What is it with Old School Amplifiers?

[dB-r 10+ year member]

I remember back in 1990 or 1991 a friend had a nice Chevy Blazer, full size 4WD, jacked up and all that. We did an install in it using Linear Power amps because he had a bunch of them from the wrecked and arrested/impounded cars that came into his storage lot (towing service was the family business for him). I do not remember the models of the amps, but anyway, we put 2 15 RF Punch in the back in sealed boxes and a bunch of Kenwood or Alpine highs mids in the thing and granted it did sound okay. But he too had similar problems with his amplifiers like you are describing. At some point he got his hands on some Punch amplifiers, a 45, a 75 and a 150. We put those in place of the "El Pees" and it worked much better, was more power for sure, and sounded just as good if not better and he didn't have anymore weird problems with his amplifiers.

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

Bump

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

Bump

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

Actually, after selling off all 14 Linear Power amplifiers that I owned, I ended up losing $26. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[Upgrayedd 10+ year member]

I agree on the heat thing. I had a soundstream 10.0 @1ohm mono. That thing would get painfully hot. Never went into protect but wow did it get hot. As far as the older RF stuff goes (dsm,i,ix,x2) I can't count how many of those things we saw come in for repairs and friends of mine had blown. However I guess this could have been to them being one of the best amps the average consumer could(would) afford. I'm guessing the production numbers on those were pretty high.

Not sure how oldschool it is but orion had a run of crap in the 99-2000 era when the went from finned to flat heatsinks(possibly overseas production?) the last run of finned and first of smooth were so bad we outright stopped selling them due the large warranty rate. Orion started telling their dealers it was their issue because they weren't doing what is known as "big 3" now. Understandable on large amps but this was even on the 2-300 watters. Eventually truth came to light that the boards had insufficient traces. I'm guessing this was resolved somewhat after that because another shop I worked at 2 years later sold orion. We had no issues with them.

Sorry if this is irrelevant.

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

One of the things I need to keep in mind the next time I am feeling all nostalgic and what not is that the majority of the old school gear I dreamed of owning was produced in an era where power was EXPENSIVE and drivers were highly efficient. Many of the amplifiers from 1991 and before were designed in a time frame when cassette tapes still dominated the car audio scene and they had a HORRIFIC frequency response. IIRC they played from 40 to 60 Hz on up to 14 to 16 kHz. That is TERRIBLE compared to today's standards.

Today power is relatively cheap but the drivers are inefficient. Of course, I will take a single 10" subwoofer kicking ass in 1.5 cubic feet ported versus the subwoofers of old requiring 1.5 cubic feet sealed and closer to 3 cubic feet ported to produce bass.

With that said, I would still love to have a late 80s era Rockford Fosgate Power 300, 650, and 1000!

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

I still love my old school amps.....I like doing builds with vintage gear from time to time //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

Bump

 

[teamquakecelica 10+ year member]

Long story short... did the ELLL PEEE thing... 5 amps... all active... yada yada yada......

Terrible noise... terrible efficiency........

Replaced them all with a Memphis Big-Belle... WAY more power.. sounds wasy better.... and no dimming at all...

Ellll Pees look nice on the table in my basement

Nuf' said

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

Long story short... did the ELLL PEEE thing... 5 amps... all active... yada yada yada......
Terrible noise... terrible efficiency........

Replaced them all with a Memphis Big-Belle... WAY more power.. sounds wasy better.... and no dimming at all...

Ellll Pees look nice on the table in my basement

Nuf' said

I knew I wasn't the only one with problems.

Those extremely loyal and true to Linear Power amplifiers along with the RIPS, I mean TIPS modifications swear that what I experienced WAS NOT the norm. Go figure...

Then again, maybe they like noisy, inefficient amplifiers that color the sound...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[Rattlebrain 10+ year member]

My old school Punch 75

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

My old school Punch 75

my favorite punch series...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

I had 5 Punch 150s just prior to the HD series and one of the older thin finned ones. I regret selling each and every one of them.

 

[cleansoundzz 10+ year member]

I ran 2 punch 75 amps in my old Honda Civic for at least 7 years.

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]