New Soundstream Reference Amps

[dave_damage 10+ year member]

http://www.soundstream.com/Media/images/PA_REF.PDF link to the review you mentioned. It states it dose rated.

 

[Ksan 10+ year member]

Well I did not mean to offend you, I just told what I thought about those amps. I am not a fan. Also I would think when they rate it at 380 watts times 2 and it puts out 247 at 12 volts and 324 at 14 volts that is a little under the rated power but again thats just me. I never said it was a lot, I said it was a little over rated and it is.

 

[Heath]

How about the sound quality. Is it there?

 

[whatsinaname 10+ year member]

The new Soundstream Reference line is made to the same specs as the original Soundstream. Not the SX or S line but the O-R-I-G-I-N-A-L (overbuilt tanks) Saoundstream line.

This as per Chuck Kenney (National Sales Manager - Soundstream).

In their day, Soundstream were some of the BEST amps on the planet. I myself had a Reference 500 and two Reference 300's when I competed in IASCA. AND....I have the trophys to prove it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Oh yea....my Soundstream Granite 180.6 is still going strong even after 15 years. It toasted 8 speakers so far in my DD's RIP Pioneer, RIP JBL.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

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.

Couldn't see it on the website. Got the link?

 

[Ksan 10+ year member]

The gentleman right above me has it listed but here it is again.

http://www.soundstream.com/Media/images/PA_REF.PDF

PS. I do not remember the heyday of Sound Stream amps, i was using Orion's at that time but i do remember no one would touch them because they were afraid they would burn their ride to the ground.

 

[whatsinaname 10+ year member]

The gentleman right above me has it listed but here it is again.

http://www.soundstream.com/Media/images/PA_REF.PDF

PS. I do not remember the heyday of Sound Stream amps, i was using Orion's at that time but i do remember no one would touch them because they were afraid they would burn their ride to the ground.

Thanks...must clean bifocals //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

Orion is a good product. Nice to see them coming back with the HCCA line. Soundstream did try to push their amps to the limit with the SX and S line (not the smartest thing to do).

 

[Farmacist 10+ year member]

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

Neg, its owned by epsilon and its doing quite good, doesnt put out shit power

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

PS. I do not remember the heyday of Sound Stream amps, i was using Orion's at that time but i do remember no one would touch them because they were afraid they would burn their ride to the ground.

I remember a local shop telling me that 1/4 of the S and SX models would go poof on the first power up! In fact, it was so bad, that they would test the amplifier on the soundboard before installing it in a customer's vehicle just to ensure that it wouldn't smoke on first power up. That is what happens when you let management and the bean counters dictate the overall product design by wanting more power without increasing the cost per unit of production.

As for the new reference series amplifiers, I didn't care for the way they were initially rated. IIRC, some of them were rated to reproduce 15-50kHz @ +/- 3dB but SS has dropped that last part. Good job at removing that dB # because now your frequency response is about as useful as an automobile manufacturer providing horsepower without a torque number.

I am also leery of that damping factor number. Although it is a useless spec, I wonder what the true damping factor will be at the speaker leads? Whatever it is, I highly doubt it will be >1,500; >2,000; or >3,000.

Lastly, it appears that the latest marketing campaign from car audio manufacturers is to attempt to reel those in my demographic group back into car audio with the paper specs.

 

[Farmacist 10+ year member]

The gentleman right above me has it listed but here it is again.

http://www.soundstream.com/Media/images/PA_REF.PDF

PS. I do not remember the heyday of Sound Stream amps, i was using Orion's at that time but i do remember no one would touch them because they were afraid they would burn their ride to the ground.

errr what? Ive never heard of anyone that competed with "burning to the ground"...ESPECIALLY back then, hell that was their highest point in quality they were ever at.

 

[Ksan 10+ year member]

Sound stream might have started out good but they had a long run back in the day of being very bad junk. If that was their highest point in quality they were ever at, then I feel **** sorry for them because 30-35% of their amps went up in smoke. You can say what you want but please don't try to argue that their amps did not go up in smoke back then because it is well documented and remembered.

Maybe the Ref amps are good amps, I know the Rubicon amps are budget junk and from what I have studied the ref amps are not very good either. Not to long ago I was looking into the ref amp when I needed a 4-channel amp. I studied the amp for weeks and found out then I would never buy one. I have not used a sound stream amp and never will because of the reputation they use to have for being called smoke stream amps and many other factors I studied that let me know the Smoke Stream amps of today, are not very good.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I respect yours, if you like them then that is great. I for one do not like them but I also have not used one, I have seen a bunch go up in smoke though.

 

[slickone 10+ year member]

i'm not going to sugarcoat soundstream reference amps..they did have there issues, but a lot of the "smokestream" amps were when they changed to the auto current design. But i can remember MANY 225hcca's smoking out also...and imho, sounded about as good as a rectum explosion

 

[Ksan 10+ year member]

Well that just goes to show you everyone has a different opinion. I can't really say I have ever heard of anyone disliking the old school Orion hcca's except you. Could be your unhappy about the sound stream comments or could be thats really how you feel. Either way I respect that.

If you seen a Orion go up in smoke here is why, that amp could run at .5 ohms for a LONG time. If you seen it smoke you most likely did not know it had already been run at VERY, VERY low Ohm loads for a long time. That is just plain impressive, not like a new sound stream being powered up and going poof.

 

[slickone 10+ year member]

Not unhappy at all KSan, and by the looks on your sig, we are on the same page on other things besides amps. I did a lot of business with a local shop back in the early/mid 90's that sold the "big 3" stream/orion/pg....

I just personally think orion didnt do there homework all the way when they designed the high current amps. a lot of comebacks on the hcca's...now the xtr's, another story.....I personally feel they were a lot better amp sonically..I just prefer the sound of the soundstreams....

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

A top level official at DEI let it slip that the HCCA G5 was the worst of the worst that Orion put out with a higher than 50% failure rate across the line. IIRC ADSt stopped production on the HCCA 275 G5 during the DEI buyout due to their ultra high failure rate.

As for DEI based Orion, this same individual mentioned that is why the first few iterations of DEI produced Orion amplifiers looked NOTHING like their predecessors nor did they have the same model names. He stated that DEI was trying to differentiate the "new" from the "old".

Of course, I still think Richard LeMay, may he rest in peace, would be highly pissed to see the direction his brand name went.

 

[Horsemanwill 10+ year member]

say what you will about the "new" soundstream i've never ran them so i can't comment. But the old school stuff was kick ***! I'd LOVE to have some mint condition SS amps by way of the 6.0 10.0 5.0 etc. Now as for saying the new stuff is better the the ID stuff? that i'ma have to put up on a test block. gotta be same ratings for it to be fair. Dave damage is as much as a SS junkie as i am an iD junky, as is slickone. but i have yet to experience the "new" SS stuff.