I miss my gear
 

I had all of these pcs in mint condition. No scratches even on the mounting holes. Sold them looking as great as the day I got it the first time. I actually miss my gear and almost sorry I got rid of them (to fund my mods).

Sony Mobile ES cdx c90, XDP 210 EQ, Audio control gear, PP Art series A204.2, A404.2, and the A600.2, and a bunch of JL Audio and misc speakers. Sold my amps at the price that I got it for after all these years.

Any of you have old school gear that you still use? Want to know if anyone here has their old school and mint Phoenix Gold, Soundstream, Zapco, and MacIntosh amps. These group were special. They all blew my ear drums off.


[IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3835/...23805b7fee.jpgDSCN1345 by axmea?, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5595/...e0c69cf269.jpgDSCN1320 by axmea?, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3866/...c7a2e6a69e.jpgDSCN1308 by axmea?, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3853/...2b5d5b1c82.jpgDSCN1303 by axmea?, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3851/...62730210bd.jpgDSCN1297 by axmea?, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3874/...0a2f5846c3.jpgDSCN1296 by axmea?, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3844/...2e176c6a8e.jpgDSCN1289 by axmea?, on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5573/...36e4d14ec0.jpgDSCN1250 by axmea?, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3870/...3fd84d5329.jpgDSCN1283 by axmea?, on Flickr[/IMG]

I miss my Precision power A1200 :(

I miss my single SoundStream SS10. First serious sub I ever bought. Must have been around 1988 and I traded it for 2x a/d/s S-10's which were tough as nails as well. Ah, the memories....

If I remember correctly I was running MBQuart 502.8(or something like that) component set with kicker solobaric subs and then rockford fosgate 12's, PP A1200 and PP A300, lightning cap, optima battery, Streetwires for wiring and for the life of me I can't remember what I was using for a crossover.

Sweet.... Some cool memories. My first real amp was a Sanyo 100 watt model back in 1983. 50x2 into 2 4x10 tri-axials. Real workhorse. My first competition system had a blaupunkt H.U, 3 alphasonik amps, 2 jbl 12" gt series sub's, and a set of 4x6 plates in an s-10. 1992. Its a very long list from there. A 2nd place finish at S.L.A.P. nationals in 2005, Tri state finals champion last year in Pa (unregistered because I didn't pay for membership) and a run for Del/Mar/Vir finals championship next Sunday, and I may just retire. Well see what happens. Either way, threads like this one, seeing all the old school stuff that's still out there touches me.

Actually getting ready to bring out my early 90s Orion 225 hcca DR amp back into service. Back when amps were made right and not Chinese crap. 1/2 ohm stable.

I'm still running my ol' cheater amps(MTX 275x, 250x) in my Frontier that I've had for 20 years. I still watch ebay every week for old school car audio.

The old waffle irons lol

I also had the OG Hifonics amps from Zed Audio prior to my ARTs. These amps were beastly! Met Steve Mantz who made HiFonics in his old large mfring facility in Simi and after he moved to a smaller scale spot in Simi - very close to Fast Intentions.
He built mid range performance amps like Alphasoniks and Planet Audio's but I did not like 'em. He was selling them directly to me straight out of his facility. Most likely refurbs but they lasted. They were just OK on the SQ.Put it in my kids car and has since been sold. Surprised they still run.

I have not had the opportunity to play around with Orion's HCCA's they had a great reputation then.

Thanks for bringing back the golden days of car audio.
Arizona, CA, WA, and Florida were the hotbed for car audio R&D back then.

Damn did I want a McIntosh amp so bad!

What saddens me is that some of the Iconic names have been bought/sold and quality/performance has gone down hill in the name of greater profits for the investors. I bought some MB Quart components a few years ago and the tweeters would attenuate when reaching close to 50w RMS. Switched to Infinity Reference on the last couple of builds and they are now my fave "bang for the buck".:tup:

:iagree: Integration of electronics and pure economics brought us to where we are now. Car mfrs made it difficult for respectable electronic mfrs to make money on aftermarket car audio. It was simply part of an evolution.

My speaker roster consisted of MBQuart, JL Audio, Rockford Fostgate, MMATs, Infinity. I had a company car when I worked at Toys R Us and I put in 6x9's on the kick panels and a JL 12" on Clarion gear. Fun little thing of a basic set up. I spent a lot of money on this sh_t. Now I have a Bose. :thumbsdown:

I thought I was over it, but I'm all tore up agin !!!! Missing my old Phoenix Gold Amps ! AGIN

This I bought new, sold to a buddy, but got it back a while ago. It's going in my truck soon. I also have 3 mint M25's i bought way back.

That's an awesome bulletproof amp just like the previous ones mentioned. And the M25's, these are tiny but mighty amps :tup:

A friend of mine still has the PPI Art series i sold him, a A1200 and A600. I may have to get them back...he's not using them anyway. He's running his PG Bandit and Outlaw.

^ you've got to get them back. These will fit in the Z :)

No doubt ! Be a hoarder bring them back to you !

:tup: I would love to see that behemoth A1200 in a Z!

The baby's in question, I even had the link.

:tup: ^ Awesome. That and the PPI water coiling system.

Nice !!!!!!

Miss my Canon prime 50mm F1.2 lens that I stupidly traded on a zoom lens years and years ago. :(

My "first" speaks were a pair of $50 Clarion coaxes - ones with a 1-1/2" cone tweeter. It sounded "meh", but looked cool (they were my first, after all!).

Went thru a TON of stuff:
- Pioneer/Kenwood (pull outs, then detachable faceplate [ooh... ahh...]) HU's
- 1/2 DIN EQ's (some with spectrum analyzers... [more ooh... ahh...])
- Clarion coaxes gave way to Polk Mobile Monitors (forgot the model #, but the classic ones with the "teardrop" midrange/tweeter assemblies - loved those speaks!)
- Coustic (anyone remember these guys?) four channel 45Wx4 amp. It eventually died and was replaced with a Kenwood.
- Kicker 12" Free-Airs (infinite baffle)
- Rockford Fosgate Punch 45 (who knew 22.5Wx2 could drive 12-inchers?)

Next car went thru similar changes with equipment, and ended up with:
- Clarion Pre-Amp HU (no internal amp)
- Soundstream MC140 (eventually biamped my fronts with the help of an AudioControl 4XS), D100II, and D200II.
- a/d/s/ 320i 5-1/2" components (loved these too - the good ol' days).
- First two JBL 12's in a ported enclosure, then moved to a single 10" Polk dB sub in a larger sealed enclosure.

Remember Linear Power, Oz, Adcom, and Carver? The latter two dabbled a bit in car audio, and then withdrew.

Memories...

Linear power still makes an awesome amplifier, but they are Pricey.......

Coustic...I worked there for 8 years, up until '11 I worked for Mitek. lol I still have some of the gear.

Holy heck - small world! I loved that amp - my first "outboard" amp. I can't seem to find it online (probably dating myself now). It was a 4x45W, maybe numbered 105? It had straight heatsink fins, unlike the flared style they went with later. I had it driving both the free airs eventually, and probably asked too much from it's modest power supply. Sounded great driving the front components, though. What did you do at Coustic?

Had no idea... I don't see them sold retail. Where can you get them?

I was the territory manager for western Canada. MTX, Xtant, Coustic, Streetwires.

Xtant. Great stuff when they first came out.

It sure was! Was. Lol

Absolutely right but If I can find a mint 1st gen Xtant I'd seriously consider.

^^^ I remember those amps, too - gloss silver jackets and all...

I worked for a dealer in the very early 2000's, we liked the X1001 for some heavy lifting installs. Great products. Severely underrated on paper....

Then JL Audio slash series hit the streets, changing up the need to match the impedance's, which was great for novice's.

Xtant kind of just went away, lost dealer rights, etc.

BTW, anyone know of a company that has a comparable product to Alumapro's C.A.P. ??

I used to use the CAP5 or CAP15 in most of my installs, completely fixed electrical issues without the need of a second battery or H.O.A. - very cool tech.

Disheartened to find out they either went out of business or just stopped the line of those CAPS.

They still sell them. However, although the arguments will wage on forever, they have been proven time and time again to be pure snake oil. Between the cost of the caps, and the sheer amount of farads you need to actually make any difference whatsoever, you would be better off to add a battery.
Anyone who says a cap helped with headlights dimming (which seemed to be the main marketing strategy) is disillusioned. Its just snake oil, pure and simple.

I've never used caps. To me the money is better spent somewhere else.

I learned that the hard way after I bought one :shakes head: It never did anything to help with dimming (lightning cap).

I fell victim as well, years ago. (5 farad on a 1200 watt system. they recommend 1 farad per 1000 watts) did absolutely zero. Upgraded a few undersized cables on power and ground, and a bigger cca battery....(removed cap) presto. Problem solved.

Exactly what I did. Except for using caps.

It may also be of interest to some to know that an 800 cca battery is the equivalent to just over 2 MILLION Farads.