Lets discuss some Old School ...

[IamDeMan 5,000+ posts]

I used old school fosgate amps and MTX subs back in the day 92-95. None of the local dealers had the amps I really wanted, which was PPI. IMHO PPI was the best bang for the buck when you compare not only build quality and underrated power, but also SQ overall. The art series of yesteryear was just a classic line of amplifiers.

 

[dejo 10+ year member]

I messed with the Audio Art amps back in 90. They were very nice sounding and decently robust amps. From the internals they appeared to mimmick the soundstream stuff of the day. As far as old school amps the very old soundstream reference 300 and ref 500 were some of the best sounding amps I have ever heard and would run them to this day if they werent so dang big. the ref 500 if roughly the size of a case of beer, for "only" 125x4 rms power but the sweet sound of these were unbelievable.

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

im suprised nobody has bashed alpine yet! how WAS their old school stuff?

 

[desertheat 10+ year member]

Targa was cool. They had a wild paint scheme model that rocked. Decent for crap.

 

[Mynameismcgyver 10+ year member]

im suprised nobody has bashed alpine yet! how WAS their old school stuff?

Why? Alpine had some crapp stuff in the ol days?

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The Speaker Works Grand National used Alpine amps. They weren't bad at all.

As far as old school amps the very old soundstream reference 300 and ref 500

Sadly those were the second major series of Soundstream amps. The S100 and S200, MC120 and MC245 were the real old ones.

 

[phantom240 5,000+ posts]

Why? Alpine had some crapp stuff in the ol days?

idk... im 18... not really "old school" enough to know

 

[AcidicDreams 10+ year member]

I messed with the Audio Art amps back in 90. They were very nice sounding and decently robust amps. From the internals they appeared to mimmick the soundstream stuff of the day. As far as old school amps the very old soundstream reference 300 and ref 500 were some of the best sounding amps I have ever heard and would run them to this day if they werent so dang big. the ref 500 if roughly the size of a case of beer, for "only" 125x4 rms power but the sweet sound of these were unbelievable.

my g/fs 10W4 (yah that's old) is running on an Audio art //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif nice amp!

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

im suprised nobody has bashed alpine yet! how WAS their old school stuff?

The 35XX series of Alpine amplifiers are still highly regarded amplifiers.

Those were the amplifiers used in the SpeakerWorks/RC Grand National.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Sentrek anyone? As long as you didn't push them hard, they were fine but they didn't do well at high volume.

Haha.....my very first amplifier and subwoofers were Sentrek //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

Wow...those were the days. 2-channel Sentrek amplifier (probably 100w bridged if you were lucky) and two 10" Sentrek subwoofers in a prefab bandpass enclosure.

Bought the setup at one of those "deal of the century" close-out sales at the local Coliseum.

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

im suprised nobody has bashed alpine yet! how WAS their old school stuff?

Non USA made amplfiers were junk, Alpine, Nakamichi, tons of flea market

brands, etc. My Nakamichi worked, but it could only do midrange and tweeter

duty with it as it offered little power to run the woofers. Build quality is poor,

they didn't know how to design the mechanics of the ampifier to be more user

friendly when doing repairs.

Non-USA made amps today are 100x better in mechanical build quality than

old school.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Build quality is poor,they didn't know how to design the mechanics of the ampifier to be more user

friendly when doing repairs.

So ease of repair for something that shouldn't have to be repaired = build quality to you? That'a kinda a warped view of things to me. I don't know of a solid state electronic component that is designed to be easy to repair. If that is the designer's goal he has the wrong goal. His goal should be to keep the thing from breaking in the first place. On that note, I've known people that could blow any amp ever made.

 

[dejo 10+ year member]

I think the original soundstream amps were the d100 and d200 and were nice amps too. just didnt sound near as good as the mc's did.

the amps in the speakerworks grand national were the alpine 3545's with one bridged to each driver in the car. if I remember correctly they did 700rms bridged so power should not have been a problem, even with an alpine amp. I actually had some time in that car at the iasca finals in OKC in 90 or 91. very impressive although I still like Gary Biggs t-type better

 

[lightspeed 10+ year member]

The 35XX series of Alpine amplifiers are still highly regarded amplifiers.
Those were the amplifiers used in the SpeakerWorks/RC Grand National.

first amp I ever owned was the alpine 3522s...30w x 2rms....powering a pair of A/D/S components. It was $275.00 brand new if I remember correctly. Expensive little bugger but it sure did sound good.

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

So ease of repair for something that shouldn't have to be repaired = build quality to you? That'a kinda a warped view of things to me. I don't know of a solid state electronic component that is designed to be easy to repair. If that is the designer's goal he has the wrong goal. His goal should be to keep the thing from breaking in the first place. On that note, I've known people that could blow any amp ever made.

Mechanical design in regards to transistor placement in relation to heatsinking

is very crucial. Amplifiers do break and they do need repairing, many of

those designs were mechanically horrible. All of them were horrible in

electrical wiring too.