1980s Flea Market Car Audio Amp - American HiFi AMP-910

Рет қаралды 13,445

6 ай бұрын

#fleamarket #vintageaudio #1980s
Nobody likes Booster!
Classic '80s Flea Market amp - American HiFi AMP-910
Rated 255+255 or 400x4 depending on where you look. The most awesome amp of the 1980's, sorry you missed out on this one.
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Пікірлер: 156

@YellowJettaGLI 6 ай бұрын

In the 80's this was all most teenagers could afford. In fact, when I was 15 my dad gave me an old Ford truck and I loaded it up with pyramid speakers and booster/amps. If it had not been for the flea market items I would have never got into car audio.

@user-xf2zq3hm7h 6 ай бұрын

Back in 1996 I purchased one of those amps at a flea market for my first car. As a teenager. Gave it away and went to a 4 channel L.A. Sound Laguna which was priced affordable and sold at sears at the time. Thank you for bringing back some old school memories!

@jonathandalton863 6 ай бұрын

Had the Laguna myself. Pretty amp

@danielknepper6884 6 ай бұрын

Hermosa!! 😅

@miketaylor2197 6 ай бұрын

That was my first amp I ever bought when I was building my first system. Mowed yards to pay for everything. was sooo disappointed when I hooked it up. Lesson learned

@Choralone422 6 ай бұрын

Wow! I was thinking 25 watts per channel, and it didn't do even half that! Impressively bad! I love it!

@underconfident_asmr 6 ай бұрын

If my memory serves me, American Hifi was the parent company/manufacturer of all the flea market brands, like Rockwood, DHD Power Cruiser, Volfenhag, American Pro, and bunches of others.

@idletime 6 ай бұрын

Unless I'm mistaken I believe that Volfenhag is made in Germany

@underconfident_asmr 6 ай бұрын

@@idletime No sir, it really wasn't, that was part of the gimmick. They had the same website design and address as lots of their other brands did back when.

@boosTiMon 6 ай бұрын

Back in the 90’s I bought every CarAudio magazine so I tried to be like the pros and buy only the good stuff 👌🏽 but I was guilty to sometimes buying empty speaker boxes from the flea market. It was like an addiction!

@boiseboiserahrahrah 6 ай бұрын

I have one of these on my shelf. The insides made me laugh. I remember American Hi-Fi back in the mid 80s. I always knew it didn't make the power it says on the amp. But glad to see the true measurements. LOL I found mine at a thrift store for 2 bucks. I had to have it for the memories.

@karlrohde9083 6 ай бұрын

I am more amazed that someone "collected" this for 30+ years than I am with the overwhelming power output.

@wal2 6 ай бұрын

It surprises me as well to see stuff like this still around

@hipo4eyes1 6 ай бұрын

The Jingle All The Way references are classic! Love this video end this channel so when I see an alert I click it right away

@RJSDZNS 6 ай бұрын

Them optimus's be bumpin!! Love these flea market tests D!

@91CavGT5 6 ай бұрын

I had an amp that looked identical to this, but it was branded as a Pyramid. The amp sucked!! To my VERY untrained ears at the time(early 90’s), it sounded just as loud as my EQ booster, and now I know why that was!!! I did not have it long before it got replaced. Thanks Big D for bringing back some memories of jammin in my old ‘79 VW Rabbit!!!

@rich52569 6 ай бұрын

I had a tan 79 rabbit too - with a moon roof back in '87! I had a Radio Shack flat face analog deck and the green full size eq/booster - boy, I was livin' large! lol

@locotrucker46 6 ай бұрын

Pyramid was the worst car audio equipment ever made.

@WOLFTICKVIDEOS 6 ай бұрын

@rich52569 Had the same car, too! Haha👍🏼

@mugendrewable 6 ай бұрын

Great video! I laughed and laughed and laughed some more😂! Merry Christmas!!!

@wadefaulkner73 6 ай бұрын

Love this channel! Forgot I had one of these. It barely distorted my Pyramid 10s..

@jdlech 6 ай бұрын

It bemuses me that nobody ever thought to sue these companies. Truth in advertising and all that.

@bigserge07 6 ай бұрын

Great review!!! I remember installing a bunch of these in cars when i used to work at a beeper store that also sold audio equipment. I did what I could with their purchases and they would leave really happy. But i would always recommend to upgrade to something better in the future, which they always did. Great memories. 😊😊😊

@leroycolejr6626 6 ай бұрын

I remember those Optimus speakers. They were sold at radio shack. By the way I had those speakers in a 73 vega back in the 90s when I graduated from high school

@chrish2630 6 ай бұрын

It reminds me of a Majestic amp I used to own by the looks but that amp had impressive power pushing my MTX Magnum 12s to the limit.

@chadcurrent1645 6 ай бұрын

I'd like to see him test a majestic amp. It was the first one I ever had running a pair of pioneer 10s in the 90s. It too pushed those pioneers pretty good.

@michaelfessenden8601 6 ай бұрын

I remember I purchased an evergreen 2 Chanel. For $75 with two 8" woofers , two 5" sealed back mids, and two horn tweeters. Clear poly cones the amp could not push the speakers, but the horns. Brought back memories

@bishbosh7728 6 ай бұрын

Back in the day my brother got in a car accident and with the first installment of his settlement he bought a whole system from a flea market. Pyle subs ,mids and highs and pyramid amps and of course a pyramid booster eq the funny thing is it actually bumped and the bass shook the whole house the garage was under the house but still it wasn't terrible. His final installment of the settlement he got Rockford for almost everything ripped out the cheap stuff all speakers were Rockford alpine deck Rockford bass amp nakamichi for mids and soundstream for highs . His system evolved over the years getting higher and higher quality but the most he ever ran was about 2k in total power for the whole system and it was loud and sounded super clean and clear.

@user-wm9iu7co8s 4 ай бұрын

My fist subwoofers were 12" American hifi. The box was held together with the carpet and the magnets were barely magnetized. Hardy put out sound. What a birthday present. Lol

@Jacksmithjr2 6 ай бұрын

Merry Xmas thank u for video today love tjem

@volvo09 6 ай бұрын

We got a new record for power here!

@JamesOKeefe-US 6 ай бұрын

Merry Christmas Big D! Been an awesome year watching your vids my man. Appreciate you and all the best to you and yours for 2024!!

@derekvasile6127 6 ай бұрын

They weren't lying about the power. They just hid it in the model number 910 meaning 9-10 watts 😂😂😂

@nunyabizznizz7326 6 ай бұрын

i love these kinds of vids.......

@johnebuckland 5 ай бұрын

Wow. That is a shocker. Great

@tenmillionvolts 6 ай бұрын

Remember, most cassette stereos back in the day were putting out 2 to 4 watts, so this was a booster. It was nowhere near the hundreds of watts though

@evilinside5984 6 ай бұрын

@tenmillionvolts- You are correct. Most people never knew that on average, the regular car stereo decks, made (4 watts x 2), or (2 watts x 4), 😁😆. And when the "High Power" decks came out, they made approx. (10 to 15 watts R.M.S. x 2), and (5 to 7.5 watts x 4), which was a huge improvement. I ran my "High Power" Kenwood cassette deck, rated @ (25 x 2 watts peak, or 15 x 2 watts R.M.S.) to a pair of 4-way pioneer 6 x 9s, mounted in the rear deck of a huge trunk car. The 6 x 9s Loaded very well off of the rear slanted glass in the back, like a horn, and it sounded Awesome= very clear, and nice, deep bass, for what it was! Everyone that heard it was impressed. I remember playing Magic Mike, Feel the Bass, M&Ms Gettin Off, Drop that Bass, and many others, great simple times, in the 1990's!

@jhershy1381 6 ай бұрын

Best of the best ! Sir

@cgreenfield6655 6 ай бұрын

That transformer!! Lol. Merry Christmas!!

@idletime 6 ай бұрын

G'morning ☕☕ & Merry Christmas to you and yours my friend 🎅🦌🦌🦌🎄🎄🤠 ..

@houseofpain3580 6 ай бұрын

Hey, it makes the Quad Box BOUNCE!

@frankdurham9807 6 ай бұрын

Merry Christmas

@viziocarport8313 6 ай бұрын

Everything at the flea market wasn't bad it depended which flea market you went to and what you bought and personally upgraded my ex girlfriends amplifier that was sold there from a car stereo shop with a flea market amplifier acoustic 190 is what I picked up from the flea market and she had a Mustang amplifier that was installed by a professional shop It definitely hit better with a cheap flea market upgrade also I picked up more than one Sherwood 240 pre bp series and later on one of the BP series and there was not bad for the price I paid they were able to push to Rockford series one's 12

@g2skinny 6 ай бұрын

This type of video is great man it’s sooooo funny 9 watts 😂😂😂

@grominwithrob1339 6 ай бұрын

I remember seeing that turd somewhere long ago. A buddy and I had a good laugh!!!! I'm glad we passed on that one, I didn't think it would have been that bad, but holy hell!

@dvcsub 6 ай бұрын

My brother had one of these back in 96 which he gave or sold to me later on. I still have it put up somewhere

@Mikelp73 6 ай бұрын

Not exactly related but I am almost 51 and still love the power boosters. I wish I had a nice one with a full eq and lights.

@kmaxx24 6 ай бұрын

I used to fall for the okie doke all the time back in the day.

@dazaspc 6 ай бұрын

It reminds me of the audio gear scam that used to go on where they would sell them cheap out of the back of a truck. Amps and speakers.

@derekgardin1512 6 ай бұрын

I think they missed the decimal place on the 255w + 255w. Maybe they meant 2.55w or 25.5w bridged ... which it still fell short of by 20%. Impressively brutal. I think my electric toothbrush puts out more power than this thing. $59.99 in the 80s would have been half a weeks salary for some. Id be pretty perturbed to put it nicely haha

@bayramoglumurathan925 6 ай бұрын

Thanks.

@saschacubexyz 6 ай бұрын

🤘🤪 this beast will smash every windshield... If you throw it😁😉😉😉

@jameskyser9423 6 ай бұрын

Big D getting crazy on the dyno. All these 80s watts

@volvo09 6 ай бұрын

Oh man, look at those power cables!! Hope the Dyno holds up!

@kaboom4679 6 ай бұрын

All that raw power and no smoke ? Man , that's some alien technology right there .

@ryanharrington4717 6 ай бұрын

JC Whitney. I had one that was very similar to the white profile amps was 600x2. Had the red light strip. I e been looking for another one ever since

@2414kels 6 ай бұрын

I remember those amps. I remember me and brother was getting the good stuff (expensive) and my uncle got one of those amps and was so mad he tossed it in the trash 😂😂😂

@charleswp71 14 күн бұрын

I had one of the other brand names turd they slapped on these, paired it with some sparkomatic 3 way 6x9's in the rear deck of my 76 T/A with a jensen cassette headunit and optimus EQ, it actually sounded ok then, but in the mid 80's there wasnt a lot of bass in hard rock music. Funny part is someone actually stole it from my car, i was pissed but then replaced everything with a clarion headunit, rockford amps and pioneer speakers with a bandpass sub box, think it was a MTX or Kicker Sub, was completely blown away.

@gilbertforman8500 6 ай бұрын

Merry Christmas to all, as i watched this vid itmade me go back to my swapmeet days back in the 80's, and i wonder if anyone remembers the UNIC Brand 2 ch. Amps? Anyway good laugh thanks Big D

@Tallchevy350 6 ай бұрын

Was hoping you would've hooked it up the Kicker box so we could hear the buffness of this amp! 😅

@Adam-nv9zo 6 ай бұрын

Wow!!! I knew it was gonna be bad, but that was BAD BAD. 😂

@only126db 6 ай бұрын

I remember that brand lol😊

@InabnettMusic 6 ай бұрын

I Love the gain min-max is in the shape of an omega

@ATSNorthernMI 6 ай бұрын

I did when I was a kid and my father wanted to teach me a lesson about amplifier ratings. Bought a 1000 watt 4 channel american hifi and it put out less power than the factory stereo in the chevy. It distorted like something crazy and had no power. Also found out one of the channels was wired backward so any amount of bass, I theoretically would've heard was just cancelled out. Was really bummed and tossed it in the corner were it sat for a few years until I gave it to a friend that also tried hooking it up to his car stereo.

@brian6029 6 ай бұрын

The most powerful amplifier ever created in the history of car audio! 😆🤦👍👍

@lucid_ck 6 ай бұрын

too much power for my funky pups

@robertlaplante8043 6 ай бұрын

thats some mighty fine chineseum right there

@T_Burd_75 6 ай бұрын

In the early 90's I had purchased an amp from J.C. Whitney that had heatsinks identical to this one. It was advertised as having 500 watts. Quickly found out that it wasn't true. That was 30 years ago and never ordered from J.C. Whitney since.

@brianargus5922 6 ай бұрын

The jingle All The Way bit😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@robertoney5665 6 ай бұрын

That amp will blow away my vintage soundesign speaker set up and at a whooping 9 to 11 watts of high power. I definitely need to soundproof my car and install bulletproof glass so I don't cause major damage to my vehicle.

@kmarei 6 ай бұрын

With this kind of power, this is more suited to driving high powered subs than regular speakers. Unless you wanna blow your expensive speakers in seconds

@sunnyskiesblue 6 ай бұрын

My vote for amp of the year. Hands down. 😂

@YRR_J 6 ай бұрын

One could check the datasheet of the amp chips and if they're running just at 12V like they most probably do, install some step-up converters to take the most out of those chips. At least this thing seems to have enough cooling for some duped up operation. Though probably the other components could be in danger, as they surely are the cheapest possible and just fine at 12V... Of course there is no point whatsoever, but maybe a few watts more could be squeezed out. :D

@Juggernaut-fg2up 6 ай бұрын

I had one of these under a different name. Ran it for one week till I could replace it

@arnicus208 6 ай бұрын

Surprised you didn’t run the quad box (quad baux?) with this. Legit pairing

@paulrichardson5111 6 ай бұрын

in 92 i got a low power amp that said 250 / channel bridged 500 an got a road thunder sub. lol had it for two days before my car was broken into and lost the amp and sub. Got a new kenwood with a new two new subs that made real power. I felt bad for the thief my head unit made more power.

@bcamcam2 6 ай бұрын

Just curious if you ever compare the high level inputs to the rca to see if the input has an effect on output...

@rich52569 6 ай бұрын

LOL! You actually get less volume than your radio by hooking this "booster" up - ALL FOR $ 59 bucks - cant beat that!

@locotrucker46 6 ай бұрын

That thing might be good to power a couple of tweeters lol

@kitcat2559 6 ай бұрын

400 watts x 4 channels, sheesh that amount of power will make the dyno break

@jonathandalton863 6 ай бұрын

Dang couldn't beat a head unit lol. I think that's a first

@bobbybyrkett7751 6 ай бұрын

Dereck I have a american hi fi 250 + 250. Blue in color I sent you a pic of it 😁

@MuvoTX 6 ай бұрын

IIRC American hi-fi became a spin-off brand... flea market of course.

@beans119 6 ай бұрын

HAHA Owned one of those!!!!

@henryovalles1163 6 ай бұрын

It’s an Alfa Romeo Milano lol I have one. Big d we need that colossus vi test only been asking for 15 years 😂

@wal2 6 ай бұрын

Hmmmm...wonder if that will be one of the 8 videos this week?

@robertnelson2728 6 ай бұрын

J.c.whitney for the win.. I bought the 250x4 version a long time ago.... i was sooooo dissappinted.

@killer1479 6 ай бұрын

at 9w p/c im holding on to what hair i have left, thats an insane amount of power that should be illegal! :O and merry christmas

@lgr9314 6 ай бұрын

I have a planet audio BB150.2 Do you know anything about the amp.

@5roundsrapid263 6 ай бұрын

It goes to 11 watts? I thought for sure you’d make a Spinal Tap reference!

@timmypriddy8385 6 ай бұрын

Rockwood Detonator

@themadmallard 6 ай бұрын

That was a Joy to the world track, right? Anyone got a source?

@twisted2291 6 ай бұрын

Looks like a rebranded Pryamid.

@jerrywahl2356 6 ай бұрын

Lol. What did the head units of that vintage put out

@longstroke1982 6 ай бұрын

It would be cool if you put the guts out of a modern amp inside that

@BlueDinnie 6 ай бұрын

(mask voice) SMOKIN

@laughingman4 6 ай бұрын

almost got taken the same way back in early 90s, . til I looked real close... and saw names like Poineer, Alphine, and Panasoanic.... nope.. no dice .. I'm keeping my money LOL

@davidharrell8890 6 ай бұрын

You should buy a bmw isetta, put a huge system in it & see how long it lasts! 💯👍👍😃😊😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Merry Christmas Big D to You & Your Family. 💯🙏😇☀️😊😃👍👍🎊🎉

@jadsholloway 6 ай бұрын

Good see manufacturers were still falsely putting out the amps power back then…. lol least they were consistent

@pocketPliers 6 ай бұрын

Where are you finding this stuff? 😅 I'm jealous AF! 😍

@wal2 6 ай бұрын

I have been watching eBay for the weird stuff, not sure why this interests me...

@csj9619 6 ай бұрын

I had that same exact amp, but it was branded " Kenphon" or some such. It super sucked. I bought it out of a J.C. Whitney catalog for $50 or $60 back in 1992. Unloaded it on some cheapskate.

@bonzainews 6 ай бұрын

I would put my 1987 Kraco 50+50 up against that any day. Lol

@michaelwatson5747 6 ай бұрын

I remember those. Looks okay but can't cook ... lol 😕

@MuvoTX 6 ай бұрын

Hell Yeah Derek!! when you're a poor kid in highschool, flipping burgers for a living... this is your only choice. This ones shockingly bad though, even by pyramid standards. Yes as bad as this is, its still better than many head unit circuits of the era. hahaha!! That red guitar on the box is a mid 80s Ibanez roadstar or possibly (more likely) roadstar II. Awesome japanese guitars. That distinctive Ibanez edge Floyd rose licensed bridge was common for the era. I had a silver metallic model. What movie is that Schwartzeneggar clip from? hahaha Didn't "American hi-fi" become a spin-off flea market brand?

@chrisgreer1911 6 ай бұрын

Just answer to your ? "Jingle all the way" lol member it was about the turbo man and booster as his sidekick

@KhawChing 6 ай бұрын

Thankfully, no I never got taken by an amplifier like that. I didn't know anything about car audio when I got my first system but while I didn't buy Orion or Fosgate level I didn't buy flea market.