auzivision

Amp pictures

jmrjames

WOW !!!!

With some of these setups I believe that you could leave the planet and go into orbit.

Hilton

Randomly bumping an old thread, as I've been watching/looking for an answer to this question for over a year now.

Finally, a useful-ish amplifier has been released which fits comfortably in the stock location. Its in the 2012 amp range for Soundstream.

Picasso Nano PN4.320D
http://www.soundstream.com/html/amps-picasso-nano.html

Size is: 1.5" H x 7" L x 4.75" W - which makes is a fair bit smaller than the stock factory amp:


This new amp is 4-channel (Class D), and will drive 2ohm speakers like the original 6" woofers in the 10-speaker setup.

Once my '89's interior is ready to put back together, I'm getting one of these. They apparently run cool too which is important for that small space by the passenger seat.

It can be bridged, so it offers flexibility for driving rear woofers/mids, or woofers/sub (and run the mids off the headunit's rear speaker output). I plan on driving the door speakers off the head unit regardless. (note - if you want to run the woofers off this amp, its worth making a simple low-pass filter.. the stock Blau amp contained one at around 1500khz).

I'm not going for audiophile quality - I just want to get all 10 of the stock speakers working properly and sounding reasonable; the PO of my '89 ditched the stock amp and badly wired up the speakers. Sure I could have done this before now with a big ugly amp - but I don't want amplifiers mounted anywhere in sight, or anywhere that costs me storage space, and want to keep the spare wheel in the car too.

MFranke

I installed an Alpine KTP-445u in the stock location. It fits nicely and sounds great for the front (Polk) and rear seat speakers (MB Quart) (the far hatch speakers are disconnected). A separate California 400w amp powers a Polk C-4 Isobaric Sub that fits nicely in the hatch area behind the seats.

If you are still running with the original speakers, the cones are probably disintegrating by now and I doubt they will sound good.

'88 S-4 Auto Silver Metallic/Black

Hilton

I paid a local company to rebuild all my stock speakers including new foams and dust covers - I used them on recommendation from a local GTS owner who already had them do his car

Chuck Schreiber

Not sure what the sound Quality is on Rockford Fosgate, but these look about as small as you can get!!!

Hilton

They're pretty much the same size as the soundstream, but aren't bridgeable and don't drive 2ohm speakers. However from reading the interwebs, they may sound better than the soundstream?

It all depends what you're trying to build, which speakers you've selected, and how fixed on sound quality versus just having reasonable tunes Although I guess the people who want sound quality as their primary concern don't mind mounting amps in visible locations, and probably have more options.

Seems thos of us who want to hide it all away have three 4-channel options to fit the factory location by the passenger seat:

Alpine KTP-445U
Soundstream PN4.320D
Rockford Fossgate PBR300X

danglerb

Googled Soundstream a bit, no decent retailer in the US seems to carry them, and the class D stuff had some bad reviews. Approach with caution.

Seems like the industry trend in car stereo is a big empty case. Good small amps aren't easy to find.

Hilton

Hmm.. I don't live in the US, so might be a bit unaware - top link on google for me was this place:

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...m_PN4320D.aspx

Its who I was planning on ordering from - should I be wary of them? (edit: seems like a mixed bag - various audio forums say they're ok, some have had issues, resellerratings is appalling but too few reviews to be trustworthy.)

From my research on car audio forums, SS used to have an excellent reputation in $$$ top-end SQ competitions, but were acquired (by Epsilon) and suffered product direction and production issues. It seems they're trying to make a comeback, but at the cheaper and higher volume end of the market now.

Forum review of the Picasso Nano amps:

http://www.caraudioforum.com/showthread.php?t=342455

Bearing in mind these forums are full of audio quality obsessors, and that I'm just after reasonable music listening while driving, I figure its worth a shot. I've been tracking amp sizes for almost 2 years now and yes, I'm a possibly a little over excited that finally there's one I can put in my cars without having ugly bling, as well as meeting my requirements for powering stock speakers and maybe adding a sub (I also just got my hands on a self-powered sub in an enclosure that fits in the spare on my '87 S4 with its stock 4-speaker setup).

bogdann

Hilton, can you tell me what you bought in the self powered sub?

I would like Hans' setup with the sub but I don't think you can risk not having a spare in Australia if you want to do some long road trips. Have an amp and a tube sub now but it takes up too much room.

Thanks

Hilton

Its the stock one from in the spare wheel of a Nissan Rogue in the USA - has a built-in Bose amplifier and can be wired up to take the on/off signal and subwoofer line-out from the head unit. I paid about $US70 for it including the pigtail (to make wiring easier), plus shipping.

I'll be installing it in my '87 - with the silver forged spare rim. It sits up a little high, so I'll probably make a 3mm MDF replacement for the spare-tyre cover with a hole to accomodate the top of the sub enclosure. It'll be invisible under the carpet as the top of it sits flush with the foam padding on the right-side of the hatch under the carpet.

Being designed to fit in a spare, it has a hole through the middle, so I'll be tapping and bolting it to the plate that holds the spare in place, so it won't fly in an accident.

My '87 has just the basic 4-speaker setup behind perforated panels - the speakers in it are tiny so I need something to add bass, and this woofer seems like an ok solution.

danglerb

That was the only place that wasn't totally fishy looking selling Soundstream, and its odd that none of the other major car audio places carry it.

Andy Kay

My Alpine KTP-44SU will be available next week! I bought it few months ago from Best Buy. It's a nice little amp but it's coming out when the Sharkwoofer and Project Nine speakers arrive. I'm replacing the Alpine with the Kenwood XR-5 amp.