Lets Talk About Vintage Car Audio

[jizazz12]

I remember selling the old Black Magic back in the day, fuck I miss those guys. They were like a dream to work with as far as being a dealer goes and their shit sounded great. We were just talking about the good ole days of car audio at our shop and how all the reps have gotten cheap and our lines don't do trainings or spiff programs any more. Fuck to get a free tee shirt is like pulling teeth now a days.

man back in 98 i was putting together a system 3 jl 12w6 sub's a pg ms2125 special edition a pg ms 275 special edition mb quarts 51/4 inch separates in the doors and mb quarts 61/2's in the rear deck .what a trip down memory lane , and back in the mid 80's those sanyo 50/50's were the shit.

[TCooper]

Man, making me feel old and nostalgic at the same time.

Discounting 8 tracks, push button power boosters and Jensen Triax speakers, the first "system" was in my old '75 Camaro.

Two Pyle Driver 12's mounted in the rear deck with an Alphasonic amp and no name brand mids and tweets in the doors. Concord deck and Kenwood EQ that had a push button at the top and bottom of each frequency and a light that would move up and down depending on top or bottom button pushed to show level (still have the owners manual for that).

Next incarnation was pull the back seat. Box with two 15's, again Pyle Driver and four 12's that were Gold Sounds. Gold sounds were really home speaker builder drivers (company still around, but does not reply to email on if they still sell the speakers), but worked great! Still running a Concord deck and Kenwood eq.

Back then, with contest categories by amp watts into 4 ohms the key was to run as small an amp as you could to keep in the lower classes and stay out of the thinly disguised shop vehicles running in the bigger number ones. Still hard to break that mentality now when looking at amps. Always like the "cheater" ones. Soundstream class A, Orions HCCA's, Kicker XS series (had a XS50 and an XS100, but never got around to installing them so sold them off) etc.

We ran in Thunder on Wheels with old Doc Thunder doing the SPL portion. Seemed like Dyer Electronics was one of the main shops that kept putting on contests, but then any mom and pop store could arrange one as well. There were loads then, unlike the area I live in now where does not seem to be any. Still remember attending one where Wayne Harris turned up in the Terminator. Then that night he cruised the drag with all the lights on the sides etc. going. Wild days.

Then had a mini truck I converted to convertible with one of the kits around then. Had two twelves behind the seat. So what if you were crushed against the steering wheel you did anything to get tunes in!

Last big system was the '79 Honda Civic. That is the small one right after the first generation super tiny Honda 600 is it? Pulled out the back seat, cut out the seat support and built an individual chamber box for two M&M (the clear poly cone ones) 15's and 4 goldsound 12's . That lasted only a month or so and converted the bottom of the box to take out the 12's and run two more M&M 15's. Everything we ran was pretty nice, but nieve compared to now. No ports, everything sealed. If you ran 15's then it was 3 cu foot each, 12's were 2 cu foot each etc. Funny to think of now. Had each pair of the 15's run off a Punch 150. Had a Punch 45 running two pairs of sealed back mids and a pair of 6.5's. Then had a Linear Runt (16 watts a channel) running four compression tweeters and a pair of horns. New Concord deck run to a PAC Turbo II or III (think it was a II) and the eq. Two marine batteries in the back and set to go. Miss that car and system. Later when the M&M's gave out went to MTX because they were cheaper and then Fosgate started getting into speakers heavy. Did get a pair of those right before I removed the system. They were the first ones I bought that were not poly and were the crushed paper pulp looking ones. Don't even remember the model they were.

Who remembers Kenwood coming out with a 5 watt amp so you could run right up to the max on a class and then have the little 5 watt to run your highs off of. HK came out with a 7 watt for the same reason. I had a few of those.

Built a mate's '80something S10 Blazer with a wall of four 15" (don't remember the brand of speaker) and ran each pair off of a Punch 45 and an HK 7 watt to the front speakers and HU power (not counted in the contest) to the 6x9's he had that I mounted in the side panel behind the front seats. Let him run in the under 100 class.

Used to use Flashdance and then Sting came out with that Dream of the Blue Turtles or something like that album. Started using that as it had a song that started with a long bass note.

Ah, memories.

Still using that original Punch 45 in our daily driver truck!

[mdexxxiv]

Built my first system in 1992in a 1989 S-10 with 2 old Lanzar LC12's running off of a Lanzar LZ600. I started selling and installing on the side various brands like Lanzar, M&M, Orion, MTX, Zapco, CDT, Alumapro, whatever I could get a hold of from prople I knew at these companies until I went into retailing just Zapco and Alumapro, Illusion Audio (Cary Christie II's fine product). I built boxes, big vented plexiglass monsters, walls, whatever people wanted and some for me. I had a great time with it and made a shitload of money just on boxes to say the least. I started a speaker company, SubSonix but due to the economy collapsing I can't afford to fund it at this time. It will be back when the money situation is better.

OK, off on a tangent that may or may not be in the right place but here it is because everyone who enjoys car audio knows it's true and needs to be said:

As for car audio being popular, it isn't near what it used to be. The magazines like CA&E, Auto Sound & Security, etc are no longer around, the shows are still out there but not anything like they once were. Competitions were spoiled by the bigbeaters that would come in with their $100,000+ systems that would just burp and not play music. Systems that played actual music were sidelined. Competition went from being fun to being money based pissing contest. Many people, myself included, fled the competition scene in droves because of what the scene was turning into.

People now, especially now with the economy in the shitter aren't spending the money on big systems like they used to. There is a small percentage that does so but they are the only reason this industry is still alive. Also, the car makers (GM) are trying to eliminate this industry so their branded vehicles cannot be modified. GM did away with the radio delete option and now few dealers are able to install anything in one of these vehicles without running the risk of damaging something else and wrecking the warranty. I am on the inside of the 12 volt industry and I know many people trying to get the automotive industry to work with ours but so far the response, especially from GM, is not encouraging to say the least.

What we need to do is take competition back to what it was 15-20 years ago. Local dealers need to hold shows to increase their exposure and get people motivated again. I as in insider know that this industry is not going to be revived from the top down. It has to come from the people who buy the equipment. They need to ask dealers for shows to get their product in the public eye. The dealers will see increased sales and the industry will come back to what it should be.

[SPL2K]

OK, off on a tangent that may or may not be in the right place but here it is because everyone who enjoys car audio knows it's true and needs to be said:

As for car audio being popular, it isn't near what it used to be. The magazines like CA&E, Auto Sound & Security, etc are no longer around, the shows are still out there but not anything like they once were. Competitions were spoiled by the bigbeaters that would come in with their $100,000+ systems that would just burp and not play music. Systems that played actual music were sidelined. Competition went from being fun to being money based pissing contest. Many people, myself included, fled the competition scene in droves because of what the scene was turning into.

People now, especially now with the economy in the shitter aren't spending the money on big systems like they used to. There is a small percentage that does so but they are the only reason this industry is still alive. Also, the car makers (GM) are trying to eliminate this industry so their branded vehicles cannot be modified. GM did away with the radio delete option and now few dealers are able to install anything in one of these vehicles without running the risk of damaging something else and wrecking the warranty. I am on the inside of the 12 volt industry and I know many people trying to get the automotive industry to work with ours but so far the response, especially from GM, is not encouraging to say the least.

What we need to do is take competition back to what it was 15-20 years ago. Local dealers need to hold shows to increase their exposure and get people motivated again. I as in insider know that this industry is not going to be revived from the top down. It has to come from the people who buy the equipment. They need to ask dealers for shows to get their product in the public eye. The dealers will see increased sales and the industry will come back to what it should be.

excellent post.

[David]

x1000

[ISO]

you mean these???

Nice but your not alone. I do wish I could have Miss Gates sign my stuff.

I'm hopeing to never have to sell these and when I have the money I'm going to try and find 2 more to use in a sound quality vehicle.

I like the sound quality of my Alma's a whole lot better than the standard L7.

Here is 1 of Miss Gates ZR1000's. I think there are less than 200 of these that were made. These amps were built to run on a 18 volt charging system and mine tested wattage from Kicker for my amp is 1206 watts at 4 ohm.

Heres the over sized power supply toroid.

Heres something you don't see everyday. Kicker put fused protection on the RCA inputs which is really cool because the ZR amps can only handle 3 volts from the factory and I know Kicker had to have been running alot more than 3 volts on the Beast.

[ISO]

Heres my Alma Gates L7s.

I know one of these was actually used on the Beast and the other came from a Kicker competitor that I think is from around the florida area named Steve.

Miss Gates if I can come up with the $80 it would take to ship one to you and back to me would you be willing to sign one for me?

I need new stickers for the back if anyone has some.

Both are brand new (reconed) and I'm the only person that has put power on them.

[ISO]

anyone remember the Sanyo 50/50?

Steve your not talking about the Din sized head unit with the flip down face that could accept CD's and Tapes?

God those were horrble. I couldn't tell you how many people had to come back to the shop to get those warrantied.

On another note I forgot all about M&M Godfathers. I guess you could say those were my very first actual subwoofers but I was so young and didn't know much about them. I don't think I ever put an amp on them and one blew and the other I gave away for 3 beers back when I was 18. I think I got them from my brother when I was 15 or 16.

Yes I regret giving mine away and anyone on here that knows me probbly realizes they were 10s. Thats my favorite size. I am the 10 inch subwoofer King.

[mdexxxiv]

Alma Gates is cool as hell...

She used to come in to AOL Car stereo chat every night for about 10 minutes to say hi to everyone. I would try and jump in there and get convos in, but only in for a few minutes, and then like 5 people bum rushing her wasnt easy to get her attention, but she is definitley an idol for me

Is the story, she got in to car audio because her grand son seen a car at a car show, and said how cool it was that the car was loud, and she wanted to do something for his birth day or something?

Thats the story i remember

Other brands I didnt see in here were:

(or that I atleast started off with at my first shop job back in 94')

Crunch

Hart (first true 1000 watt 10"- cool cork front gasket, wide flat motor)

USAmps- sure its been mentioned

The good ole Pyle driver days

G&S yes, has been mentioned

Prowler

Boston Pros ( alittle newer)

Cadence

EVs (been mentioned already)

what about the Jensen 300watt amp everyone and there momma had? lol I went thru those like nothing

And Sherwood

Toshiba car amps

And as far as magazines go, where the hell are the old magazines from days back?

AS&S, and so forth?

there is like NO magazines worth any interest any more, except the yearly buyers guide

Her grandson was admiring Mark Fukuda's little yellow blazer with the 16 15's in it. He asked Fukuda a question and Fukuda told him to fuck himself. The rest is history but yes, car audio has gone to hell in a handbasket. I posted something to this effect somewhere on here.

[lanman31337]

I used to be all about ordering tunes from JC Whitney. First "real" sub was a Dr. Crankenstein 15, I traded it for some Pyramid Super Pro Super Blue subs.