over 100volts, on 80volt (max) rails, without upgrading them.

The SDA 2's are wonderful speakers, one of my favorite Polks. If I'm ever up that way, I'd love to have a listen.

Cheers,
Russ

[Jstas]

I've had the volume up pretty high trying to push it and I reached my thresh-hold of pain long before that amp was ever even close to ready to start clipping. It's runnin' like a champ and these SDA's just sing on it!

The SDA's sound great but you'll just get mad at me 'cause I don't have the best space for them. I just wish I had a larger room to put them in. Right now they are only about 4 feet apart and eventhough I have a 2 bedroom apartment, these really don't have the room they need. So while the SDA effect is truncated, it's still there. Honestly though, what impresses people the most is not the SDA effect but the detail that is present. Even with the Onkyo pre-amp. I broke an output on teh Carver C-1 by accident and I gotta repair it. Simple task, I just have to find the right part. I have a junk C-1 at my parents house that I have to ressurect and scavenge for parts but it should all be good when I get done with it.

[RuSsMaN]

FOUR feet apart?

Sounds like my room. I think there is a WHOLE lot to be said about near field listening. Even in my small room, just last week at the audio meet I hosted, SDA virgins caught looking around, searching for where the sound was coming from.

Good stuff.

Cheers,
Rooster

[brettw22]

I'm surprised to hear that techno music is good to hear with regard to SDA.....

I only tried to hear it once on a set that sucked ass, so I have yet to experience SDA with MY type of music........

[RuSsMaN]

Bring your music Brett, next time you pay the family down here a visit.

We'll have a gay-ole time, I promise.

Cheers,
Rooster

[Jstas]

Originally posted by RuSsMaN
FOUR feet apart?

Cheers,
Rooster

Maybe closer to 4.5 feet apart. My listening position is about 6-8 feet away with the sweet spot being somewhere in between 6.5-7 feet. It doesn't help that I have a desk crammed in here with a futon too. But I gotta have the spare space just in case. So the SDA shrine serves double duty.

[RuSsMaN]

My SRS2's are 47" apart, and 22" from the side walls.

You have nothing to worry about.

Cheers,
Rooster

[F1nut]

Originally posted by Jstas


It was shaking the planks on the landing outside the apartment......

.....I backed off when they vibrated hairspray cans off of the dresser in the other bedroom.

If that's true, I'm glad I don't live there. Maybe it's because my house is old, built well and has plaster walls, but cranked to the max the planks on the porch don't shake and nothing falls off of anything and I've got tons of bass.

[michael_w]

I really need to get sda-devirginized :D . (of couse the only way would be to buy myself a pair because I won't be able to walk away from them)

Glad to know you're having fun with them.

[jdhdiggs]

Originally posted by RuSsMaN


Blew up the modded 555 the other day. It benched at nearly 800w/ch. Had it hooked up to some GR Research Alpha Line Source and the clip lights just started to blink, then dead silence and a SHOWER of sparks (and some actual flames) and smoke out of the top.

Do you have a review of the line sources? I was looking at building some as a project this summer.

Bummer about the 555

[Jstas]

Originally posted by F1nut
If that's true, I'm glad I don't live there. Maybe it's because my house is old, built well and has plaster walls, but cranked to the max the planks on the porch don't shake and nothing falls off of anything and I've got tons of bass.

Well, let me clarify. The planks on the lanbing, not a porch, were not rattling audibly but when standing on the, you could feel the bass vibrating through them.

The dresser was on the other side of the wall from the SDA's and I regularly hear the cans of hairspray and mousse that my wife has vibrating against each other. The cans that vibrated off were sitting near the edge to begin with. I was also doing this at about 8:30-9 pm last night and that wasn't being very nice to my neighbors.

I can't vouch for the quality of construction in the apartment complex but they are at least 30 years old and the walls are still square so they have to be relativly well built. It's also very hard to hear my neighbors even if they are being loud. Heavy bass does travel though and the SDAs need no help from a sub to dig into the frequency ranges that tend to permeate everything and provide that mind-numbing throb that so many dislike about powerful, clean bass.

Also, I have to bring up the point that you probably don't listen to house music. House music is the mixed music that DJs usually play in clubs for people to dance to. My wife enjoys that kind of music along with freestyle (more mixed music) and dance music. Consequently, bass tracks are heavy and hit hard in the 25-50 Hz range which is pretty much the sweet spot for bass in the SDA 2B's that I have. If I do get a sub, I'm going try and grab another Adcom GFA-535 somewhere and hook up my Polk Audio C4 sub. It's an isobaric subwoofer with 4 drivers arranged in push/pull pairs with one side venter and teh other sealer. I can't remember what order of bandpass it is but at 200 watts per channel on a sub with two channels of input that digs down to 17 Hz, "C4" is a just moniker for such a floor shaker! That should REALLY piss off the neighbors! :D

[Ron-P]

Sheet, my DVD player gets hotter than all 4 of my 535s combined. Great little amps that pack a mightly cool punch. Still can't thank Rusty enough for pushing me off the fence to buy these.

[George Grand]

Those 535's typically reached 78 wpc (8 ohms) before they gave out on the Adcom test bench.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

[VR3]

WTF...

I havnt owned an Adcom yet that wasnt hot as hell...

Maybe I just have a different degree of determining something is hot...

Because they run hot, they're not so bad out in the open... (nothing around them within 1 foot) - but other than that, they are some incredibly hot running amps...

[Zero]

John,

It doesnt take much to give off a good demo with the SDA's. Great to see you have peaked someones interest. Perhaps in time we will have another Polky added to the ranks.

[Jstas]

Originally posted by George Grand
Those 535's typically reached 78 wpc (8 ohms) before they gave out on the Adcom test bench.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

Yeppers. The SDA's run at 6 ohms and at 4 ohms you are looking at around 150 watts per channel. So 100-125 for a 6 ohm load is reasonable.

[Jstas]

Originally posted by Vr3MxStyler2k3
WTF...

I havnt owned an Adcom yet that wasnt hot as hell...

Maybe I just have a different degree of determining something is hot...

Because they run hot, they're not so bad out in the open... (nothing around them within 1 foot) - but other than that, they are some incredibly hot running amps...

I can take the cover off and rest my hand on everything but the input transformer. That is the only thing that gets hot in this amp. It is no where near an "incredibly hot running" amp. It's more along the lines of incredibly COOL running.

What do you do? Duct tape over the vent slots?

[VR3]

No, their just hot amps.

Maybe its just my limited experiences and other amps out there run at like 200 degrees, because - to me, they run hot.

My B&K, runs cool, and the Soundcraftsmen I had ran cool - with the fan working...

The Adcom is moderate out in the open though...

[Ron-P]

No, their just hot amps.

No, there not.

The oustside case doesn't even get warm to the touch running just about full-bore for a 2 hour film. I have never come across gear that runs as cool as these 535s.

[DarqueKnight]

I was interested in learning just how hot my Adcom amps got in normal use. When I first started using Adcom's 5000 series amps, which are warmer running MOSFET designs, my perception was that they ran "hot". They certainly run much warmer than Adcom's 500 series bipolar amps. Adding to this perception were user and audio magazine reviews that said the 5000 series ran hot.

I have also owned several GFA-555's and GFA-555 Mk II's. I do not recall them ever getting more than slightly warm to the touch.

I decided to run some simple trials using an Acu-Rite household wall thermometer that I purchased from Wal-Mart. The case temperature of several Adcom amps was measured while idling and while playing music or movies at a moderate level. Sound levels were measured with a Radio Shack analog sound level meter (C-weighted). The ambient room temperature was 70 degrees. All amplifiers were housed in open-air metal and glass audio racks. The thermometer was placed in a refrigerator and cooled down to 60 degrees between measurements.

Adcom GFA-5802 driving a pair of SDA SRS 1.2TL's (300 watts/channel into 8 ohms).
The heat sink temperature at idle was 104 degrees. After playing music with a constant and moderately heavy bass track for 30 minutes at an average level of 92 dB, the heat sink temperature rose to 108 degrees.

Adcom GFA-5400 driving a pair of SDA CRS+'s (163 watts/channel into 6 ohms).
The case temperature at idle was 70 degrees. After playing music with a constant and moderately heavy bass track for 30 minutes at an average level of 92 dB, the case temperature rose to 74 degrees.

Adcom GFA-5500 driving a pair of SDA SRS's used as the front speakers in a home theater system (350 watts/channel into 4 ohms).
The heat sink temperature at idle was 84 degrees. After playing the battlground scene at the beginning of "Terminator 2" for 30 minutes at an average level of 102 dB (while I was out of the room;) ), the heat sink temperature rose to 104 degrees.

Adcom GFA-565 driving an SVS CS Ultra subwoofer in a home theater system (450 watts/channel into 4 ohms).
The heat sink temperature at idle was 70 degrees. After playing the extremely bass-heavy battlground scene at the beginning of "Terminator 2" for 30 minutes at an average level of 102 dB (while I was out of the room;) ), the heat sink temperature rose to 76 degrees.

I also measured the case temperature of the Sony TA-E9000ES pre/precessor in my home theater system. The case temperature was 84 degrees in standby mode and 104 degrees with signal running through it. These measurements were the same as for the GFA-5500 power amp.

In none of the trials described above did the case or heat sink temperatures rise to a level that I could not place my hand on the amps and comfortably leave it there.

[F1nut]

Raife, you have too much time on your hands. :)

[dorokusai]

SDA placement is a suggestion, always has been, always will be. I have yet to experience an SDA setup that was "ideal", and I've heard a few...they have always been excellent.

A larger soundstage is a larger soundstage, that's the beauty of the SDA, it can make you feel like it's not just about you anymore.

[Tour2ma]

But was the thermometer calibrated? ;)

Oh, and...
not "their" or "there", but "they're"...

[I-SIG]

Originally posted by brettw22
I'm surprised to hear that techno music is good to hear with regard to SDA.....

I only tried to hear it once on a set that sucked ass, so I have yet to experience SDA with MY type of music........

Dude, you so gotta stop by and check out some techno on my rig. The Bal Canto DAC2 opened up the techno, big time., Club-like, I tell ya!

Wes

[DarqueKnight]

Originally posted by Tour2ma
But was the thermometer calibrated? ;)

I cheaped out. The calibrated thermometer was three bucks more.;)