Phoenix Gold Phorum

New to forums but I have a question. I've had reactor #222 for a while now and it is all black under the cover. I recently got reactor #394 In bad shape but it was free. My question is that the power and speaker connections on both sides are white. Did they use both black and white zx450 and 500's when they made these, and if so what was the ratio of black and white. On a side note does anyone out there have an extra cover, mine is missing. Thanks.

My guess is those are not the original boards in it. The stock ZX450 and ZX500 boards are drop in replacements for the original boards in a Reactor, so someone may have changed them at some point.

I have owned at least 6 Reactors over the years, plus I have seen countless ones online, and I have never come across any with white power and speaker terminals.

But, PG has been known to do strange things, so it really is possible the boards are original.

I seriously doubt you will find an "extra" cover. Since they are a Limited Edition amp, there are only so many around. I think your best would be to find one that doesnt work and take the cover.

LL

Yea I thought maybe someone had dead one and didn't need it anymore. And the amp still has the reactor serial number stickers on it and they look untouched. I think more reaserch is needed.

pg would not have thrown non-matching terminals into a LE amp. My guess is that someone made a repair of some type on it and used what they found.

ttocs wrote:pg would not have thrown non-matching terminals into a LE amp. My guess is that someone made a repair of some type on it and used what they found.

Exactly what I was thinking, especially when he mentioned it was free (its obvious it's not working and someone already took the pleasure to remove/replace certain parts such as the white terminals for the black ones).

As for an extra cover, REALLY DUDE? A LE amplifier and you think or believe there's an extra cover out there? Would be best to make a custom one, not hard just have to find the right person that can do it.


The last one BigDWiz tested was a member's custom made amp that had two 600.2ti's in one chassis. Might want to contact the owner to see if he knows who made it.

I have been watching pg parts for a long long time. Only rarely do you see someone that has a back plate for an M of MS amp that has been smoked but I have never seen a LE like that. Not sure how hard it would be to make another I mean if you have a good one to work off it might not be that bad.

Eric has a extra top cover he made it stainless I think.
I have seen only one or two people sell the cover neon etc for a reactor

Yea its basically a spare. But if I can get it up and running I might build a custom cover and use it in my 66 mustang. The only part I find wierd is that the serial tags are stuck on really good and dont look tampered with. Maybe a factory warraty swap. Oh well if it works it works.

Got some pics. As far as the amp being free. I have been installing car audio for 18 yrs. done a lot of friends cars cheap so when they have something I want it's usually cheap or free. Back scratching thing. Thanks for the help. I have ordered 10000uf caps for it. Might have caught it on fire if not for you guys.

I have owned two reactor and they have never had a le sticker like that 100% fake so are the boards beinh oem they were replaced sorry

Cool. Just what I needed to know. Once I get it up and running I'll make sue I don't sell it as a legit reactor if someone wants it. Just a zx 450 and 500 in a neat mount.

Maybe a zx950 built from end of run parts or something? Or zx950 with boards replaced and cover removed?

I have owned many Reactors and they have had stickers on them like what I posted below. I suppose someone could have printed those to make the boards seem original, but if they did that, why leave the white terminals?

My guess is your amp is actually real, and is just one more of the "throw together what you have lying around" PG products we have all come to know over the years. PG has made many items with slight cosmetic differences before.

Just to deepen the mystery, here is a possible scenario... Reactor 394 falls off a pallet of finished Reactors and is extensively damaged. When PG is all done making 1-500 of them, they have some chassis and covers left over, as you always build a few spares since you don't know what can happen. But, purchasing only ordered 1-500 of the label sets for the boards, since they only ordered 1-500 of the embossed and serialized plates on the top of the cover. Production grabs a ZX500 and ZX450 board, places them in a spare chassis, and using the shop label maker, prints new 394 labels. They still have the 394 top plate, as the sides of the cover were damaged in the fall off the pallet, but the plate survived. All this goes together to make a replacement for 394, and what is left of the original 394 ends up in a dumpster.

vladthebad wrote:Maybe a zx950 built from end of run parts or something? Or zx950 with boards replaced and cover removed?

The bottom half of the chassis is definitely a Reactor. The ZX950 didn't have the top mounting tabs like that.

Heck if they really bother you replace them. Am sure someone here has the black terminals (I have a spare zx amp that has the black terminals). I believe Alkes have the speaker terminals brand spanking new for about 12.00 each.


What I want to know is what is that brown liquid residue on the board by the speaker terminals? The filter caps that leak are on the opposite side...

Looks like a coating on the board is coming off.

Yep the coating is coming off. I assume it's from the caps leaking

Weaklink wrote:Yep the coating is coming off. I assume it's from the caps leaking

How if the leaky caps are in the power supply which happens to be on the opposite end.... it could be the electrolytic from those caps but they would of happen to have leaked very badly to reach all the way over there (in that case it would of damage anything in its path).

Good point. I'm not sure but the coating is coming off both sides. I'm replacing the caps now and don't see any bad traces. I don't know the history on this one maybe something spilled on it.

So I put the amp on eBay. Got a message from a guy in portland that had the amp stolen from him 12 yrs ago. He seems legit on his claim. Says he had the cover till about 5 yrs ago when his house went into foreclosure. Says he doesn't expect anything from me but I think the right thing to do would be to reunite him with his amp. Any opinions?

Weaklink wrote:So I put the amp on eBay. Got a message from a guy in portland that had the amp stolen from him 12 yrs ago. He seems legit on his claim. Says he had the cover till about 5 yrs ago when his house went into foreclosure. Says he doesn't expect anything from me but I think the right thing to do would be to reunite him with his amp. Any opinions?

I'd be awfully leary of someone saying thatcit used to be theirs. Did the pics you posted have the white terminals showing? Any other distinguishing marks that you could quiz him on?

I too had an old school PG amp stolen back in the day. But I wouldn't try to convince someone that their M44 was mine...

Stolen 12 years ago? Holy shit how many times has it switched hands since then? That is pretty crazy, but did he proof it was his beyond the pics you posted already? I mean I could say it's mine and give you obvious details that are shown in your posted pics. Did he explain the white terminals or did that happen in the hands of another owner? So many questions, lol.

I don't know if your taking a loss on it, but if you make a profit on it when it ends/sells then may be you could give the profits to him? I know it won't make up for the amp but at least something to show him your tried to make it some what fair. Just my 2 cents.

Well the story is. He traded a car for the amp back in the day. The sub side didn't work. A friend of his knew a guy named Ives and he could repair it. Apparently this friends cousin stole the amp to sell for drugs. He didn't know where it went after that. The amp never made it to Ives. I know this because ives used to build amps for me and I still keep in touch with him so I called him up. He knew a couple of the orig owners other friends and they were usually on the up and up. There is a good chance it's his but maybe not. He doesn't have any hard proof it was his though. Kinda torn.

Just said he didn't want the amp back. It just brought back memories and he thought it was cool it popped back up and was still around.