The stuff I'd be interested in was earlier. I remember some from the prices at the store I worked for. P45, 75 and 150 for $200, $250 and $300, if I remember correctly. I don't remember the prices on others like the mosfet 650 and the power 6.
The Power 300 was about $900, Power 650 was about $1500, and Power 1000 was a little over $2k.
I'll see if I can come up with anything you mind find interesting...
I'll see if I can come up with anything you mind find interesting...
My two favorite amps in one thread! I bought a Nakamichi PA300 new for $400 from Classic Stereo in Grand Rapids MI in 1985. Still bummed I sold it for $250 in 1990. Wish I still had it!
I do though, still have my Rockford Fosgate Power 300. It was a factory re-man that you could get locally in Grand Rapids back then. There was a division of RF in Grand Rapids back then, and I got some beat up 6x9's to go with it. The employee price on the reman Power 300 was $234, and I bought it from his kid for $400. Nice racket! I had it hooked up about 10 years ago. Just one bridged sub channel BLEW AWAY a JL Audio 300 watt mono amp running a 10W3 sub. It had a ton of engine noise, though, and the fan went out. Probably needs a total rebuild. But it is still an awesome amp, and it is on the project list!
-Geoff
I do though, still have my Rockford Fosgate Power 300. It was a factory re-man that you could get locally in Grand Rapids back then. There was a division of RF in Grand Rapids back then, and I got some beat up 6x9's to go with it. The employee price on the reman Power 300 was $234, and I bought it from his kid for $400. Nice racket! I had it hooked up about 10 years ago. Just one bridged sub channel BLEW AWAY a JL Audio 300 watt mono amp running a 10W3 sub. It had a ton of engine noise, though, and the fan went out. Probably needs a total rebuild. But it is still an awesome amp, and it is on the project list!
-Geoff
Very few amps need a complete rebuild. The old Rockfords don't have many problems. The main one is bad connections on the heatsink mounted components. Even the capacitors seem to hold up well.
As a side note, as an exercise, I tried to reproduce a meter similar to the one you have as an avatar. The blue color they use is one of the best.
http://www.bcae1.com/temp/meter with spring and bridge newer font sandpaper RPR.blend.png
As a side note, as an exercise, I tried to reproduce a meter similar to the one you have as an avatar. The blue color they use is one of the best.
http://www.bcae1.com/temp/meter with spring and bridge newer font sandpaper RPR.blend.png
It has some issues but it still plays loud and hits hard. The factory fan gave up the ghost years ago, and on hot days if I was really getting on it, it would start cutting out - I replaced it but the new fan is not a perfect fit and probably not as efficient. Also, there is a lot of engine noise when it plays. The engine noise is steady background and it doesn't get louder with the volume. I figured that would mean it needs a re-cap. The connections to the main board from the main body also have started cracking too, so they probably need to be reflowed.
I will get it going again someday, it is the best amp I have ever had. I just need a car worthy to put it in!
-Geoff
I have heard good things about the Precision Power art series amp you have there. I guess they were set up for liquid cooling if you drilled a couple holes in the right spot?
-Geoff
The scans aren't great- sorry, it's the best I can do right now.
I've been looking for this issue forever, can you post a picture of the "Table of Contents" page here or send them to me DM please!
Very much appreciate it. Thank you in advance.
I bought a soundstream in the mid-80's to replace an alpine I had. If I remember right, the sales guy told me that soundstream was started by unhappy Nak employees. It was a great deck, lasted until I sold the car. I actually bought the car new, ordered, without a radio. The company I worked for got invoice pricing on cars. So cool, you'd go to a dealer, and look at the cost of the car and options, pick and choose, and a few months later the car would come in just as ordered. The dealer was a bit surprised I ordered no radio, which I think got me a 100 dollar credit.
LMAO!! 🤣
Afraid not. Nak was selling car amps while Soundstream was as well. Not only that, Soundstream was very much a US type design, Nakamichi was about as Japanese as you could get. I worked on many different brands, and was warranty for Nakamichi and Alpine plus more.
I'll say one thing. The Japanese amps were far cleaner than the US designs. No comparison. Having said that, I had no love for Pioneer amps. The GM120 wasn't a welcome sight.
One thing I didn't like about Soundstream (aside from build quality) was that the bias sensing transistors couldn't determine which channel they were sensing at all. The way the amp was laid out on the heat sink, the heat was mixed between channels. So itf you used one channel for bass, the other for highs, the high channel would go low bias (not what you want!!). If one channel had high bias, it would reduce the other channel's bias current.
I still have my Nak PA-300II and PA-350, plus a TD-700. I'd be happy with the classic Alpine amplifiers also. Those used the uPC1225 and uPc1270 driver chips.
Afraid not. Nak was selling car amps while Soundstream was as well. Not only that, Soundstream was very much a US type design, Nakamichi was about as Japanese as you could get. I worked on many different brands, and was warranty for Nakamichi and Alpine plus more.
I'll say one thing. The Japanese amps were far cleaner than the US designs. No comparison. Having said that, I had no love for Pioneer amps. The GM120 wasn't a welcome sight.
One thing I didn't like about Soundstream (aside from build quality) was that the bias sensing transistors couldn't determine which channel they were sensing at all. The way the amp was laid out on the heat sink, the heat was mixed between channels. So itf you used one channel for bass, the other for highs, the high channel would go low bias (not what you want!!). If one channel had high bias, it would reduce the other channel's bias current.
I still have my Nak PA-300II and PA-350, plus a TD-700. I'd be happy with the classic Alpine amplifiers also. Those used the uPC1225 and uPc1270 driver chips.
Don't remember anymore what the rest of the system I put in the car was, may or may not have been soundstream. The deck was, and I know it was not made in USA. It was made in Japan. At that moment in time, no deck was made in the US, there was Tandberg and almost everything else was Japan. It has been a long time, but I remember the deck unlike the alpine it replaced was trouble free for the 6 or 7 years I had it. The alpine failed after 3 I think. I remember thinking not doing alpine decks again.
Cassette decks in cars had a rough life. Bearings (here anyway) were frozen and baked while being used. So the oil failed and capstan bearings wore quickly. Earlier Alpine decks were very good. Concord and Marantz machines had robust bearings, and they were replaceable. We did many. All decks later in time had smaller capstan bearings and motors. Good thing CD players were coming in.
There were only a few basic mechanisms (OEM). The other issue were switches in the mechanism going intermittent. These were minor faults, but the customer only saw their deck didn't work.
There were only a few basic mechanisms (OEM). The other issue were switches in the mechanism going intermittent. These were minor faults, but the customer only saw their deck didn't work.