Hello, I have a SS rub1000-2 that I got from a car audio shop. The owner sold it to me as is because it is missing the input power terminals, speaker terminals and the fuse terminals. Wondering if you could tell me where i can get some replacements for it. Iv hooked up wires with clamps and the amp powered on and put out sound so all I am missing is them terminals and also screws to put it together. Help getting this amp together would be appreciated
Wadest, I have a question for you, and I'm not trying to start any argument hopefully you can give a good answer or explain it to, me why this happened
And I'm not blaming you I was more upset at my rep this happened in the late 90s
I was a Soundstream dealer since 1988, in South FL everything was good we sold thousands of the D200 D100 D60 MC500 MC140 later the series II Class A 100
Late 90's 1997 1998 we have the new reference amps, 500, 1000, that work of most of the times, but once the amplifier burn there was no way to repair it, we try to fix over 100 of them, but they never work like before and most burn again
We ship a lot of defective amplifier back to Soundstream to be repaired or replace under warranty, my installers didn't want to use them anymore because 30 minutes in the car and poff smoke everywhere, my new rep was an Idiot and blame my customers for all the defective products and told me not to sell it to black customers, because they abuse the amplifier playing rap music, 6 months later we close our account a year latter soundstream was out of business
Can you tell me what happened? What when wrong ?
Thank you
And I'm not blaming you I was more upset at my rep this happened in the late 90s
I was a Soundstream dealer since 1988, in South FL everything was good we sold thousands of the D200 D100 D60 MC500 MC140 later the series II Class A 100
Late 90's 1997 1998 we have the new reference amps, 500, 1000, that work of most of the times, but once the amplifier burn there was no way to repair it, we try to fix over 100 of them, but they never work like before and most burn again
We ship a lot of defective amplifier back to Soundstream to be repaired or replace under warranty, my installers didn't want to use them anymore because 30 minutes in the car and poff smoke everywhere, my new rep was an Idiot and blame my customers for all the defective products and told me not to sell it to black customers, because they abuse the amplifier playing rap music, 6 months later we close our account a year latter soundstream was out of business
Can you tell me what happened? What when wrong ?
Thank you
I can't answer for Wade but I can tell you that there were no problems that prevented them from being repaired reliably unless the board was burned so badly that there were huge holes in it.
There's a good chance that whoever was repairing them was missing one of several problems.
The power transformers tended to short between windings because there was little support for them and they weren't wound tightly. That problem would cause repeated failures if it was not found. When found, inserting a simple piece of insulating material would solve the problem.
Damaged driver transistors could cause repeated failures.
Sometimes the board would warp due to the heat generated when the FETs failed. This would require that clamps be made for the amp to properly hold the transistors to the heatsink.
The traces for the gate resistors are very tiny in some amps and can develop cracks just off of the pad. This is something that can be missed when repairing the amp that will cause it to fail again.
The filter inductors sometimes shorted to the bottom cover. If not found during the repair, it could happen again.
Problems like these are not limited to SS amps. There are several class D amps (same design used by various manufacturers) that require several hours of work to fix problems that will cause them to fail prematurely. Many techs deem them as unrepairable but if you work to address all possible faults when repairing the amps, they are perfectly reliable.
There's a good chance that whoever was repairing them was missing one of several problems.
The power transformers tended to short between windings because there was little support for them and they weren't wound tightly. That problem would cause repeated failures if it was not found. When found, inserting a simple piece of insulating material would solve the problem.
Damaged driver transistors could cause repeated failures.
Sometimes the board would warp due to the heat generated when the FETs failed. This would require that clamps be made for the amp to properly hold the transistors to the heatsink.
The traces for the gate resistors are very tiny in some amps and can develop cracks just off of the pad. This is something that can be missed when repairing the amp that will cause it to fail again.
The filter inductors sometimes shorted to the bottom cover. If not found during the repair, it could happen again.
Problems like these are not limited to SS amps. There are several class D amps (same design used by various manufacturers) that require several hours of work to fix problems that will cause them to fail prematurely. Many techs deem them as unrepairable but if you work to address all possible faults when repairing the amps, they are perfectly reliable.
SoundStream went thru a internal custody/ownership battle and SoundStream was lost after the court BS. At least this is what i was told.
Rebuilds have to be re-qualified after they are factory restored. I have the factory rebuild spec's on hand. Perhaps you should be posting an Email To Jaime of JandRelectronix on ebay he pretty much ran production and rebuilds back then for the firm, not Wade Stewart. Wade ran the company but not by himself. SoundStream was compartmentalized just any US based firm was back them and even today. Asking the X owner of any company will likely not get you the answers your looking for, since they ran day to day operations, and hired other people to run other departments, such as rebuilds and assembly. Jaime would probably have a better idea since those were his areas or coverage as I have been told.
Also, IMHO, SS amps used very large arrays of Darlington outputs and anytime you run that many output devices you must pay special attention to gain matching details along with equal current sharing issues. This makes sense when you look at the 1 ohm ratings SS put on their amps. SS amps were always high current based designs, so at 1 ohm they like most other brands of that time would tend to overheat and cut off at those loads. plus most folks have no idea what loud is when it comes to bass since they can't hear much of the bass unless they stand as far back as 32 feet away from the driver < simple acoustics > So yeah over driven and clipped to death amps are and will be common place till the end of time as I see it. I ought to know , I must have rebuild a couple thousand of them myself in the 35+ years I worked on them and yes even I had some REF amps come back, REF1000's usually and when the install was inspected the owner no matter what his ethic background was had not enough battery power to run the amp at low ohms in the first place causing huge failures just because sales people don't tell you you will need to redesign your auto's charging system if you want more then 400 watts of clean power usable for audio...So please take time to think about all the other details that possibly could have caused such failure's, and remember if the owner blew the amp in the frist place no matter how well you rebuild it he will turn it too fricking loud again and blow it again just trying to be billy bad... Seen that a trillion times also. I demo'ed all amps at full unclipped output at 4 ohms to prove my work before the owners had time to butcher a second time... It kept the idiots at bay. Untrained and inept people blow amps not music, this is why they all come with gain controls on them and in late 90's they had impedance protected designs in place on many of them, so what you got a 4 ohms was what you got a 1 ohm, not double and triple the power outputs like the early days of car audio. Now with Cheap Chinese build Class D amps its back to " oh run 1 ohm and max out the amps current handling capabilities to see how fast you can kill it " LOL LOL LOL LOL ....With what they cost to build now yeah i would preach such foolishness to perspective buyers just so I could sell more amps lol lol lol ...
PS SoundStream had rebuild spec's in place and they supposedly did re-qualify each and every amp they repaired at they full power ratings, this does not mean they could not be fried again in the wrong hands.....Plus I remember see ing folks installs and I never ever saw a installer with a impedance meter in hand trying to determine if the amp was being driven into bad speaker loads. And I have also seen my share of shorted voice coils rubbing against magnets in my day also...just too many variables to get the answers your looking for I think....but this is just my humble opinion....
Oh and I am not arguing with you either, just trying to shed a fair light on the subject of amp abuse and rebuilds, based on my 35 years of experiences. Been there, done that, and seen more then my share in my time...lol...
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Hi Wadest. I love the soundstream amps. I have a soundstream balanced x.o 2/3 way in need of repair. It took a 4ft fall and the switches all broke. Also the mono input makes noise that comes thru the subs. When I disconnect noise stops. Is this something you can repair? I also have a class A 10.0 that volume level isn't the same as my other identical one. Also have a 1002 that doesn't kick in to high current and one more that doesn't have any sound . Can you help? If so what are your fees? Thank you. Rick
Hi Wadest. I love the soundstream amps. I have a soundstream balanced x.o 2/3 way in need of repair. It took a 4ft fall and the switches all broke. Also the mono input makes noise that comes thru the subs. When I disconnect noise stops. Is this something you can repair? I also have a class A 10.0 that volume level isn't the same as my other identical one. Also have a 1002 that doesn't kick in to high current and one more that doesn't have any sound . Can you help? If so what are your fees? Thank you. Rick
I hope I don't gush to much, But WOW ! The dude who MADE THE AMPS! WOWOWWWW
I hate it that when I got older and wanted soundstream gear, the company just kind of lost its soul. I blame FEMINISM. Lol.
If there is one thing I WISH would happen, I wish in the next year, we have like some youtube channel at the very least that does interviews with these old skool audio greats!.
Man, only thing we are missing is Bob Carver. Now if her would jump on Dang. that would be cool!>
Anyways, if there is ONE thing i want, its an old soundstream window decal sticker. Its the one thing that I always wanted, and of course, the new company does not even have one.
I found a replica online, I might go for it! Anyways, thank you for being one of my hero's growing up.
What am I kidding about. I still have not grown up.
I hate it that when I got older and wanted soundstream gear, the company just kind of lost its soul. I blame FEMINISM. Lol.
If there is one thing I WISH would happen, I wish in the next year, we have like some youtube channel at the very least that does interviews with these old skool audio greats!.
Man, only thing we are missing is Bob Carver. Now if her would jump on Dang. that would be cool!>
Anyways, if there is ONE thing i want, its an old soundstream window decal sticker. Its the one thing that I always wanted, and of course, the new company does not even have one.
I found a replica online, I might go for it! Anyways, thank you for being one of my hero's growing up.
What am I kidding about. I still have not grown up.
I never mentioned it but 2 yrs ago I sent both of my D100II's to Wade and he rebuilt them. In between the rebuild of the amps he had some "medical issues" and I hope he has gotten better since.
Anyone know?
PS, his prices were what I considered in-expensive (I sent him more than he billed) so if you needed work done don't hesitate.
Anyone know?
PS, his prices were what I considered in-expensive (I sent him more than he billed) so if you needed work done don't hesitate.
Hi Guys.
I know some haven't been here for a while.
But I'm hoping someone might have the service manual for the MC300 that they could share with me ?
I bought one new way back when, and then stupidly sold it :'(
I've just bought a second hand one that by the looks of the photos has had two fuses replaced (same side so I'm assuming it was bridged).
I don't have the amp yet but I'm suspecting it will need some loving
I know some haven't been here for a while.
But I'm hoping someone might have the service manual for the MC300 that they could share with me ?
I bought one new way back when, and then stupidly sold it :'(
I've just bought a second hand one that by the looks of the photos has had two fuses replaced (same side so I'm assuming it was bridged).
I don't have the amp yet but I'm suspecting it will need some loving
Awesome, Once again many thanks Perry.
I have one (internet) photo of the internals that show one trimpot per amp section.
Note this is a random mc300 pic, and not of the unit I have bought.
Research suggest these could possibly be bias pots.
I'm suspecting there may be early/late revisions to this model.
The schematics you've shown don't show these trimpots.
So I'll have to wait until I have it open on the bench in front of me before I know just exactly what I'm looking at
I have one (internet) photo of the internals that show one trimpot per amp section.
Note this is a random mc300 pic, and not of the unit I have bought.
Research suggest these could possibly be bias pots.
I'm suspecting there may be early/late revisions to this model.
The schematics you've shown don't show these trimpots.
So I'll have to wait until I have it open on the bench in front of me before I know just exactly what I'm looking at
Attachments
Greetings Gentlemen: Haven't been on here in a while, but one of my Mustang buddies has started buying various old school 90s amplifiers for updating the system in his 88 Fox convertible. He has grabbed a few different Soundstream amps and we have tested them all and found them to work and sound as I recall - sweet and natural.
I have a question for Wade:
Would it be possible for you to list the amp series and production run years (roughly) of the various Soundstream amplifiers? I only installed a few in my days, but judged plenty of them in Sound Q / IASCA settings. At the Pioneer National Installation Center in Markham, I had a couple of very good young installers who really loved them, despite some of the reliability issues that were obvious both under warranty and afterwards. I always really liked the sound and looks of them, they were a very good alternative to the first 5 Orion series (not the Cobalts) and bridged the gap between Alpine and Rockford Fosgate in this market (Toronto, Canada).
Always nice to be pulled back into here, looking forward to building (hopefully) a serious Soundstream powered setup in the above car, once I get my build on the road in the late summer.
I have a question for Wade:
Would it be possible for you to list the amp series and production run years (roughly) of the various Soundstream amplifiers? I only installed a few in my days, but judged plenty of them in Sound Q / IASCA settings. At the Pioneer National Installation Center in Markham, I had a couple of very good young installers who really loved them, despite some of the reliability issues that were obvious both under warranty and afterwards. I always really liked the sound and looks of them, they were a very good alternative to the first 5 Orion series (not the Cobalts) and bridged the gap between Alpine and Rockford Fosgate in this market (Toronto, Canada).
Always nice to be pulled back into here, looking forward to building (hopefully) a serious Soundstream powered setup in the above car, once I get my build on the road in the late summer.
