Directed Sells Off Precision Power

By: Ben Vollmer, Car Audio Nationals / Team SoundDomain

Precision Power back in the day made some of the finest amps ever, and I used to drool over them on a regular basis. The Art Series was one of the coolest looking amps and featured the ability to tap into the hollow areas of the top and bottom of the amp to run a water cooled system through it (which usually picked up some additional creativity points for competitors). Here is the A600.2, which touted 150x2 and was a benchmark back in the mid 1990's when it was released.

 

They have been in the Directed family of brands since Directed bought a/d/s several years ago, but times change, and again, so has Precision Power's owner.

The brand is now at Epislon Electronics, Inc, which already owns some well known 12-volt brands such as:

• SoundStream
• Kole Audio
• SPL Audio
• Power Acoustik

Epsilon Electronics acquired all branding rights and existing inventory. Warranty service for qualified product sold through the Directed Electronics channel will continue to be processed by Directed.

I hope that the new owners will return "PPI" to it's original sound quality roots. Ah, the memories.

Old Is New--And Improved! SoundStream Reference Amps

As many of you know, I'm a firm believer that car audio is going to see a renaissance of the classics just as the automotive industry has in the last few years. Many of us old folks often reminisce about the good 'ol days of car audio, discussing brands that used to be, products that share a special place in our heart, or demo cars that "changed our lives". When brands and products come up, SoundStream is definitely one of the favorites, and their Reference Series the topic of many conversations. Well, after a 10 year hiatus the SoundStream is bringing the Reference Series back! But not as the same 'ol amps we remember. Change can be a good thing, and certainly is in this case. Over the last 10 years amplifier technology has come a very long way, and SoundStream has taken advantage of the time passed and have made significant improvements to the Reference Series:

"...4:1 power supply ratio, precision wound toroidal transformers and inductors, polystyrene capacitors, high speed switching J-FET OP amps and precision tracking potentiometers."

The Reference amps can also take advantage of SoundStream's BLT-4 balanced line transmitter for amazing noise rejection and signal strength. Follow the jump for more details and pics of these legendary sound quality amps. Same great looks, same great sound quality, but now with improved performance!

Bassforms Announces "Does Your Box Rock" Contest Judges

In case you didn't see the initial post, Bassforms is holding fiberglass box building competition at this year's Spring Break Nationals. The "Does Your Box Rock" challenge is to fabricate a fiberglass subwoofer enclosure that will be judged on cosmetic design and SPL output, and the top three winners will have their choice of the cash prize or a larger cash value that can be applied towards equipment from their own shop. At the time of our initial report, judges had not yet been announced. However, the cats' out of the bag and Bassforms has locked down an impressive line of judges for the challenge: Chris Yato, Jeremy Carlson, Jeremy Carlson, Jeremy Katz, Micah Williams, Steve Coogle, and Jeff Smith. Full details in the press release after the jump!

Lil' Wonder to Make a Big Comeback!

SoundStream recently announced they'll be reviving another great name from the SoundStream past, and with the name comes a great new amplifier series. Welcome back the Lil' Wonder, everybody! What you see here are computer mock-ups of the Lil Wonder III (the LW4500 to be exact), but SoundStream has promised us actual images as soon as the production models hit. The Lil Wonder series features an updated circuitry for lower THD, improved signal-to-noise ratios and lower noise floor, upgraded MOSFETs, and improved damping and better efficiency ratings by 10-15%. The Lil Wonder series will come in a 2, 4, 5, and mono-subwoofer offerings. We'll have more specs for you when they're available. And if you haven't checked out the new 2008 lines from SoundStream, I'd highly suggest hopping over to their website!

in the forums!

Source: SoundStream

SoundStream's 15,000 Watt Monster

The guys over at FloridaCarAudio grabbed a shot of this new monster SoundStream amplifier. According to SoundStream, this huge mother-of-all-amps puts out a whopping 15,000 watts RMS and is designed for the serious SPL competitor (no kidding?!). Specs and details are still not available, but they've promised to keep us in the loop. We'll let you know all the deets as soon as we find out and we'll also try to get our hands on some more pics and few close-ups as well. You can check out the original post and an additional picture over at FloridaCarAudio.

in the forums!