Gold plated display amps with class A power

[Johns98TA]

Now that I have your attention -- I would LOVE to see PG return to their roots and build beautiful gold plated class A amps meant to show off the internals. When I went to the local stereo shop today, they showed me all kinds of fancy new Alpine and Rockford amps. They all look like boring black or silver boxes with cheap plastic cases that try to look fancy. They looked cheap but the prices sure as hell weren't.
Right now it looks like my money is much better spent on vintage phoenix gold stuff. It would be awesome if they brought back a line of MS or ZX or ZPA type amps that offered CLEAN power and a beautiful board to look at. In my personal opinion, those early amps are what gave PG their rep. When they stopped making the nice amps and went to the newer cheaper designs, they lost my interest. Maybe the money wasn't there for PG, I don't know. But I do know I would spend $300 on a used ZX 500 way before I would go buy a new class D 1kw plastic amp.

[dvnt88]

I agree ...but if you dig a little deeper (including your pockets) check out the new Elite line of amps ...PG at it's best to date. I personally love the old ZX / TI / Xenon lines, but after owning the new Elite.5 and hearing the rest of the Elite line ...PG still has it and always has , just my .02c as anyone whose seen or is currently running any of he Elite amps will chime in.

[Drock]

I currently own many pg line amps. And after a year of having my elite amps there is no going back to any other amp. They are simply the best amps IMO. And not only do they sound awesome the pack a powerful punch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kirghiz]

So, what I read was that you would rather buy an old Phoenix Gold amp over the junk that Fosgate and Alpine are building these days. Yeah, I would too. Thankfully, for me at least, the new Elite amps are better than any of those amps, and you'll be hard pressed to find a better car amp anywhere in the past or present.

[ttocs]

I have to agree that the Elite amps are the best that they have made too date, so I will be rolling with them.. We all miss the pretty circuit boards but are willing to trade it for awesome sound.

[Johns98TA]

Thanks for the tip on Elites, I will definitely check them out. It sure would be nice to have gold plated display boards again. Remember when gas was .99 cents and a new ZPA .5 was $1000? I can do the math in todays dollars. Would a $3000 gold-plated amp sell? Does that leave any profit? I wonder how much raw gold is in a typical old school MS 2250?

[Kirghiz]

I honestly don't think it would, and here is why. Several people on this forum, not just one or two, attest to the fact that the Elites are the best sounding amps Phoenix Gold has ever made. When you can get a single amp that is 125x4 rms and also has a sub channel capable of doing 1100 watts rms, and do it sounding better than the prolific gold plated amps, with a price tag around $1100, it's hard to make a case against that. You would need some combination of two or even three vintage amps to match that, not to mention line drivers and balanced signal convertors to match the sound quality. That's the Elite.5 five channel.

If you want to drop 3 grand though, get yourself an Elite.4, an Elite.1, and the alternators and batteries to feed them. You won't want for power, and the sound quality will astound you. It amazes me that more people in car audio aren't falling all over themselves to get these amps right now. The Elites are the best kept secret in car audio at the moment.

If you want to make them prettier swap out the tinted glass and pop some LED strips inside the case. it'll dress them right up.

[Johns98TA]

How about a limited run of elite amps with gold plated board and fixtures? I cant argue with modern technology, but bling is bling. Phoenix Gold should at least offer something in gold! Remember the first time you saw an MS amp with a plexi cover? Sparkling gold all over. That is a memory I will never forget. Yes its totally unnecessary, but that's not the point.

[Kirghiz]

Remember the first time you saw an MS amp with a plexi cover? Sparkling gold all over. That is a memory I will never forget. Yes its totally unnecessary, but that's not the point.

In 1997 the price of gold was $370 an ounce at the start of the year, and $300 an ounce at the end of the year. Those amps I would say had a grand total of perhaps a half ounce of gold in them. It wasn't a lot of gold. What was $150 worth of gold at the time didn't increase the retail price of the amp very much. The same half ounce of gold now is over $600, which as it happens, the same money can get you a decent amp now. It's really not feasible to use gold for anything in electronics in which it isn't required because of the cost.

But, if you have the kind of money to drop on gold plated amplifiers in today's economy, you might just as well get this Russian made SUV. It has a "whale penis leather" interior. Everybody has gold plated amplifiers, but no one can claim that their seats are made from whale penis leather.
http://jalopnik.com/5380680/15m-russian ... is-leather

[Johns98TA]

Yeah I did the math. Gas and gold have both more than tripled since the mid 90's. In 1996 I could buy 350 gallons of gas for one ounce of gold. Today that trade is still about the same. Thats because gold is real money, not fiat. But thats a different topic all together. I just think that the gold plating and the board showcasing was a big part of the PG allure. They weren't the only ones making excellent class A amps at the time. Their niche was in the presentation. Bring back the gold!

[Kirghiz]

There were a lot of amps back then that were pretty close in terms of quality, and as you say, the gold set Phoenix Gold apart. Now though, PPI is a shadow of it's former self, Orion isn't what it was, Fosgate is in it's usual fleecing period of their business cycle, Alpine is solid but not amazing (Just the amps), Soundstream isn't up there anymore, and so on. There are some amps that are competitive with PG's new amps, Audison for one, but as a whole, there aren't many brands that are on that level now. Really, speakers and subs is where all the competition is at right now, not so much in the amplifiers. He who can make a class d amp that makes 5000 rms, distortion be damned, will sell a bunch of them. Everyone wants to hit 160db, and the brands are catering to that. Phoenix Gold is catering to both mindsets, kudos to them.

[ZTwenty8SSR]

.

[Mr. Wild]

PG amps aren't class A amps either. Class AB with triple darlington is what they are. But for me too, it's the gold that sold me in the beginning. I think the first PG amps I ever laid my eyes on were the M-series. They have the beautiful combination of white and gold on the outside and the wonderful surprise of real gold on the inside. Plus they sound great. I get to listen to them every day.

[KUBE]

I am sure the Elite amps are great. However why do they look so dull? A plain black case is so generic. It is a great shame PG do not look cool any more. Why turn their back on their heritage (looks wise)? It would be simple to make them look so much better with a little more effort. White heatsinks, some trick graphics on plexi, gold plating (pretty damn cheap in reality). Come one, you are supposed to be PG.

[groundpounder]

I am a dye hard MS fan! I can not atest to the elite amps. But I do know modern technology usually equils cheaper parts and a bigger price tag?

[Kirghiz]

But I do know modern technology usually equils cheaper parts and a bigger price tag?

I wish I still had the laptop, cell phone, tablet, ipod, and VHS tapes that I had back in 1996! They were epic.

[groundpounder]

With today's cell phone why even waist your money on an amp?

[captainobvious]

I actually like the look of the Elites. I wish they had clear plexi instead of smoked though. It's hard to see anything through it, so you waste that pretty board setup.

[Drock]

X2. I'm getting some clear plexy next week to replace two of my elite amps smoked plexy. I'll take some pics and post when done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kirghiz]

X2. I'm getting some clear plexy next week to replace two of my elite amps smoked plexy. I'll take some pics and post when done.

Please do that. If yours looks good I might do it to mine, and go one further and have either "Phoenix Gold", "Elite", or both, frosted onto the plexi. I want to do something to them, and adding LED strips under the plexi didn't work out. There wasn't anywhere out of sight to stick them.

[Drock]

I stuck mine inside the heat sink channel just under were the plexi mounts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kirghiz]

I stuck mine inside the heat sink channel just under were the plexi mounts.

On the Elite or the Ti 5 channel? Post pics of that too please, as well as how you ran the power wire out of the chassis.

[Drock]

I'm taking it to a local service tech who will be making the mod to power the LEDs internally.
And sorry yes I was thinking of the ti21600.5 not the elite. I haven't opened an elite up yet. But I'll post pics as it I completed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk