1980 Linear Power Model 901 Amp Dyno and Review

Рет қаралды 18,493

10 ай бұрын

#ampdyno #throwback #80s
Linear Power Model 901 from 1980
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Пікірлер: 151

@wal2 10 ай бұрын

See American E-Waste Recyclers at www.americanewasterecyclers.com See previous video of the Linear Power LP2250 Amplifier: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hNJ5m9Cbx6fQdHk.html Note: This video has footage from 2014 and most recently July 2023. I hope you enjoy the video *SHOP Affiliates* Down4Sound - Shop4Bass.com Sundown Audio SA-6.5SW Subwoofer: lddy.no/1cy5x D4S 3-way Components: lddy.no/1gh5c NVX Car Audio - bit.ly/448kM53 Amazon - amzn.to/3wNX6Fn SonicElectronix - bit.ly/35OUjLN Crutchfield - howl.me/cjZI33auToW _DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase from one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases_

@yodabolt1247 10 ай бұрын

Back in the early 90's I was running a Linear 2202 on a set of MB Quart Components in my car. It was easily the best sounding amp I've ever owned.

@luke144 10 ай бұрын

MB Quartz wicked. I had their servo subs, they replaced my strokers. Wicked hq!

@jameshobbs1460 9 ай бұрын

Q's?? Big fan of MB.. damn shame they sold..

@mattusapparatus5968 10 ай бұрын

I love the "not stable at 2 ohms" statement. There was zero protection back then, you can load that amp down until the components get so hot they desolder and fall out of the board 😂

@digitalbilly 10 ай бұрын

this old school content is GOLD!!!!

@danielknepper6884 10 ай бұрын

Much better than Justin price crap😊😅

@masterpieceIII 10 ай бұрын

Unforgettable Linear Power 901 Remarkable piece of Car Audio engineering from middle 80´s

@91CavGT5 10 ай бұрын

It is amazing at the quality of this equipment at that time. I highly doubt most car audio equipment sold today will still work, much less put out rated power in 40 years!! Great vid Big D!!!

@DiscoR53 10 ай бұрын

Anytime I see the old metal Motorola transistors. It just brings a smile to my face, having seen and worked with them in the past. They very robust components.

@jeffpelletier5186 10 ай бұрын

Kinda funny that a company named linear power built one of the first switching power supply amps.

@loudelvis610 10 ай бұрын

I was a Linerar Power dealer from about 1982 until whenever they went away in late 90s..well the original company went away and they got bought out ...I 've got a buddy that still has bunches of them....the owner told me the reason they used the TO3 outputs was because they also built equipment for the military and that was the military spec transistors they had to use....so they also used those in the car audio amps

@danielknepper6884 10 ай бұрын

I had a new in box 5002 and 8002 with the shrould, should have never sold them.

@willsteele9249 10 ай бұрын

Big D your knowledge of car audio is vastly superior to most. Thank you as always! I still think you should open up a car audio museum.

@wal2 10 ай бұрын

Thanks brother! I enjoy the old school and history part of car audio best, but unfortunately it's not the content most people want to see. I'll keep it coming and keep the old school alive!

@saschacubexyz 10 ай бұрын

@@wal2 are you sure? So many people love all these oldschool stuff.... 😉😉😉 Do you have enough time 4 that kind of business? 🤷‍♂️ I remember you have a great wall of oldschool stuff... 💪👍🆙️

@TheSFFV 10 ай бұрын

Hot damn another throwback

@brettcluckey4932 10 ай бұрын

@@wal2yeah I just wanna say I'm a 26 year old and I can't get enough of the old school equipment. I've got an old soul and can't help but to love old equipment in any hobby, that's where the heart and soul of things were at, minimum cookie cutterness and everyone wanted their product to stand out

@1pcfred 10 ай бұрын

45 years and it still works says it all. Talk about getting your money's worth.

@2011joser 10 ай бұрын

This video definitely brought back memories. I ran the Alphasonik eq at the beginning of the video back in the day. Living around Zapco’s hometown at the time, the Linears were a rare sight and were the stuff of dreams for a young guy with limited funds like me. Thanks for the video.

@LBarrientoz 10 ай бұрын

I love seeing these old amps on the dyno!

@dansgarage5121 10 ай бұрын

I have one of those Alphasonik A255 amps in my possession. Sitting next to it PEQ-7 passive equalizer. Seeing those in your video had me doing the double take. Still work...

@steveschwartz9771 10 ай бұрын

My first foray into real car audio back in '85' was a pair of CV Head 6x9's with a phenolic tweeter mounted in the grill cover, cast baskets (frt doors) and 8" Pyle drivers (back when they made pretty good stuff) in the back in a custom box, a Concord HPL-515 cassette deck and a 2 linear power 100 watt amplifiers. I was the loudest and the coolest thing on the block!

@chaos4197 6 ай бұрын

Of all the old school amps, Linear Power was the holy grail.

@defaultdriftco00 10 ай бұрын

I had a pair of those linear power 901 amplifiers given to me in the mid 90s! Man they’d get down!

@mistersunny3636 10 ай бұрын

Look at this beauty! Still running strong with only 50 electronic parts per channel. What a great amp. 🤗

@raymondruiz6108 10 ай бұрын

I was the first in my town put together a component system and my choice was the 901. I had problems with power supply because it was the first time I had to actual hook it up directly to the battery. I had problems with the amp one time and actually took it to a shack in Auburn, Ca which was Linear Power. Close by me and met the people who made the Amps. Great guys and they showed me around. They fixed it for free.

@scrappy7571 10 ай бұрын

WOW! My mind is blown!!. Totally forgot I had the 901 amp, it was in my '78 el camino. Had a Alpine head unit and radio shack Minimus 7 speakers. It had amazing sound for the time, until the whole set up was stolen. Rat Bastards fucked the dash board up, ripped the wire harness apart. Insurance covered it, but still sucked. A year later the cops called me and had recovered all of it along with a house full of stolen audio. Never realized how nice that amp performed, thanks for the test, and joggin my memory.

@Slane583 10 ай бұрын

I personally never got into car audio until the late 90's when I was in high school. I was doing a job experience class to get me ready for the work force. One of my favorite places that I liked going to for my assignment was a local car audio dealer. The location I helped at for class was the owners old store front that was in a strip mall on the main boulevard. The main shopping mall was across the road. Just down at the end of the strip mall was the Block Buster store. All of my tasks were simple, I had to keep all of the speaker displays cleaned a dusted and helped out the best I could where asked. When I was doing a good job the owner would hand me $5 and had me walk down to Block Buster to grab a soda for myself and him. I visit him from time to time but very infrequently at his current location. He remembers me quite well, but I treat a visit differently now. I don't really have the money for the kind of stuff he sells. It's one thing to be there for an hour or two helping out for a class assignment. It's another thing entirely no longer being a teen and visiting as a fully grown adult. Just sitting around the guys store trying to visit while he's busy. Since I can't really buy anything a visit gives me the feeling that I'm just loitering and being bothersome. So I make visits an extreme rarity. Aside from that it was great back in school, finding new interest in something I'd otherwise never pay attention to. :)

@ericingram7864 10 ай бұрын

Linear Power was and still is the best. And Ray is an encyclopedia of knowledge. He's been around.

@raymo6795 10 ай бұрын

...lotsa fun Big D, great show my Brother. I have owned almost every brand of American made amplifiers, I currently have about 50 vintage American made and a few European, ...all the legacy brands, but I never had an LP, and they want crazy money for them on eBay...every amp I overpay for on eBay, I swear will be the last one...but I want a Linear Power...the right deal will come along, and I will buy.Glad you are out there Big D, would love to have a cup of coffee with you sometime and chat...always look forward to the next video of vintage product

@TechGorilla1987 10 ай бұрын

@7:38 - Tested by #1 and inspected by #3 with a #2 (after lunch) somewhere in the middle.

@kozkampret11 10 ай бұрын

One of the best car amp ever made❤

@tonyferdaise5292 10 ай бұрын

I remember those amps. They were good mid price amps. SQ was above RF. These amps weren’t for loud system but more for sound

@aracelyaguilar4844 10 ай бұрын

Yeah def not for bass heads but super clean

@georgec8930 9 ай бұрын

By far one of the best car amplifier company ever

@Coronado-nz7wu 10 ай бұрын

I loved the "Ear Candy" ad back in the '80's.

@johny5isdead2day 10 ай бұрын

Still own mine. Also have the 2202 which compliments. great amps, bought them almost 38 yrs ago for my first car. Also bought 2 pairs of Babb speakers and MTX subs. I recapped both amps and theyre still in use.

@jameshobbs1460 9 ай бұрын

I've had a few LP amps.. both out of the Hawk Electronics van in Arlington TX.. Way.. and I mean Way powerful.. on some old (and still have them freshly re coned) LE15d4.. So glad I found this one.. ahhhh.. the memories.. Who else had these amps?

@MoparStephen 10 ай бұрын

Holy crap - that thing is built like an absolute tank!

@JESUSISCALLINGYOU7 6 ай бұрын

I love that design. It's such a pretty amp with that tall heatsink.

@thomasbyers9153 3 ай бұрын

I remember in Spartanburg, SC there was a shop that built a white hearse, with bull horns on the front, using Linear a power amps and Cerwin Vega Stroker subs. It was awesome.

@aracelyaguilar4844 3 ай бұрын

john fairchild rip got idea for the Tru Technology amps with the t03s on top from linear power and i heard someone from linear invented the stroker.

@JustEnoughHope 10 ай бұрын

Love it! Thanks BigD for another Old School history lesson…fascinating tidbit about LP origin

@Natetron1000 10 ай бұрын

I love all of this old technology! At $179 back then may not have been cheap but sounds like a big bargain in today’s money. It did good on the tests considering age. Also I keep hearing Ice and Fire in the back of my head. Good ear worm!! Thanks for the vid!

@a1duzit 10 ай бұрын

Yayyyy Linear Power. I couldn't remember if you had did an LP yet. But this was Uncles fav amps. These things are no joke. Will the brand itself

@SavageBunny1 10 ай бұрын

I remember in the 80's my dad had a car stereo in his Bronco Eddie Bower with a phone, that you would pull out and take it with you at every party so no one would steal it 😂 this was in Tijuana too, so not the best place to have a nice car with a nice stereo.

@CotyRiddle 10 ай бұрын

Ah! real transistors!!!! Miss my old technics. boy did that thing pack a punch for only 35 watts per channel.

@trucavalier 10 ай бұрын

Amazed it works! Thanks for the old school information 👍

@DjNikGnashers 10 ай бұрын

Impressive it works so well after all these years.

@peted3637 6 ай бұрын

Back in 1990 I built two ETI-480 50WRMS amp modules and a 40khz 40-0-40 switch mode PSU to run it. Installed in my Datsun 1600 (PL510) with two 12" free-air subs behind the back seat. Here in Canberra that sort of sound in a car was pretty much non-existent. People would be snapping their necks at traffic lights trying to work out where all that bass was coming from. These days it is dime a dozen.

@poopool_Q 10 ай бұрын

Very interesting that an increase of +1vdc created a 25%+ gain in output. 50w rms 40 years ago, man you were ballinnnnnn

@gregnash7918 10 ай бұрын

Wow ....... i havent seen one of those in forever years. We loved the linear power . G . way cool .

@serg2963 6 ай бұрын

Very cool amp! Thanks for making this and all the other reviews, they bring back a lot of good memories!

@hankshobbies 10 ай бұрын

Another awesome video of old school how I remember that amp way to cool

@jaydawg4065 10 ай бұрын

Man! I loved every second of this video!!!!! You just can't see things like this on any other channel.

@brian6029 10 ай бұрын

Awesome little history lesson. Nice to see what old school amps looked like also. 😎👍👍

@Adam-nv9zo 10 ай бұрын

I love the old school stuff, but this one was particularly awesome. Thank you, Big D.

@henryknox4511 10 ай бұрын

Ordered my first car stereo system from the crutchfield catalog, on the telephone in 1987 lol.

@mullinperformanceaudio5902 10 ай бұрын

I always liked Linear Power

@michaelzernie7092 10 ай бұрын

Wow! This thing is a gem! Awesome addition to the collection. Good video man

@shawnsatterlee6035 10 ай бұрын

I had something like this way back in days. Was a alpine. Was running alpine 6×9's in rear deck obviously n they slammed! Tho was a smaller unit, but damn! I got it out of a vehicle in salvage yard along with the alpine head unit.

@bdd1469 10 ай бұрын

The 901 was my first amp. I love their old amps.

@rattlejuggalo13 10 ай бұрын

I used to live just north of Roseville, CA. I think its where the company offices were until 1995. I also knew someone that had one of their 2 channel amps that was manufactured with the wires permenantly attached.

@cembellsteve 10 ай бұрын

Wow!!! That did bring back some fond memories. The only pain in the ass about that amp and it's brothers, getting it under my seats. The amp was always covered with seat foam. Love your channel. I watch every video that comes out. Great content.

@daveds50 10 ай бұрын

Damn... I had that exact Alphasonik PEQ-7 back in the dinosaur ages that I bought brand new. It got stolen out of my car along with some Coustic amps. That setup was a replacement for a Marantz SA-247 EQ/Booster that oddly enough, I am looking at on my office shelf right this minute. 😊

@joe08867 10 ай бұрын

Always liked linear power. Nice clean look and sound. They don't color things like some of the big boys did. I'm looking at you Rockford.

@gdljr10k 10 ай бұрын

Man, all this time watching the videos, I just seen the old school Alpine CD player on the Old School Stereo banner. Bein an Alpine guy, that is so awesome! Lol

@calvinevans8305 10 ай бұрын

This is a great video. Thank you.

@bygboie 9 ай бұрын

Hey Big D I don't know you checked out the website but it got some subwoofers 6 by 9 component systems I'm pretty sure just for home audio. But that is awesome thank you for bringing back some memories from when I was 12 13 years old

@joebeckham8352 10 ай бұрын

That is a gem. Worth some $ these days

@RandomAudioGuys 10 ай бұрын

I had a Linear Power 4.1 HVS 75x1 on a Cerwin Vega Stroker 15. Done a 146.5 off the dash . The amps would make well over 1000 watts RMS (1400 RMS if I remember ? ). Insane at 4ohm ratings. And the build quality was next to none. I would love to see one tested, 75 watts at 8 ohm, 1250 watts at 4 ohm.

@aracelyaguilar4844 10 ай бұрын

HVS was their best designs those go for crazy $ when they show up on ebay. Those were their powerfull designed amp.

@432b86ed 10 ай бұрын

Cool that you're talking about the Alpha/Deltasonic stuff. Got my black sharpie in hand, I feel the need ta "touch up" the scratches on the heatsinks, all the way from over here. :)

@kevinwest1607 10 ай бұрын

Always wanted one.

@goldhunter9641 10 ай бұрын

I was commenting on my last comment while I was watching the video and I was thinking that linear power amp was from around the 87 or 88 time frame and did not realize it had came out around 1980 or 81 but regardless those were very hot running amplifiers but they were badass and we're considered part of the top of the line car audio equipment Brands back in those days. I noticed in one of our local pawn shops there is one of the purple linear power amps that has the very large heat sinks on it from back in the '80s and they were only asking $35 for it and I may still go back and pick it up because I try to grab any of the older car audio equipment whenever I find it places like yard sales or pawn shops or Marketplace

@JackTorrance333 9 ай бұрын

I still have a couple of 90s linear power amps. Ought to dig em out and hook them up for old times sake.

@vinq6255 10 ай бұрын

I have a 901 somewhere. Many years ago (after recapping the amp) I tested it against newer amps..the LP was really nice. It sounded better then some more amps

@KAKAFU 10 ай бұрын

wow Flash back .. I sold and installed so many of the AlphaSonics

@kjjustinXD 10 ай бұрын

2 of these woukd be the perfect match for my 78" Mercury's "Quadrasonic" 8 Track player.

@samuelgonzales3824 10 ай бұрын

Well ill be dam !!! Id never thought an amp i used to own would show up on your show !! 😮 i bought that amp from a stereo shop, but i never used it . I remember the serial number. I sold it along with other old school stuff

@Aaron48219 10 ай бұрын

This old amp and it's power rating reminded me of the old Highland Appliance commercial from the 80s, "50 watts per channel, babycakes".

@ernestclark21 10 ай бұрын

Big D, U Da Mann! I love those old Audio Mags And price guides just as much as the gear. Takes me waaay back, to the systems I had and the systems I dreamt about! Keep it coming Big D. And shout out to Mr Dickriculous! we need some more fake watts!

@jarvislarson6864 10 ай бұрын

I absolutely ❤ the old school gear....i wish it was more easily found and saved than trashed in favor of the modern features over quality chinese and korean garbage

@79huddy 10 ай бұрын

Smart move changing the name from Shmegg to Linear imagine telling your buddies you blew your Smegg with a strate face 😂

@wesw9586 10 ай бұрын

🤣🤣🤣 so true

@johnofsometrades405 10 ай бұрын

Should have waited for the comment, those Motorola "Pills" are the same that's used in the CB Amps.

@johnofsometrades405 10 ай бұрын

Linear makes "Kickers" or CB band amplifiers for usually 11 meter but can be modded for 10 meter. That looks almost exactly like a Texas Star 350, but I also had the "Linear" 150watt

@v12alpine 10 ай бұрын

I was gonna say it looks like a CB amp from the 70s.

@Bassotronics 10 ай бұрын

Not bad at all. it did rated and performed. Expected from Linear Power. They always been great and still are. I'm actually intrigued to know if there is any Linear Power amplifier that does not do rated or perform.

@bobsyouruncle8052 10 ай бұрын

i had a 300 watt model looked just like that one used it for a highs amp it was loud and clean

@defaultdriftco00 10 ай бұрын

Man this amp was the coolest thing!

@judsonbaker4628 10 ай бұрын

I remember Linear power.

@MrRandyj72 10 ай бұрын

Big D I totally thought of you when I saw a vintage Kraco EQ Amp, model 600B on Ebay for $30.

@yeahokism 9 ай бұрын

PETER & RUTH WERBACK, the TRUE creators of the VERY FIRST High Power Aftermarket Automotive AMPLIFIER available as early as 1968 as legends go. Hey JIM.... I remember THAT story... Der SCHMEGG was FIRST. Of course Mr MUNTZ single handedly created the Autosound Aftermarket Industry at that point. AUTOSOUND was coming of AGE. Got the STORY STRAIGHT here folks. Props Big D Wiz!!!! BDBD/2023

@yeahokism 9 ай бұрын

Now ya gotta let WIKIPEDIA know....LOL... BDBD/2023

@76S30 10 ай бұрын

How cool to see 🙂 To my surprise I see a socketed I.C. ! Is that a swappable OP AMP? That would have been a super forward thinking future if it is. Thank you for showing this.

@floydwilliams3321 8 ай бұрын

That’s cool man

@michaelp5470 10 ай бұрын

That PEQ7 was the predessor to the PAS1. If I could ever get my hands on another PAS1 I'd jump on it. During dB drags I gained 3dB using it. Def cleaned up the bass sound and defeated any subsonic filters

@74midwestbass74 10 ай бұрын

Nice

@cpufrost 10 ай бұрын

TO-3 Power FTW! Loved those. The American hostages were in Iran when those transistors were made.

@aracelyaguilar4844 10 ай бұрын

Tru Technolgy still uses them as did some of the MMats amps the LM series.

@cpufrost 10 ай бұрын

@@aracelyaguilar4844 Interesting although now things have moved on and current tech is leading the way. Those TO-3s are like pushrod V8s.

@johndilauro7253 10 ай бұрын

The T0 3 output transistors Are the best sound and the best for clean power

@martyzuno4807 10 ай бұрын

Sick ass amp

@goldhunter9641 10 ай бұрын

we had a high-end Car Audio shop here in southern West Virginia back from the '80s through a big part of the '90s that was called The Sound Post and they sold linear power along with other big names like Rockford Fosgate and kicker and Phoenix Gold along with many other brands and it seems like that linear power amp you have here in the video should be from around 1988 and I ran some of their Amps on the free air kicker gold letter Subs and the gold letter competition series kicker subs back in that day and those linear amps were badass and they were expensive also back then... That's back when minimum wage was $3.85 per hour and eventually went up to $4.25 per hour and I believe that was right before George Bush Senior left the White House as president after only getting to serve one term!!!

@nicholasstephey8475 10 ай бұрын

Ray is a cool cat

@wesw9586 10 ай бұрын

❤ TO3 Wish i knew then how bad i would want these later lol. Godly SQ.

@msh6865 10 ай бұрын

@Dereck, that amp is older than the majority of subscribers to this channel. 😱 Sorry, I just had to. Seriously cool review and Dyno. Piece of history there. 👍👍

@stickman-1 5 ай бұрын

The problem with LP back in the day is they were not reliable. Sounded good, but you could never get one to work more than a few months. I have no idea if they resolved that now, but back in the day it was very frustrating. They had great sound, but always had some issues.

@henryovalles1163 10 ай бұрын

Big d is been over 10 years we the people still waiting for the hifonics colossus vi Dino 🦕 test let’s go 😂

@YRR_J 10 ай бұрын

Seems like it has bias setting trimmers on the board? Would love to see the results after a recap and proper biasing check/adjust.

@thomasbradian6367 10 ай бұрын

Really, to gain a watt, it wouldn't be cost effective for an amp he will never use, the amp did exactly what is was supposed to do, Supply content.

@danielwilliams1797 10 ай бұрын

Perfect for the Funky Pups

@oldskool1979 4 ай бұрын

I own a couple of these 901 new in box.

@aarongreene9963 10 ай бұрын

So I went over to their website and WT#@? !!! The prices are unbelievably expensive 😂. I would love to know who is buying anything they have ..

@berthagen387 9 ай бұрын

Had a linear power 500 and a 100 same series as those both disappeared out of my hatchback one night

@wal2 9 ай бұрын

Oh man thieves suck!

@fishyfool 10 ай бұрын

Get a SANYO pa6100 amp if you can. Zapco rated them at 92 WPC of a rated 50 per.

@PopRocksClassicFunkRapSoulHQ 10 ай бұрын

I have one I want to get to Big D to have him test with a matching Sanyo passive eq.