Old school car audio - RIP

[Bchester6]

My buddy who helped me with my last OS install is a sponsored Hybrid Audio guy with Clarus setups in his cars. After tuning and a listen he replaced one of his vehicles with all old school Dynaudio comps and 2 original 12" CV Strokers. Just sayin...

[ttocs]

dyne, and strokers? that has to be the strangest mix of sq/spl I have heard of but then admitedly I only got to hear a couple pairs of strokers and they were in spl only vehicles.

[Bchester6]

Believe it or not it sounded exceptional. Stroker 12's are very sq oriented opposed the 18's everyone wanted. According to my buddy who was repair tech for Cerwin Vega, the Strokers were originally designed to be a SQ woofer but just happened to move massive amounts of air so they became everyone's "go to" in the competition circles back in the day.

[6ix]

Just because one man prefers HAT over Dynaudio does not mean that everyone will. You could easily find examples of the reverse. They are all very good speakers and at this level you are talking more about taste than sheer ability. Much like when you get into talking about the "best" of anything I suppose. Although that said, the backup from HAT is probably better as they actually respond to emails. So that alone is enough for many!

[kg1961]

Just because one man prefers HAT over Dynaudio does not mean that everyone will. You could easily find examples of the reverse. They are all very good speakers and at this level you are talking more about taste than sheer ability. Much like when you get into talking about the "best" of anything I suppose. Although that said, the backup from HAT is probably better as they actually respond to emails. So that alone is enough for many!

yes but this can go on for ever both way till we die
there will never be one that everyone likes this is what make us human I like rap other like rock country ect they can all sound different with new and old gear

I am a large fan of svc old school subs don't know why but I do
I love sealed box vs other again just what I like
old school will never die 100% with ebay kijiji, ect its almost retro like gaming toys ect

[6ix]

I am not arguing! I am saying the same as you. It is all personal

That is why I said IMHO in the first place on the previous page.

[Bchester6]

Preferences are like arseholes, everyone's got one
For me it's about consistency and knowing what your going to get when you wire it all up. I don't have the cash to drop on a fancy set of pricey new comps and a sub and hope it works out. I am always gonna reach into the cabinet and pull out what I know is going to produce high fidelity results which are typically OS components with a proven track record... Having said that, I will always be open to sampling other peoples setups as I know that at some point our old school gear will be impossible to find. Eventually the baton will pass...

[6ix]

Well at the moment you can still buy brand new speakers which as as good or better than anything old school. For example the best old PG comps were made by Morel. You can still buy those or even better right now. So I think finding mint or even new old school amps is a harder task as they are long gone.

[vwdude]

You guys all have some great points.

My take...I like to combine modern tech with an old school flare. I'm using a double din head unit that gives me an ability to play movies for my toddler or for myself while I'm parked. It also has just barely enough processing power to avoid getting a costly DSP.

I use a pair of old school class ab monsters to power my highs and mids. They are without crossovers (good luck finding that today) and have the beauty that I can show off. Yes they are using a balanced input, but it's not a proprietary plug, it uses cat6. Why isn't HDMi being used today? It's insane that with "modern" audio we still use RCA cables. You want to run a DSP in back and you want front/rear fade? Ok, run 4 channels of RCA. Want to run optically? Sure, but you can't control the volume from the source. If they want to be innovative they'd adopt HDMi from home products.

I'm also using a modern class d amp for my sub, but the sub is old school. What I havnt seen mentioned is that old school subs were much more efficient. While yes amps put out more power and suck less current, the modern subs require that extra power. By combining a good class d amp and an old school efficient sub I have more than enough power.

Now noise floor and alternators you say? How's a hybrid? While at low speed it's on electric with zero engine noise. I have batteries for days. My voltage stays at a solid 14.4 whether I'm driving on the freeway with no accessories on or stopped at a red light wi my head lights, a/c, and system a blast. Very stable electrical system.

So do I say RIP to old school? No. I'm all about using each item for its strengths. Some old, some new.

[6ix]

So do I say RIP to old school? No. I'm all about using each item for its strengths. Some old, some new.

Good summary!



With regard to old school subs I see two eras in those - before and after JL W6 (mk1). This was the turning point.

Proper old school subs required huge boxes of 1.5 to 2 or even 2.5 cubic foot or more for a 12" - give or take for each model. That was freaking huge for small UK cars to carry about. Maybe not an issue in USA where the average joe seems to run an aircraft carrier on wheels

So when JL released subs which could be put into half a cubic foot that was AMAZING! The trade off was always going to be efficiency. So for me there is a balance between convenience and power. Some subs hit this sweet spot better than others. Infinity Perfect were an example of getting close to ideal, as were JL W4 & W6 (mk1), Image Dynamics IDQ (mk1). For SQ use anyway.

[vwdude]

Yup I agree. My favorite subs are eclipse aluminum 8812, Orion hcca 12" (mk1), aura force 12", jl w6 (mk1) and Crystal cmp12. Those are all after the w6 and all work with 1 Cuft.

[NOT 2 OLD YET]

OK well I have had about enough of this thread! Old school is not dead! I am proof of it! I am on the IASCA circuit competing SQ running a MQ430 on non Morel Elites and my subs on a MPS2500! I am scoring in the 200 point range, and 2 first place wins. (Smaller shows) But I am keeping up with the new gear in a very hard vehicle to tune, and not a easy class to compete in. So again, Its not dead. If anyone thinks it is, then your in the wrong hobby. I am proud that I put this old PG gear back to work and am able to prove to some of the people at these shows that a 20+ year old amp can still keep up with the new technology. As far as I know I am one of the only guys running this much old gear, but it is sweet to see the smiles from the people that see and hear it.

[Bchester6]

Like most things in life, a good balance goes a long way....

[smgreen20]

Same here. I'm currently using a Clarion A4600 (6ch amp) and a LANZAR Opti500.

I've got a crap ton of OS items. I use/play/collect them. There's a huge group of us on FB, so to say that OS is dead....fraid not.

[Virtue]

"Blade" all the way!!!

[bigdwiz]

I'll weigh in a little here...old school car audio is far from dead!

Now, a question I get all the time...do you think old school car audio is the best? Not necessarily. Technology of amplifiers has for the most part moved to Class D. It's hard to dispute the convenience of a tiny amp, easy to hide, with enough power to run an entire system (JL HD and XD series amps come to mind). I use an XD500/3 in one of my vehicles. It sounds great and is easy to hide!

Think about OS Car Audio like old cars. For most of us, nostalgia, it's about finding something we always wanted and could never afford when we were teens. Many of today's amps are just cookie cutter versions, coming out of build houses in China and Korea. Not very good quality, but the prices are SO cheap! For the $300 it took to buy my Punch 45 back in 1991, you could get a 3000 watt amp today. Much more "bang for your buck" (quality is questionable though), but the high end / SQ focused gear is still pricey. The D'Amore Engineering 1500 watt amp goes for $4200. The Linear Power 2250 goes for around $2k. The PG Elite series amps are $1k plus.

I use a mix of old and new in my cars, but this is what I prefer. If you are a hard core old schooler, then you use a cassette deck, CD changer, external crossover, amps with molex plugs, old components, subs, etc. If that's what you like, that's cool! On the flip side, if you prefer all new stuff, a factory head unit / external DSP / multichannel Class D amp / quality speakers / etc, that's cool too! Fact is, factory systems today are better than ever, but they sure don't make it easy for us to swap out the head units!

The main reason I started doing videos on YouTube about OS Car Audio was because I did not see any other videos of this stuff out there and I thought there may be some people interested in nostalgia, seeing the old gear and saying "oh yeah, I remember that". Turns out there are quite a few of these folks. We have around 10k members in each of the OSS Facebook groups, with more joining all the time. The OldSchoolStereo Instagram has over 10k followers, YouTube is closing in on 20k subscribers. Forums are what's dead, not OS Car Audio!

[Bchester6]

Balance.... Thanks Big D.
I was at a buddy's house yesterday and he pulled out a mint set of Vifa tweeters (ring radiator type) with some OS a/d/s midrange woofers (dual 6 ohm) that he was planning on installing in his El camino. The build quality is so solid and I found myself getting all excited again about car audio. My buddy is a collector and has an entire apartment full of OS gold stacked to the ceiling which makes it hard for me not to spend hours there rummaging through his stash. What really got me hot was the OZ audio superman comps he pulled out of a box in it's original packaging!! Holy shit here we go again!! Since I finished my last install, I threw down the pliers and walked away.... It was by far my best install but yeah it was like that.

[kg1961]

Hmmm I need super man please

[Bchester6]

That's exactly what I said...

[smgreen20]

Just finished installing this yesterday. That mix of NS/OS.

NS: Cadence 4.8 DSP, Audiopipe APMI-1500
OS: LANZAR Opti100Q, Opti200

[Bfowler]

that looks sharp! nice work!

[Bchester6]

There you have it..