Phoenix Gold Phorum

Yesterday morning, while looking on CL, I came across a guy selling 2 SA series soundstreams. He was asking 140 for the pair and they looked pretty clean. They were about 1 hour round trip away from me though, so I almost didnt call on them. I finally called him up last night (after I got off work) and we talked for about half an hour about car audio. The seller was a really cool guy who, after talking for a while, agreed to meet about 10 minutes away from me, because he felt that I was into car audio like he had been (he said he had people call him and ask him about his soundstorm amps and offer him 10 bucks for the pair) and he felt that I would take care of them and not abuse them. While talking with him, I asked if he had anything else, and he said that he a pioneer DSP unit but wasnt sure if he wanted to sell it. We talked about his old system and he said that he sold off a pair of reference 1000s and 2 JL 10w7s last month (missed those on CL else I would probably own them). Anyways, we met up today and I ended up buying the soundstreams (SA244 and USA204) and the pioneer DEQ-9200 which will be replacing my PG 215ix and audiocontrol 4xs (unless I decide to hook those up for a rear channel and use the pioneer for the fronts). I paid 220 for everything, and he threw in a few RCA cables and a 0 gauge RF fuse block. The USA204 also came with the original box. The amps are mint. I cannot find a defect on them anywhere. the Dsp has a minor scratch on the face and a scuff on the corner of the brain box. All in all, I am incredibly happy with my new purchase.

Also, I would like to get the caps replaced prior to using the amps in my car.

Nice score. I had that pioneer unit for many years. I loved it. It was a top notch unit in its day.

Those amp probably don't need their caps replaced. If you can, post a photo of the circuit boards to verify this.

There are only a few other amps besides PG which used the same capacitors that eventually fail.

Eric D wrote:Those amp probably don't need their caps replaced. If you can, post a photo of the circuit boards to verify this.

There are only a few other amps besides PG which used the same capacitors that eventually fail.

The caps in the soundstreams might not fail like pg and zapco amps but from my understanding replacing the caps is a good idea in any older amp to keep them working as they did when new. Am I wrong?

a couple inside shots

some pics of the deq-9200 working

Love that pioneer eq. With I still had mine.

I think the risk of damaging the amplifier during a cap change outweighs the need to change caps on amps like these. Those look to be in excellent condition, and I really don't think changing the caps would gain you anything.

But, as with anything, this is more opinion than anything. I know if those were my amps I would not change the caps on them, but if you would feel better about them after a cap change, then it may be the right thing to do.

Eric, I'll take your advice. The only reason I was thinking about changing them is for longevity/ reliability. I wasnt thinking about it from a performance standpoint.
And yeah, theyre in excellent shape. One has a light scratch on a couple screwholes (cant see it unless you get really really close, and they would be covered by screws/ washers.)