New Soundstream Reference Amps

[Heath]

Has anyone had any experience with the new Soundstream Reference Amps. Looking at the specs, they do look impressive. The price for these seem very resonable for what they appear to provide. Just curious if anyone has actually listened to these and what experience you might have.

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[Ninja Primate 10+ year member]

I believe they are now owned by the same company as Audiobahn and since then they have gone to ****.

 

[will3 10+ year member]

They are owned by Elipsion Inc. Power Acoustik,SPL,KOLE audio,PPi,etc. , not by Audiobahn , I run the 4.920 and 2.640 and love them, the pre amp sections are very nice , they are very clean amplifiers, but they will get a little warm.

 

[Heath]

What class would you put these in? In other word what other amp in terms of quality and performace would you compare these to?

 

[will3 10+ year member]

I had the ID 700.2 and 450.2 in there before I bought the Ref's , In my personal opinion the Ref's sound alot better , but there is quite a power difference between the 450.2 and the 4.920, The preamp section on the Ref series is to me what really makes them worth the money if I was going to run active, I might have went another direction, but I think SS did a great job on these, even if I don't care for alot of there other products

 

[86civicSI 10+ year member]

soundstream was one of the best they were handcrafted in the USA. now they are made in Korea so i don't know what to think.i guess if they are the same design it shouldn't matter what kind of child slave labor assembles them.and they should be sweet.i would go to egay and get the old stuff though.then again i'm all about made in the USA!i don't have ANY Korean equipment in my car(all made in America).well maybe the deck you can't get one that's not from Asia

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

There was some feedback on them on DIYma. But the rumors were that they were essentially updating the old Ref's, not sure how much of that is true.

 

[Ninja Primate 10+ year member]

They are owned by Elipsion Inc. Power Acoustik,SPL,KOLE audio,PPi,etc. , not by Audiobahn , I run the 4.920 and 2.640 and love them, the pre amp sections are very nice , they are very clean amplifiers, but they will get a little warm.

Either way SPL and PPI are the only good lines there.

 

[Ksan 10+ year member]

Those sound stream Ref amps do below rated power. Not by much but it is below. The Image Dynamics amps are in a whole nother ball park from those SS Ref.

 

[dave_damage 10+ year member]

Those sound stream Ref amps do below rated power. Not by much but it is below. The Image Dynamics amps are in a whole nother ball park from those SS Ref.

this is false. they do rated. He may be refering to the rubicons not doing rated.

 

[dave_damage 10+ year member]

soundstream was one of the best they were handcrafted in the USA. now they are made in Korea so i don't know what to think.i guess if they are the same design it shouldn't matter what kind of child slave labor assembles them.and they should be sweet.i would go to egay and get the old stuff though.then again i'm all about made in the USA!i don't have ANY Korean equipment in my car(all made in America).well maybe the deck you can't get one that's not from Asia

Soundstream amps are made in China not Korea.

 

[dave_damage 10+ year member]

Either way SPL and PPI are the only good lines there.

SPL is trash. And Epsilon has not released any PPI products yet. PPI will be there Quality brand followed by Soundstream

 

[Ksan 10+ year member]

Well if the Sound Stream Ref is doing rated power you might want to tell Performance auto & sound magazine. They just reviewed one and while not much under, it was under rated power. Look it up.

 

[Ksan 10+ year member]

I am not trying to make anyone mad or start a argument I am just stating my own opinion, which is i would take a Image Dynamic Amp ANY day of the year over a Smoke Stream amp.

 

[dave_damage 10+ year member]

I am "NOT TRYING TO MAKE ANYONE MAD" or start a argument I am just stating my own opinion, which is i would take a Image Dynamic Amp ANY day of the year over a Smoke Stream amp.

Smoke stream? 1996 was 13 years ago.