Lets Talk About Vintage Car Audio

[Oldbasshead]

anyone remember the Sanyo 50/50?

Oh YEAH.....I had a friend that had an 81 Accord hatchback and had it hooked up to 4 12's....I remember us riding around and setting off building AND car alarms...His system was sooo loud...And he has those big square tweeters like you see in DJ speakers...Those were the dayz....I'm a year older than you

What about Becker Subs (they were somewhat transparent)??? I had 4 8" Beckers in my Honda Civic Hatch....It was hooked up to a Sherwood 70 X 70.....That was also the first system stolen from me too

[automediapro]

Man, you guys are making me feel old for real. . .lol I started messing with car audio with my older brother. I was about 13 and he figured out that he could have me move his system from one cash car to the next for 20 bucks. . lol And, he wouldn't have to do it if he taught me lol

Mind you the "system" was a tape deck, power booster (not amp) jensen 6x9's and 2-12" pyramid phase III's on an infinite baffle that we would make fit in the next car . .lol Or, in the end .. I was making fit in the next car. that was in about 87 or 88 .. man

I thought I was the man when I bought a lowrider Toyota pickup and it had an Alpine 7618 in it. It was the cleanest tape deck I ever heard. Pull out of course. I also think it was on of the first to have dot matrix display and electronic controls for the tape deck with stuff like pause skip and one touch ff to the next track by finding pauses between songs automatically. WOW that was around. . 92 or so. The owner before me also left a talking viper alarm, and coustic comp set with the tweeter mounted in the ac vents lol Fleckstone on the dash OF COURSE BACK THEN..

What he took out for subs and amp . . and this was a standard cab Toyota truck .. one box divided into 3 sealed chambers that had 2 10" RF series1's and a 15" Crunch in the middle. All 3 were run off a Hifonic Hercules mono amp. . We used to ride in that thing with our knees just about on the dash . .lol It dropped though lol

Let's see. . my first real complete first system was in my Hyundai Excel 4 door. Think it was a 89. ( Boy's in the hood car lol) Mine was blue though. Slammed of course. Springs cut in half with 15"Enkie directional 5 stars on 50 series tires still rubbin when you hit a bump and the car sat down in the back lol. I had a clean setup though. The Alpine 7618 head, JVC electronic EQ that talked, MTX Pro comp set with the red surrounds in the front, MTX roadthunder rear comp set, 2 - 12" Blue Thunders in a box that we had to kick in from the inside because it was so big and sealed of course, on the big 4ch bridged alpine amp black with the green chicklet (forget model number), a JVC 100x2 on the mids, and a JVC 50x2 on the tweeters with a Boss crossover with switches . .lol

One of the warmest amps I ever owned was a PPI275M Black. . As I moved out on my own and sold off all the other stuff I kept the head and front comp set and just powered them with this amp. I was happy with it. . I was more into SQ but we all liked bass and being loud.

Hmmm I also had a Kenwood 821 amp before I had a car. Bought it for 75 bucks and sold it for 100 when I needed the money.

More recently, I got ahold of 3 Orion HCCA225's and a Concept 97/3 for my Cutlass. Well, as the troops deployed, I sold off the car and the amps. But, I owned a HCCA225 in the past and had it on 2-Audiobahn AW1251's when they first came on the scene and I was running a shop. In an oversized sealed box in a Thunderbird, they dropped.. . but, it only took about a month of occasional abuse for them to get to stinkin lol. Pulled them out of the box, and the 225 had beaten paper off of the back of them and it was all inside the box ha ha ha

Old PPI amps when they were flat, Orion HCCA and NT, Phoenix Gold amps, Kicker subs ( round solo's ), original W6's, Hifonics amps, and MB Quart comp sets were all top of the line to me. And, nothing could touch a Clarion Pro Audio head or an Alpine. . The ULTIMATE was the Soundstream Reference amplifers. I only ever owned one, and it was in the end of the "real" Soundstream during the 2 years of bad production. The 700SX and like many other peoples amps from them .. it blew so bad that the board was just shot .. and as the company was in trouble, I couldn't get it fixed . . as it needed a board.

The old MTX amps were sick too. I had a Thunder4300 when they came in a powder coated black with a rough texture and gold letters and still had fins. . Super clean and very underated. The 2300 was a beast!!

Yep, Redline, Dr. Crankinstein, GS Designs, Autotek, Hifonics, PPI, MTX, RF, Kicker, USD, Image Dynamics, Sentrek, Sherwood, Phoenix, Lanza, Fultron, MB Quart, man. . ..there were sooo many great companies run by passionate music lovers. Car Stereo Review's Buyers guide was my Bible. I knew all the specs and prices. I used to flip through it daydreaming. . lol

Now, several of these names still exist, but the heritage is just that . . and only that. . heritage that is only alive in the name and not the product.

I hear DR. Crankinstein is back and still US Made. I think they had an association with Credance and Credance is still kickin. .no pun intended lol . Soundstream has been working on a new Reference series .. .but I hope it's not like the Punch 25 to Life amps that were nothing like the original Punch 45, 75 or 150's . . Those were little beasts for real.

And, anyone that has any old school Soundstream that is willing to part with it, let me know. Oh, I almost forgot the Soundstream Mule's . . if you have to ask .. you're not an Old School Soundstream fan .. lmao

Well, enough rambling. . but yeah . .those were the days. coming out of the late 70's and early 80s where Wayne Harris ( now DB Drag) was with Rockford and was winning with a Hearse that integrated mostly home type stuff .. as there just wasn't alot of car audio . .lol The late 80's and early 90's were innovative times for car audio.

Everyone has always wanted to make money to do business and live, but it seems now with CAD and copy cats and all of this being common technology .. production in China for better pricing .. and the companies being run by people who only have a factory stereo and are completely happy with it . .if they even listen to it. . and new brands coming and going quicker than you can blink .. things are saturated and no where as passionate as it was..

But, you can now also buy a 2000 watt Class D for the same money on EBAY now that a Punch75 used to cost. . . so, go figure.

[David]

Old School SoundStream DROOOOOOLS.

I dreamed and Dreamed of owning a MC500, and a pair of Velvet Hammers

Back then I was into SQ, the shop I hung out at was a HUGE SoundStream Supporter Paradyme Car Audio....

I hated rockford with a passion becuase of that ole shop, lol and now they sell RF, and I will be buying some RF amps for the jetta............ go figure

I could never afford the High End SS gear, had A SS class A 100, that I got from the owner for cheap becuase I helped him do something.... I blew that amp up a few times, then I ran a coustic 360.

I was also a big A/D/S fan they were the best of the best IMO for mids and highs

I used to drool over the ppi art series amps too.

then goood ole Pheonix Gold started making amps and I Drooled over them tooo

damn reading this thread brings back soooooooooooooooooooo many memories.

[ampjunkielikeme]

i have alot of old school audio ive been collecting for years...i am truely addicted to it...

here is one of my babies....lol

m&m 150

how about a coustic 560 made back in 1987 ...lol..

and a g&s redline 10 inch sub.....i have 4 of these brand new in the box....

and i cant forget about my soundstream spl mule 12 ...

anybody want see more?

[VtecDomani]

i do!!

[Shinju]

Very nice thread!

New guy here to the forums but long time Car Audio Junkie! I been in the Scene since 1990. I have worked in a few shops as an installer/sales.

Anyway thought I would pipe in on some Vintage car audio chit chat here.

Blade Technologies:

Some of the best and most expensive SQL amps I have ever heard.

I still own one to this day although the outside is kinda banged up it still functions like the day I got it new.

Autotek BTS amps:

I am talking about the Zed Audio made first gen amps with the grey heatsinks and blue and silver logo.

I owned a 7100bts and 2 7600bts new. very very underrated amps they put out loads of power!

Phoenix Gold:

I remember when this Oregon based company hit the Car Audio Market. M series and MS series ZPA series need I say more?

Rockford Fosgate Symmetry EPX:

Cool gizmo only sold one ever at the first shop I worked in never heard one in action.

Hart:

Hart Professional Subs with Square Magnets and the Beasts Hart Monsters.

The Hart Monster Subs had the biggest Motor and Voice coils I have ever seen at that time in 1994 and weighed in at 60 pounds for the 15", I had a pair in a 1986 King Cab Nissan truck Had my 2 7600 bts amps running those it was pretty damn loud. Now Hart is owned by Kole audio and the Hart name is all they have now.

Old School Kenwood Monster amp the KAC-1023

Old L.A Sound Amps Cheap but they worked!

Old School Profile Amps

There was a Subwoofer company called Exxess they were based out of California someplace their subs were pretty much a clone of the Fosgate The Punch series 2 with the oversized bubble dustcaps. I would like to find another pair of 10's or 12's someday I liked them I would even take another pair of The Punch Pro 10's or 12's also but oldschool subs are getting pretty hard to come by in good conditon anymore.

I saw some mention of Back in the day Bass Music. I see some mention of P.E.B and Dj magic mike /thumbs up!

Some of the bass albums I used to bump around with.

Dynamix II (All of them)

Bass Cube

Bass Invaders

Miami Bass Machine 1 and 2

Bass hit Bass is loaded

Bass 305

Kings of Bass .feat Dj Fury (20 fifteens!)

Bass Outlaws

Anyway I could go on and on I have done loads systems and I did most of the installs and builds myself over the years.

-j

[ROLEXrifleman]

Bring this back!

[cox1970]

Ah to be back then.

Coustic 190 on pyle 12"ers. LOL

Blade, targa, redline, orion's flyers with box builds and info on ther cars, Rag top mini trucks with ppis art series. The list could go on.

Me and my buddy did a full cutthrough in his 87 reg cab s10 I can't remember the different level subs redline made but we had the higher end ones did 4-12's 2-10's 1-30" ev in a wall I Think it had 4-8's behind the b-pillars and 3-6's in each door along with a bunch of tweets I think he even put a pair of horns in at one time. Hooked up the Epicenter pull into a parking lot and play this track with a helicopter on it and people would look up in the sky and all around to see where it was. Hell I remember going to tower records to find betoven,bach etc. cruise all night those were the days!!!

'

[cox1970]

anyone remember the Sanyo 50/50?

I don't remember if mine was a 50/50 all I remember is it was a sanyo 100watt and we would play it loud and long where you could smell that thing cooking my buddy reached under the seat and it burned him good enough it left fins marks on his hand lol!!

[alvitae]

I'm 47 so I can barely remeber way back when lol. But I do remember we had a Vega that had an 8-track and some wierd conglomorate of amps my friend put together with 2 huge house speakers we got at a yard sale in the hatch, those things were so big we had to rope the hatch down. But I bet you could hear us coming from as far away as any sub sytem now lol.

Is it just me or did 75-100 watts scream back then? 75-100 watts is quieter than the road noise now it seems.