See the JBL BP1200.1 tested here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ngVFrzCDLiA.html See the Unboxings of New Old School Car Audio Gear: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FKSN6WFQhpM.html Another Unboxing of Old School Amps: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-K2SqSDsmQM8.html *SHOP* Speaker/Wiring Terminal Blocks: amzn.to/4a4rIDu Elac Bookshelf Speakers: amzn.to/47Q6zw8 *SHOP Affiliates* SAVARD Speakers: lddy.no/1i9ss (use code WAL7 for 7% off!!) Down4Sound - Shop4Bass.com Amazon - amzn.to/3wNX6Fn Crutchfield - howl.me/cjZI33auToW _DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase from one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases_
Installed about 7,000 of these back in my Circuit City glory days. Am I the only one who remembers having to use Y-splitters on the RCA inputs to get full output off both speaker terminals?
I believe the same thing happened to my Buddy. He had the 1.1200 and a 4 channel and we ended up using a Y- splitters to get everything working correctly.
That's because its not a mono amp. Its a bridged stereo amp. Its not the same thing. In order to bridge an amp, you combine the 2 channels by balancing the signal and sending one of the signal conductors to one channel and the inverse signal polarity conductor to the other channel. And that's why the power specs didn't look quite right. Bridging an amp beats the crap out it because the amp now sees the half the impedance on any load. For example, if you have an 8 ohm speaker and bridge the amp, your 8 ohm speaker turns into a 4 ohm speaker. Never bridge an amp unless you have no other choice. Its much better to just get a real mono amp to start with.
That would be a cool thing for Big D to do, get his subs to send in photos and the story behind "trooper" amps we all have. Like you, I have my old Orion Cobalt 230 (all I could afford when I was a kid) I ran that amp at 1ohm bridged mono for nearly 25 years in my mini truck running 2 12" subs. I still have it (I have a whole collection of old Orion gear), it runs my car audio speaker cabinet on wheels for my shop/houseboat stereo. It's running 2 10" subs and a set of 6 1/2" using a simple passive network I put together, and it never lets me down. I'll bet a lot of guys have stories and photos of their "TROOPER" amp from back in the day. I think the rules have to be, YOU STILL HAVE IT and IT STILL WORKS. Bonus points for photos and videos. 😃 Double bonus if you still have the box and a receipt.
I was a JBL rep starting in 1999. When this amp line came out, we were pretty pumped. Class D tech was still pretty fresh back then. Plus being one ohm stable was cool too. The top of line BP1200.1 made over 1200 watts for $750 retail, smashing the watt per dollar barrier. Noone ever accused these amps of being pretty, but nobody cared. They banged!! Funny thing was, we really didn't sell any of these BP150.1, or much of the 300s. It was all BP600.1 and 1200.1. We sold the ISH out of these!! A BP1200.1 and a pair of JBL P1220Ds. Good times.
I had the 1200.1 and it would do the same thing at 1 ohm , or just fry the fuses. Ended up removing the fuses , floating the connections internally with solder , and fusing with a larger fuse externally. Never had protection issues or blown fuses again at 1 ohm , and the amp is still alive in a friends car over a decade later since I owned it. Absolutely love this series of amps. All of them were awesome!!
I worked in a pawn shop in the early 2000's selling car audio equipment. I've sold many if these amps. Actually, I don't think there are many amps on this channel that I didn't get in the shop every now and then. We had some nice stuff lots of times.
In 1993-1994, I worked in a facility that made JBL, Harman, Fosgate, DOD, and Digitech products. It was really well built equipment. I personally was a solder jockey for Fosgate surround sound processors (that dates me, LOL).
Perfect amp for common folk just looking for a ticket to pound town, I bet it bumps real nice for everyday SVC subs. Prime example of what you get in an amp thats built with mostly premium components! Those were all "Nippon Chemi-Con" caps btw
I have always had a great appreciation for JBL since the 80s. I have a GTX500 on two MTX Blue Thunder retro 10s and the amp works them song after song without getting hot
I'd be interested in seeing this amp tested again with all four RCA inputs hooked up and comparing the results with only two hooked up. I've got a BP-1200.1 that I bought used recently and I swear it's louder that way. I've seen several posts on old online forums from back in the day saying the same thing.
Sold the BP amps.. the 1200.1 was a beast especially for the money.. and we always had B stock.. most of which had never been hooked up.. great review ..
I remember buying a used pair of these to power my cheap Super Blue 15's in my 1992 Thunderbird in 1999. Kids in my neighborhood thought I was rich because I was only 19 at the time.
That little amp was pretty sweet back in the day. ABC warehouse stocked them. I had a friend with one of those on a kicker comp in a custom bandpass box. That thing did pretty good. As a matter of fact, I’ve got that exact amp in my garage right now.
Cool amp! You can tell it's from the mid 90's because it doesn't have a Blue LED on it... Once those came down in price they were ubiquitous in nearly ALL car audio! I had to tape over the "source" button on a JVC headinit i had because it had a blindingly bright blue LED, it was so unreasonable. It lit up the interior of the car like a light bulb, and it was just a dang button!
I been a fan of JBL for awhile, almost always giving over the rated power & sound has always been excellent 👌 I have a few of the Grand Touring models & I absolutely respect the brand 👍
@@wal2 Your very welcome, it's nearly 30 years old so you might need to put a lil $$$ into it, but as far as looks go it doesn't look more than a couple years old 😁
8:03 interesting, the part numbers on two of the 16 pin chips (on left half of the amp board) are scratched off. If I recall Earthquake did the same to a couple of their early class D amps the 200DHC and PHD2.
Mr. Williston! Thank you as always- I got two questions: why does the amp dyno count up to the max power number? Do amps ramp their power up when playing, or is this just a feature. And, could you do a “where are you now” video compilation? I’m looking to see what happened to a car that first peak my interest in this game- titled “perfect bass” 1994 August auto sound & security magazine Saab - I really want to hear that car or know what happened with it. Cheers & stay coll
Had one of these little guys powering a JBL 10" sub in one of those old $25 Parts Express ported boxes back in 2002. I think the amp cost me about $100 back then (sounds like I got it on sale! haha,) so overall, it was a bumping little package for the money!
I had the 1200.1 version of this amp but I thought I remembered it doing 1500 RMS and I believe was made for 2 ohm I ran it wired to 1 ohm and it got warm but sounded good like a lot of headroom
Just curious, is the total distortion setting on the dyno changeable? Just seeing these amps are usually stating 0.1% THD against their power rating. Would be interesting to see if they meet those figures at 0.1%. Feels like the 1% THD allowed gives them the benefit of the doubt by a big margin. Or am I way off here? I still have some real old JBL 4" speakers somewhere in their box. Along with a JBL GTP4 "soundstage controller". Parts from days and projects gone by. Should really dig this stuff up and give them a go.
It is not changeable and not a big deal IMO. Back in the day most of the audio labs testing equipment for magazines used clipping as their point of measurement, so 1% is much better. Although many amps I test do nearly the same power at 1% and Clipping because of their design
Soo. I had this old dayton audio 1000 watt home subwoofer rack mount amp.. And with that the power light would start to flicker back and forth from blue to red. When the amp was clipping hard. But when it would go into protect the amp would click off and the led light would go solid red. And then a few seconds later the amp would turn back on and the light would go back to blue. Is that a similar possibility with this JBL? Just had me wondering cause the power kept climbing when the light was switching. On the The dayton amp. It would do this with much lower volume when it had a wimpy power cord. I tried a heavyer power cord and it would perform allot better Before it would go into protect. So I was wondering if a bigger fuse would allow a little more performance on the JBL. I wouldn't go to crazy tho. Don't want to smoke something..lol
