The max power ratings are rated WLS. When Lightning Strikes the amp, it will put out true rated power for a fraction of a second before it blows. 20+ years ago I told customers this on a regular basis when I sold car audio!!
Around '06 I dated a girl that was a seasoned cellphone salesperson. She got a job at a car audio shop that had a sizeable cellphone department, but she was required to train up on car audio sales to help out when cellphone sales were slow. The analogy I explained to her was that the max power rating is like the speedometer on a car. Just because it says 120mph doesn't necessarily mean that the car is capable of going that fast. Even if it is, you wouldn't be able to drive at that speed for very long, and the consequences will probably be severe if you do. The RMS ratings are the speed that DOE measures your fuel economy at 😁
I remember a friend of mine bought a gigantic amplifier from a flea market. Gigantic claims on the art work on top of it. I took the cover off of it, and it had a small circuit board in one corner of the amp. The amp was at least 80% empty inside. Lol!
Had a Rockwood 1000 like that. It was a monster of a heatsink. Tiny little amp with very little power. Funny thing is I bought a brand new Rockwood Detonator 300 and it actually had a decent bit of power, probably more than the 1000.
@@wal Hello Big D I am just coming back to car audio! Will you give your opinion on what would be a great bang for the buck setup for head unit sub and amp? The setup will be going in a 2004 Lexus is300.
Ever since you tested the CT sound amps, I've already bought 3 more. A 1500 a 1000 and a 700. They have really good sound and don't even heat up. Keep up the sick videos
Great video. My first two amps were purchased in 1990 from a flea market. They were Pyramid Gold series amps that I installed in my Honda CRX. I still have both of them and believe it or not, they still work perfect. lol
I have one just like his minds stop producing sound and can not be fix it is a main IC chip with tiny legs that looks like it was solder on by a machine :/
@@kdeep1690 I'm pretty sure it's the CDA-9813 I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that it is. The old ones are worth $$ if they still work, he should maybe look into getting his repaired. I've seen them sell for up to $300, some people like the old stuff. I have a few vintage amps that people are always asking me to sell.
Going by the fuse rating on the flea market amps my friends and I bought were probably the only reason we didn't get totally ripped off back in the day.
I was a car audio salesman/installer in the early 00's and I had many a customer come in with dead RCAs on their decks from amp grounds shaking loose and the amp at full tilt trying to pull ground through wherever it could. To Panasonics credit they were the only company that wouldnt push back on warranty replacements. I was really sad then they exited the head unit game, for the money they were unbeatable. I still have my G-Shock deck, one of the first of its kind to actually have anti skip. It would scan ahead like 20 seconds and could play CDs with scratched you could see through. What a unit! I can sympathize with the sad death of a deck like that, I was crushed when mine started having issues. It was like losing an old friend.
Man, the Panasonic decks from that era were seriously slept on. I'm hoarding like three or four of them. Currently have the CQ-C8413U in my daily. Using that thing until it gives up the ghost 👻
@@ismaelgarcia8243 I still have one rocking in my grandmas old car. Panasonic head unit to Hifonics amps, pushing Phoenix Gold mids and Audiobahn subs. Its a time capsule for sure lol
Reminds me of a Sparkomatic Lc52 old school mini amp(they refer to it as a "power booster"). But at least they rated it more accurately at 40watts and made the case only as big as it had to for the circuit board, which made it much more convenient because you can place it under the dash. It also had a button so you can easily turn it on and off.
This is one of my top 5 videos you have done, I really enjoy the laid-back feeling of it. The most impressive part is you found one of those amplifiers! I think those amplifiers were made to smuggle drugs in them, that's why there's so much extra room.
It's easy to clown on this thing in the modern day, but to put things in perspective keep in mind that manufacturers sold tape decks and even CD players well into the '90s and even a bit in '00s that had small, cheap ICs putting out 3-5 watts RMS per channel. And when I say "channel" I mean left and right. Faders were sometimes wired in AFTER the two channel amp and loaded the amp with the speakers in series to match impedance so your actual power at the speaker was even less. An external amp like this that put out 3x the power was a legit upgrade if you were running large door speakers or 6x9s. But I pity the fool who dared connect them to subs
Love watching these flea market vids .. i would love to see this amp retested through the high level inputs.. see if you can pump 250w in it and what you get out of it ..
Can you test some head units on the dyno too? I'd love to see an Alpine cda 9835 on the dyno along with some other head units. I'd never use the built in amp but it would be interesting to see. The reason for the 9835 is because it has that extra box on the back which is supposed to be for better power.
Love the channel and content Big D this reminds me of the amp my mom bought me from a swap meet she got me a JBC amp (just be cool) back in the mid 90s it was rated 1000 watts it worked ok I opened it up and the internals could have fit in less than half of the case. I love seeing the vintage amps being tested no matter what they are keep it up.
The "eq" on the amp is setup with the bass up and the treble up to have any speaker sound amazing😂 I still see people today who still setup an eq like that🤦😂 But what matters it's a flea market amp, quality is 99% guaranteed! 😂😂😂
I know it probably won’t matter for dyno purposes but that DEH-80PRS is probably my favorite head unit ever. The three-way network mode sounds so clean.
I’ve got a pair of those Monoprice bookshelf speakers too. They’re been in my control booth at work hooked to a Pyle class T bluetooth amplifier. They sound decent and have lasted years with no problems.
The wiring coming out of it is just hilarious. It offers nothing over a head unit, and I'd rather run on head unit power. I think I had a JDL amp 4 channel I got from a relative 20 years ago, fairly large amp considering what it had inside and couldn't believe it had a pair of head-unit chipamps in it. Wasn't a whole lot smaller than a Rockford 800a2 (minus the end caps of course).
@4:20 - Nail-biting. True story, BigD - I used to bite my nails so bad that I had deformed my nail beds and they would bleed all the time. I had done it for almost 50 years. I had stopped on a couple of occasions but always went back like an old smoker. What finally got me to stop biting my nails was trying to record RU-vid videos. I wanted to not feel the embarrassment that I always felt about my fingers. I quit biting them at the same time that my wife and I went ultra low carb. My nails began to grow faster than they ever had in my life. I now have to clip them regularly. Not ONE day goes by that I don't want to chew my fingers again. It's really a comfort thing with me. I'm happy I quit that habit, but it's as hard a heroin. I don't record many RU-vid videos, but I can scratch my wifes back again. :D
Damn that's some serious power there. It's on par with my factory stereo I took out of my car and that thing was a monster! It was so powerful that you could feel the speakers vibrate if you cranked it. 🤣
"...change it virtually in your mind!" Legit had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard at that. Showed my friend and I did again. They didn't care ... at all ... but I'm still replaying that line. :D
I worked ay a stereo shop in the late 80 s early 90 s. We did installs and repair. Saw a lot of flea market amps that had lead or steel plates bolted inside their nearly empty cases. If its heavy it must be good.
Hey Big D. I have a Perfect small amp for Flea Market Friday's. It's an amp from the 90s that many people have seen I'm sure that would love to see on the Dyno. It was owned by my Late Brother and Myself. It was supposed to be installed into my Brothers 1996 Toyota Trecel hatchback back in the day, but was gifted an Alpine amp instead. We've always wondered what the amp would actually do. If you're interested in acquiring the amp, please send me a Personal DM and we can figure some stuff out. My Cousin got both of us into Car Audio back in the mid 90s, and ive never stopped.
Can someone tell me some information/specs in layman's terms on a US Amp 4300x. It's also connected to a "bridgeable" (connected?) 1000 watt amp with a capacitor and a 6 channel line output converter.
So that 80s Sparkomatic 250wpc that I just picked up at the flea market is no good ? I am sure if it was air cooled like this beauty it would pick up another 50wpc !
My favorite flea market amps were made by "American Pro". If you wanted to step up the quality at the market, you would get a "Ample Audio" amplifier. However, the Ample Audio amps turned out to be damned good for the money. They made even better products later on prior to going belly up. :(
Did he say in the video what he paid for the amp? I’d love to know. LOL. You can hear when he was moving the amp around how hollow it sounded. I knew the “guts” were going to be nonexistent. GOOD VIDEO!!
Remember my homeboys getting these talking about they're going to shake the windows out of my house I had a couple alphasonik PSW900 12s and two Alphasonik PMA2500A amps shaking down the block I don't know where you would find it now but I'd like to see you test some old alphasonik equipment
You didn't show how the spectrum analyzer works? What about the other stic- I mean lite display on the right? What do you get for $10? Anything you want.
I'm gonna pour out a drink for your 9815, I'd be *devastated* if it were mine. I've had them all, I like the 9835 the best, it has all the same Bass Engine Pro, 60x4 V-Drive and all the good stuff, but has the BIOLITE OLED screen. Wasn't keen on the glide touch on the 9855, but they gave you a graphic EQ on that one for the first time. When the 9886 came out with Imprint, I bought it, then dumped that hot garbage within weeks, I got an Eclipse CD7100, had it ever since, 2008 boi! I got a Pioneer P99RS, I use it as a pre-amp and run it into the Eclipse's AUX, gives me 2x EQs and 12 channels 😁
The Alpine that just died would flog the crap out of that amp, she's 26wrms per channel son!! If you get that beast fixed, what I would do if I were you (coz I used to when I owned them back in the day), is when using it, press the play\pause and the source button together at the same time 🤙
I'm having trouble with my bass in my car I have a Clarion EQ and I'll turn the bass knob all the way down and I'll still get bass in my car what could the problem . If you have any input I will gratefully appreciate it I'll try everything and I don't know what it could be I'm thinking it could be the RCA's and I also have a Clarion crossover
hey Big d, have great holidays, Merry Christmas and happy new year as well,... When are you testing some apocalypse deaf bonce?? I got the 4900.1 and would like to see some results. Thanks Toms up
Why don't I see any calculated efficiency ratings? 4ohm Dynamic test pulling 1.9 amps @14.5 volts(27.55 watts) @7:40 when pushing 15 watts per channel. Overunity?
I was sure to watch all of the ads on this video in hopes you would get something for your time. Always enjoy your vids Big D but this thing is ridiculous. Will be looking out for odd amps to send ya in the future
Should be be more than 3 per video. If you want ad free experience, get RU-vid premium. It’s $10/mo and we’ll worth it as you have zero ads! I appreciate you watching them as is 🤙
I have a boss audio/zed audio amp board that I got in a pile of broke amp boards. I fixed it but now need a heat sink, that JDL heatsink looks like it would almost work.