Why exactly did Soundstream......

[LIGHTBEING 10+ year member]

get acquired by PA? Who knows the history? I'm pretty sure it's somewhere on this forum, but I can't find it.

I've been talking with this other guy on another forum that says he was a SS rep and he said SS was always crap, Even the reference and Rubicon series. Says that they were always in for repairs, always shorted out and began to smoke? And that's the reason why they went under? WTF, my experience with the older SS stuff was that they were built solid and always lasted and were under rated?

My reference 700S that my bro now owns is a beauty and has been working greatly for the past 8 years or so.

Can anyone give some input?

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[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

References and Rubi's got alot of user abuse by those pushing them in the 2ohm mono/1ohm modes....so its typical they had some issues, they weren't perfect designs by any means-they would run scorching hot- what they were known for best is their headroom

 

[SMOKEY 10+ year member]

When was the last time you left a job you were at and talked good about it. Most people leave their jobs because the either hate it or **** at it. As far as SS goes, their older stuff was great and some of their new product works depending on the application. Not bad for SQ but SPL, Idont think so.

 

[LIGHTBEING 10+ year member]

References and Rubi's got alot of user abuse by those pushing them in the 2ohm mono/1ohm modes....so its typical they had some issues, they weren't perfect designs by any means-they would run scorching hot- what they were known for best is their headroom

Manny,

What do you mean by headroom?

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Biggest problem with the Ref line was overheating and subsequently frying. Pretty notorious for it. But, they are hella good amps when they are running. Rubi line are pretty great amps aswell.

Why were they bought out? I don't know. Could have been in financial trouble. PA might have just say a good opportunity to buy a company with a reputable, solid name in a market PA was not in (the higher middle class of amps) and make good income off of them. SS owners might have just wanted out. Could just be business as ususal

 

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

Not bad for SQ but SPL, Idont think so.

what do you mean?

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

Manny,
What do you mean by headroom?

because their power supply were designed to deliver a ton of power at 2ohm/1ohm, during normal 4ohm operation there seemed to be an unlimited amount of power on tap for transient musical peaks(headroom)

 

[LIGHTBEING 10+ year member]

ahhh ok, gotcha

If anyone knows about the history of the buyout, please let me know.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

interesting //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[profoundwill 10+ year member]

This has a little to do with the buy out and also explains the S & SX. I found it on another forum and it was good. Check it out.

DO NOT BUY THAT AMP. At least until you read this:

Trust me on this, I have been one of the Soundstream faithful for over a decade.

The majority of the Reference series were awesome amps. But right around '97 they started screwing with the power supplies and trying to sqeeze more power out of them then they could really deliver reliably without overheating.

The problem was that they wanted to give the consumer a better value in terms of watts-per-dollar, but the power supplies were not re-designed like they should have been in order to accomplish this. Instead, they reworked what were the original Reference amps and badged them with an "S" or "SX" designation.

Now, that is not to say that all of these amps are not worth having. Once they realized that they had a problem, the PS was redesigned and new features were added (the Rubicons) - bringing them back to the quality amps which SS had become knowm for. But it was too late, the damage had been done and that was the begining of the end for the original Soundstream brand.

What we don't know is exactly which of the S / SX amps are still out there and how many of the ones that are left are bad. Chances are, that if a particular amp has been being used without trouble for several years then it is safe to assume that it is one of the models with the updated power supply and would be a great amp to have. On the other hand, if it has been sitting in a box for who knows how long then I would seriously consider looking elsewhere for an amp.

Just for the record, older SS amps still sell for surprising amounts of money on ebay all the time, and even can keep up with most of the newer designs in terms of power and performance. It's not that new amps aren't as good as "old school" gear, it's just that several older designs were so good that they have stood the test of time and people will try them even today.

Before you decide to purchase the amp you are looking at, make sure that you get it's history. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

 

[bigbass032 10+ year member]

Even tho its not a reference, I have three tarantulas and two of the 500 tarantulas and they both are running strong, cool, and sounding good //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

buyouts occur for one reason, money....Soundstream, most likely was looking at bankrupcy in the near future at that point ......

 

[LIGHTBEING 10+ year member]

Thanks profoundwill. That sheds some light.

buyouts occur for one reason, money....Soundstream, most likely was looking at bankrupcy in the near future at that point ......

Yeah ofcourse money, but why weren't they making enough money to stay in business, what exactly prompted the buyout, ya know. Was it because they were getting so many fried amps in for repair? Were they not selling? Was it because of what profoundwill posted, when SS tried to make the reference series better and they failed.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Yeah ofcourse money, but why weren't they making enough money to stay in business, what exactly prompted the buyout, ya know. Was it because they were getting so many fried amps in for repair? Were they not selling? Was it because of what profoundwill posted, when SS tried to make the reference series better and they failed.

Could have simply been poor management...........

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

Could have simply been poor management...........

that will do it......everytime.....