That’s going beyond old school and into antiquity. So awesome that you found a working original for this dyno test. 45 watts has never been so exciting 😂
Thank you, may be my favorite video I've made. I wanted to show off this amp for so long, but also wanted to give it the credit it deserves. I was just informed yesterday Jim Fosgate has passed. RIP Jim 1945-2022 🙏
When I was in high school in the early 90’s I would build sub boxes in wood shop. Built a box for 2 Series 1 8” subs for a guy that had a little hatchback. I gave him a money back guarantee. If you don’t like how it sounds then you don’t have to buy the box. When we got it all hooked up the guy had a disappointed look on his face. I asked what’s wrong. He said “It’s too loud!!”. Those 8s were thumpin!!!!
In 1985 I had a homebuilt ported subwoofer with two 10" Dynaudio subs, driven by an Audiomobile 50wpc amp, in my 2-door Subaru coupe! Rear-deck mids and highs came from a biamped a/d/s 2001 minispeaker system, with a/d/s 300i plates in the front doors for fill. Nakamichi 250 cassette deck, Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio,, and Audiomobile 3-band preamp-equalizer. Man that system sounded good! CLEAN, and LOUD. BTW, several of my DJ friends had 4x8" subwoofer boxes with Phillips "Peerless" woofers that sounded really good.
I love the fact they borrowed from the CB radio market. The heatsink case is directly from an (illegal) AM radio (cb) linear amplifier commonly referred to as a floor heater.
That was super cool Dereck, very well put together and complimentitive of the Fosgate name. The clips at the end were cool too, man all the stuff on the racks behind him omg there's gotta be some druel worthy items... brotha, just noticed your channel has over 51 million views! Way to go man!
On a side note, pretty scary looking at that connection terminal where the 12 volt is so close to the other screws. (Speakers etc). Especially for such an expensive unit at the time.
there was this aircraft quality connector mentality I recall.... Terminal strips galore... That mentality went away same as the DIN plugs of them times.... good riddance huh.
YES.... I reside in Hawaii and we never got much more than ads in magazines it seems... MUNTZ Electronics was the big Electronics Store of them times and there was many neat gadgets of them times.... Pleases me to finally SEE one of these... COOL.....
Bowman.... Motorola... even the TENNA stuff early on when they was an antenna company.... Craig/Pioneer were a single company at one time... and thats how it was branded too.
The humble beginnings of the powered EQ...those 70s cars with common ground speaker wiring..lol...this is first old school thing you've done that I have never seen, touched or installed well done lol
Just imagine someone in that era going from a single dash speaker with a stock radio that probably put out two to five watts RMS, and then getting one of these with a pair of 6x9's in the back. It must have seemed like a mini rock concert with the change in power. Awesome video, Derek.
Awesome video! I'd love to see more of this stuff! Over the years I've come to appreciate an old school high quality Class AB lowish power output amp with some high efficiency speakers, a good install and EQ adjustment and think it can sound really fantastic. Massive power output and huge SPL numbers just isn't needed 99% of the time.
This is one of my favorite videos I have ever seen you do! Major respect for showcasing an awesome product and company overall! If it were not for his products many of us would not be able to make our systems bump doe!!
How many of us would love to have one of these now in 2023 ? I know I would !! Jim may be gone but never to be forgotten ! I still run fosgate stuff in my car from early 90's !!
im a couple of years younger than these amps and i wish i could be re-capped! can you imagine when car stereos sounded like a transistor radio, and then this thing comes along! it must have been awesome to have more power in the car than the standard music centre in your living room! totally awesome!
I had no idea they had car stereo amplifiers like this in the 70s . I thought the beginning of things like car amps was in the late 80s . Great old school videos we love them
The first *quality*, low distortion car stereo amplifiers I ever heard were Linear Power, and Fosgate, around 1981. Followed shortly by a/d/s, Audiomobile, and Spectron. An a/d/s-Nakamichi collaboration produced what was arguably the very first automotive high-fidelity system, the 2001 biamped minispeaker system ---- with the minispeakers mounted on the rear deck, it actually delivered a stereo "image"!. Adding a pair of 10" Dynaudio subwoofers to the 2001, as I did in my 2 door Subaru coupe (around 1984-85), made it a triamped system.
@@goodun2974 Glad you are aware of that ADS system as most folks have no clue. I am still wondering as it don't have but a POWER and GROUND.... how do ya turn it on and off remotely?... I always used a toggle switch to turn em off in the old days. I wonder if these were current sensing... RCA signal sensing?.... I always used a toggle switch BUT the amp would run on for some time before it actually turns off.... 60 volts bass and 32 volts tweeter amps in there.... Dual output power source..... BUILT LIKE A TANK.... Built like an AUTOMOTIVE AMPLIFIER... yeah.... SOON I am gonna build my VINTAGE amp rack... soon... BDBD/2021
@@bigdogbrodavepresents6178 , in those early days, I often used Bosch relays to turn the amps on and off. The power interconnections could get weird because while some amplifiers back then had the familiar auxiliary 12 volt input wire to trigger the amp on, other amp designs had a 12 volt *output* that powered the radio and switched the amp on when it sensed the current draw of the radio. It could get convoluted when hooking up multiple amps and signal processing equipment that used different turn-on schemes or when the radio was digital and needed to drawbpower for its memory function (or had a separate wire for illumination of the dial, which was intended get hooked up to the dimmer switch for the cars' instrumentation panel). There were a couple times where the radio didn't have a switched 12 volt output for a power antenna or to turn on an amp and so I opened up the radio and added a wire from the on-off switch. Ah, those were the days! No standard design practices for mobile audio gear,, and the installer had to be creative. If the equipment used DIN plugs for audio interconnection, typically with a 12 volt turn-on lead inside the same cable, no two manufacturers used the same pinouts, and I became skilled at making DIN to DIN adapters. I remember an installation I did for a customer with an Alpine deck, a Kenwood EQ, an Alpine crossover and two or three Kenwood amplifiers. I had to make a bunch of DIN adapters for that one!
@@bigdogbrodavepresents6178 , one stereo store I worked for sold German-designed Visonic (Visonik?) speakers and amplifiers; the amps weren't reliable but the speakers were similar to a/d/s 300i plates and 200c mini-boxes, they were inefficient and power-hungry but sounded good. Fujitsu Tenvox made radio-cassette players that were funky-looking, almost industrial, and built like tanks, and had the most hysterically funny installation manuals with gloved hands that had faces on them pointing out the wiring connections and mechanical mountings. I also remember a few Hifonics amplifiers, such as the "Zeus" model. Even Philips (the Holland-based corporation who gave us the original cassette tape design and later collaborated with Sony to develop the compact disc) got into car audio for a little while with 20 watt and 50 watt per channel amps that were purportedly designed by Audiomobile and sounded like it (smooth and warm, probably MosFet). I sold and installed the first generation Boston Acoustics car speakers, abd owned a pair myself ---- and got paid to replace them all, under warranty a year or so later when the cones all crumbled from sunlight exposure (they ALL failed,, but to their credit, BA replaced them all at no charge to the customer, even several years later, out of warranty). Even the famous B&W, Bowers and Wilkins of England, got into car audio with the LM-1 metal-enclosure, Nextel finished, mini speakers that could handle several hundrred watts and included the same APOC overload protection circuit as their most expensive home stereo speakers and recording studio monitors. ( Nextel, a rubbery synthetic felt flocking or velore-like coating, was like "the next big thing" in metal coatings and finishes for a very short while. The biggest problem with it was, it was difficult to dust or clean). Man, this is making me dig deep into whatever is left of my memory banks!
Every time I bump my system my dad tells me about his 76 pinto with a $700 stereo system in it lol it had pioneer a 24 band graphic equalizer and he swears it was just ear splitting lol. I imagine it was being the late 70s and he didn't have any subs just miss and highs 😆. I still think it's awesome to see where our world of stereo systems has evolved from. Gives he and I something in common to talk about. I cant wait to show him this video when I see him next 👍
Thanks big D that thing is super cool. Cutting edge stuff for '73. Imagine all the folks who felt bass for the first time thanks to this amp (and of course some properly installed 6x9s.) I am surprised at the boost frequencies, industry standard was and still is 100hz/10k hz for bass and treble. Another thing to consider is that even the best tapes and tape decks back then were really only good for 50-15k if you're lucky so the +18 at 45hz/+12 at 20k was basically subsonic/supersonic relative to the available input signals. We've come a long way in 48 years!!
I know you said that video was a long time coming D but you did a stellar job in that one bro! Props to Fosgate. Shows the quality even back then. Probably my favorite video to date!
Those mugs were hella expensive. Back innaday my brother, and I put a system in pops Nova 6X9 Quams in the back Seas, and Polydax on the doors We built 3 amps copying a Phase Linear design Using parts from Zackit, and our uncle's TV repair shop. We were 12, and 16 years old Times were so different then.
Great job on this relic from the beginnings of the car audio hobby Big D. It’s a testament to their quality that both the amps and the company both survive to this day.
I installed car audio at “Spinet Music” in east texas from 1976(?) to 1980(?) and owned Alpine head/deck with nothing but Punch PR50s, PR100s, and PR250s for about 2000 watts per side in 1977 (it was installed in a 1975 GMC Jimmy and had 10 speakers in as many holes). We all loved the amps. After 6 months only the 50 watt amps still worked. I started using Harmon/Kardon amps. It might be interesting to note that the biaxial/co-axial speakers were not really available to the average buyer until about 1975. Also i never saw the amp you show here as a single. It was often run as a set of two,three, four or six pushing separate woofer, separate tweeter systems, often with subs. I did a lot of passive crossover setups along with passive EQs to smooth and control the speaker output. We always set Fosgate at 4 or 2 ohms ( 2 amp was when the later amps had a mono setting most often used to push one sub). Wow did you bring back some memories!!!
Yeah... I too was an installer from the 70's till 2008.... Someone mentioned that the "Original FOSGATE products never lasted more than 20 hours in a car environment"..... I own a couple and the construction is the downfall. Great circuitry BUT.... not for a car as goes the way they built the thing. Build Quality. There the Fosgate products lacked..... THEN came ROCKFORD. BDBD/2022
I remember my dad talking about fosgate amps he had back in the 70's. Didn't really believe him because I asked Rockford fosgate? He said no it was just fosgate. Now I know what he was talking about. Super cool! Thanks for sharing Bid D 👍
Thanks so much for bringing us the story of Fosgate and their influence on the car audio industry. I’d heard of RockfordFosgate but had no idea how revolutionary they were in the early years. It’s seems like they not only offered an affordable high-end amp, but in so doing raised the standard for factory car audio systems by raising consumer expectations.
Oh my God! Sparkomatic & Kraco was it back in the day until those JBL 6x9's hit the market! If you had a pair of JBL 6x9's & 100 watt amp you were big shhhh😁
A friend of mine had a Jim Fosgate "Gavote" which was an entire system control that did center channel and time alignment to all speakers. It was ahead of it's time for the mid 80's but was the only one I have ever seen. AAAAAH, the good old days.
Maybe the capacitors from the distorting one are gone, really common to have old dried out electrolytics and would be a good reason why it's distorting
Like I said, I was born in 83, so my first car was in 1999 and my first "system" was in my 1990 Ford Festiva that my grandmother bought for me, had a Sony Xplod tape deck, a Sony 10 disc CD changer, a bass booster (because I couldn't afford an amp yet), and a Blaupunkt 12" sub in a triangular box. I had a MB Quart split set in the doors and dash, and a set of MB Quart 5 1/2" speakers in the rear deck. It didn't slam, but it bumped a bit and sounded really crisp. Then, once I got a job, I was able to buy my cousin's Sony 4 channel amp (with a sub channel) and I replaced the Blaupunkt 12 with a set of Orion Cobalt 10s and it sounded great. Shortly after that I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and I moved back home to Brandon, Florida. I bought a 1994 Eddie Bauer Ford Exploder and I put the same Sony tape deck, MB Quart mids and highs, a US Amps 125x4 1/4 ohm stable amp (red anodized plexiglass bottom), and two JL Audio 15s in a sealed box. Those two vehicles started my love affair with car stereo systems. Now I have four Sundown Audio SA12-D2s on an Orion HCCA 3k SPLX amp in my 500 whp Accord.
If this video hasn't tickled your fancy a little bit, are you even a basshead lol? Mad respect to my first brand of amplifiers, Rockford Fosgate, and to Jim Fosgate for being the pioneer of car audio. I loved this video Big D
the first commercially available true automotive audiophile amplifier and speaker system is considered to be the ADS 2001.1973 construction... sold in 21200 stores worldwide in 1974... so that story goes. There were others... Harrison Labs... is the first? i think... patent wise... BEFORE THAT... it was Satellite Technology.... sorta Top Secret even.... LOL.... History... BDBD/2021
Well done video Derek. One of your best to date in my opinion. Thanks for all the hard work I know went into putting together this time of entertainment. Always cool to see the old school.
That baby needs a full recap job, new thermal paste on the output devices, some solder reflow and a possible bias adjustment, and a better power supply, all that distortion will go bye bye, love the video.
Thank you so much.... your a passionate true car audio NUT CASE as am I and this was a GREAT BLAST FROM THE PAST review. You really made my day !!!!! God bless you and maybe I will send you one of my ULTRA amplifiers for testing.
Now this is what I'm talmbout! This amp was released before my time...I was born in 83, so to see this amp being tested now that I am 38 give me a special tingle as a basshead...
Dereck u come across some of the rarest and coolest products ever u and barevids have the best channels on youtube flat out . Ur hard work does not go unnoticed we bass heads apreciate u more than u could even imagine.
Imagine.... An updated version of this sitting in front of you on your desk or your studio with the Rockford Fosgate logo on it and those beautiful knobs. Then imagine... Bluetooth, aux, optical, Pre-amps, and XLR hookups. You could even have a reference version all the way up to a pro series. Rockford would make a KILLING and it would be them going full circle to their roots of home audio.
Very cool! Nice piece of audio history... Car audio (stock systems) have come a LONGGGG way, especially in the recent decades. Must have been super cool to have one of these in the day.
The original " Kickers " were a subwoofer type ported bandpass style box you put in your cars back seat,the biggest units contained two 12' woofers and two horn mids with two horn tweeters for both L & R stereo .
@@wal , Fosgates were unforgiving,, and people blew them up all the time ---- one accidental shorted speaker wire for a fraction of a second was all it took. Lots of people would scrape up the cash to buy expensive amps but not pay for a proper installation by a qualified tech, only to discover that that the all-important magic smoke is easily released by rubbing the wires the wrong way!
Kraco, Sparkomatic at the low end. Alpine, Concord, RF etc at the high end. What memories of the late 80s..... Memories from the Canadian side of North America, when I was there for my studies. Nobody in Sabah, East Malaysia (my home state) knows what I was talking about back then....
Just toured rockford while in arizona. Unfortunately they were preparing for Sturgis so no demos. Was suprised to see some fosgate home speakers, looked great would like to find some. Great history, although do wish they still manufactured in us with highschool students.
In 1972 I used to haul my 2-15" bass amp cabinet around in the trunk of my '67 Dodge Polara convertible and hooked it up to the stock radio's speaker terminals. Loud as hell (it was just cloth behind the back seat because it was a convertible so it wasn't very muffled). That's the first car stereo for bassheads that I ever heard. :)
That's awesome, I drove a 1965 Dodge Polara when I was living in Hawaii just a few years ago- it was in amazing condition and an all origninal car. The previous owner had a system in it as well, and I thought it was a good idea they had installed a more modern, after market stereo neatly in the glove box. Likewise, this also saved the car's interior rather than butcher up the dash just to have the original AM radio pulled out... But nice story and reminder for mine, it sure was a fun car when I had it over there for the great times and years I lived on Oahu. Could easily fit a miniature concert gig in the back seats and trunk area alone! 🤣
Talk about flash back I haven't seen that cartoon sense I was 7 the amp reminds me when I started car audio in the early 90s in my mom 63 olds installing my first stereo. It surprise me how different the first one sounds compared to the second one the screw remind me of the first car audio stuff I use to play with. Great flash back.👍👌✌️🎵🎶💯
i have an old stax-da80 obviously not car audio. you reminded me i should look into getting that amp serviced. its 100% original lol.. 1976 and still works. so im not shocked about the Fosgate. use good components get good results! :) Awesome video!
Awesome vintage amp! I could see this in the mid 1970's hooked up to a pair of Jensen Triax 6x9 speakers in the rear deck. The Jensen car speakers were the best available back then and would be perfect with this amp and were also Made in U.S.A.
Jensen.... yep... I had a pair of 12 inch Jensen home speakers bouncing around in the trunk of my 64 Barracuda.... LOL... 4 Pioneer brown cone chrome domes all around... Bowman amplifier eq... I was as cool as a cucumber in 1976.... LOL..... I appreciate the work everyone has put into the autosound industry.... Thank You all.... Lifelong installer here... BDBD/2021
I had those exact components in high school. PR700 & Jensen 6×9 triaxles. Incredible sound, clean, hammered real hard. Also Pioneer Supertuner. About every 5 months returned Jensens to retailer. The Fosgate had taken its toll on them
Amazing this practically 50 year old amp is still doing work! I have an old amp of my dad's that still works prob from the late 80s not as impressive as this but pretty cool. I also have 2 still water design 12s in truck boxes with horn tweeters that still bump. 😳 one of the reasons I still give kicker my $. I had the zx series amps as a teen with the comps and KS speakers that still kick lol. Even though I've had to re Glue the surrounds on the KS's the comps still do work and are about 20 years old!
I'm not making the wattage I used to...160lbs don't move like it used to. Lol amazing for a 45 year old piece of electronics...great work D. You gonna send her to Sam for a recap?
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That’s going beyond old school and into antiquity. So awesome that you found a working original for this dyno test. 45 watts has never been so exciting 😂
Thank you, may be my favorite video I've made. I wanted to show off this amp for so long, but also wanted to give it the credit it deserves. I was just informed yesterday Jim Fosgate has passed. RIP Jim 1945-2022 🙏
So true
You put a lot of work into this video and it shows!
Thanks man, I hope Jim sees and appreciates it. We need to interview him on 12V Talk!
When I was in high school in the early 90’s I would build sub boxes in wood shop. Built a box for 2 Series 1 8” subs for a guy that had a little hatchback. I gave him a money back guarantee. If you don’t like how it sounds then you don’t have to buy the box. When we got it all hooked up the guy had a disappointed look on his face. I asked what’s wrong. He said “It’s too loud!!”. Those 8s were thumpin!!!!
Are not the series 1 better than the prime today.. for a budget sub they could throw down.
In 1985 I had a homebuilt ported subwoofer with two 10" Dynaudio subs, driven by an Audiomobile 50wpc amp, in my 2-door Subaru coupe! Rear-deck mids and highs came from a biamped a/d/s 2001 minispeaker system, with a/d/s 300i plates in the front doors for fill. Nakamichi 250 cassette deck, Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio,, and Audiomobile 3-band preamp-equalizer. Man that system sounded good! CLEAN, and LOUD. BTW, several of my DJ friends had 4x8" subwoofer boxes with Phillips "Peerless" woofers that sounded really good.
Back in my installation days, one of my customers handed me an amp a Fosgate powerpunch 50 as a tip
I love the fact they borrowed from the CB radio market. The heatsink case is directly from an (illegal) AM radio (cb) linear amplifier commonly referred to as a floor heater.
I was gonna say, it looks like an old school RF linear amp. :)
you remember.....
That was super cool Dereck, very well put together and complimentitive of the Fosgate name. The clips at the end were cool too, man all the stuff on the racks behind him omg there's gotta be some druel worthy items... brotha, just noticed your channel has over 51 million views! Way to go man!
Thanks brother!
Whoa. The frequency energizer! I knew people that had these when I was a kid. I never knew it was a Fosgate product. Great vid!
his patent... his baby to sell as that goes... and to think it no longer resides inside a RF amp today.... hmmmmmmmmm......BDBD/2021
On a side note, pretty scary looking at that connection terminal where the 12 volt is so close to the other screws. (Speakers etc).
Especially for such an expensive unit at the time.
there was this aircraft quality connector mentality I recall.... Terminal strips galore... That mentality went away same as the DIN plugs of them times.... good riddance huh.
Really enjoyed that old school bass bump!! Good job!!
Thanks Tom, I appreciate your assistance with the pics and trying out your PR7000's as well!
Awesome! Great to finally see one of these.
YES.... I reside in Hawaii and we never got much more than ads in magazines it seems... MUNTZ Electronics was the big Electronics Store of them times and there was many neat gadgets of them times.... Pleases me to finally SEE one of these... COOL.....
Wow... that goes way WAY back... Craig, sparkomatic, realistic. I vaugely recall a brand Kraco (SP?)... I think it was. Thanks Derek!!
Bowman.... Motorola... even the TENNA stuff early on when they was an antenna company.... Craig/Pioneer were a single company at one time... and thats how it was branded too.
These older amps look really cool! Would love for someone to make these with more modern guts. The simplicity and look is very appealing.
The humble beginnings of the powered EQ...those 70s cars with common ground speaker wiring..lol...this is first old school thing you've done that I have never seen, touched or installed well done lol
Wow, I didn't know car audio amps have been around so long, I thought it was a mid to late 80s thing. Thanks BigD
Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@wal thank u for the consistent top knotch car audio content.
Hell the Amish would Cruze around with Jebediah playing violin on the back of ye ol Horse buggy
@@daddybear7062 lmfaooo that's dope 👌
@@EarthPoweredHippie p)mmm
mmm
Just imagine someone in that era going from a single dash speaker with a stock radio that probably put out two to five watts RMS, and then getting one of these with a pair of 6x9's in the back. It must have seemed like a mini rock concert with the change in power.
Awesome video, Derek.
Awesome video! I'd love to see more of this stuff! Over the years I've come to appreciate an old school high quality Class AB lowish power output amp with some high efficiency speakers, a good install and EQ adjustment and think it can sound really fantastic. Massive power output and huge SPL numbers just isn't needed 99% of the time.
this is the coolest amp dyno test i've ever seen on YT!! great job!!
Chris fix reference cracked me up. Thanks for the trip down memory lane D
This is one of my favorite videos I have ever seen you do! Major respect for showcasing an awesome product and company overall! If it were not for his products many of us would not be able to make our systems bump doe!!
Awesome vid Big D!! Who knew it will still bump at 47 years!!
Thanks brother!
I'm a fanatic of vintage audio and this is amazing to see after so many years still works! 😊
Yessir I agree!
This is Definitely the coolest video to date !! Thanks for keeping the history alive !
Maybe the 12V out was for the 8 track tape player as an add on👍
yeah boi, get your 8 track bump on!
Or a huge fan 😆
D, you gotta put some fork terminals on those speaker leads. Way too easy to have a strand short across the terminals:-)
That’s awesome. Love seeing the vintage stuff come back to life!
I never would have thought Rockford Fosgate lineage traced back to the early 70's. Cool video, thanks for sharing!
Loved this history video! Very informative from such a great car audio giant! Thank you so much Mr. Fosgate
Amazing video! Thank you for this blast from the past bro, keep up the awesome content!
So cool seeing the guts on this, thank you Big D.
I couldn't wipe the grin off my face from beginning to end. Amazing stuff and love it!!
Thanks brother 👍
@@wal always a pleasure my friend! ❤️
Wow! Dude that was sooo cool! What an awesome gem to have 😁👍👍 definitely worth keeping and adding to the collection. Good video man. Glad you made it.
That's awesome! Can't believe those are still around and working 👍👊
Another friend has 4 of them and only 1 works. I felt pretty lucky to have 1 out of 2 working perfectly
@@wal nice!
@@wal its crazy how far car audio has come. Especially how much more affordable it is now compared to the 90s when I first got into it.
How many of us would love to have one of these now in 2023 ? I know I would !! Jim may be gone but never to be forgotten ! I still run fosgate stuff in my car from early 90's !!
Very cool. I love all this old audio equipment. This is a little before my time but gets me thinking about all the old eq's we had in the early 90's..
im a couple of years younger than these amps and i wish i could be re-capped! can you imagine when car stereos sounded like a transistor radio, and then this thing comes along! it must have been awesome to have more power in the car than the standard music centre in your living room! totally awesome!
I had no idea they had car stereo amplifiers like this in the 70s . I thought the beginning of things like car amps was in the late 80s . Great old school videos we love them
ADS, ZAPCO, AUDIOMOBILE and FOSGATE. the top American brands of the mid 70's....
The first *quality*, low distortion car stereo amplifiers I ever heard were Linear Power, and Fosgate, around 1981. Followed shortly by a/d/s, Audiomobile, and Spectron. An a/d/s-Nakamichi collaboration produced what was arguably the very first automotive high-fidelity system, the 2001 biamped minispeaker system ---- with the minispeakers mounted on the rear deck, it actually delivered a stereo "image"!. Adding a pair of 10" Dynaudio subwoofers to the 2001, as I did in my 2 door Subaru coupe (around 1984-85), made it a triamped system.
@@goodun2974 Glad you are aware of that ADS system as most folks have no clue. I am still wondering as it don't have but a POWER and GROUND.... how do ya turn it on and off remotely?... I always used a toggle switch to turn em off in the old days. I wonder if these were current sensing... RCA signal sensing?.... I always used a toggle switch BUT the amp would run on for some time before it actually turns off.... 60 volts bass and 32 volts tweeter amps in there.... Dual output power source..... BUILT LIKE A TANK.... Built like an AUTOMOTIVE AMPLIFIER... yeah.... SOON I am gonna build my VINTAGE amp rack... soon... BDBD/2021
@@bigdogbrodavepresents6178 , in those early days, I often used Bosch relays to turn the amps on and off. The power interconnections could get weird because while some amplifiers back then had the familiar auxiliary 12 volt input wire to trigger the amp on, other amp designs had a 12 volt *output* that powered the radio and switched the amp on when it sensed the current draw of the radio. It could get convoluted when hooking up multiple amps and signal processing equipment that used different turn-on schemes or when the radio was digital and needed to drawbpower for its memory function (or had a separate wire for illumination of the dial, which was intended get hooked up to the dimmer switch for the cars' instrumentation panel). There were a couple times where the radio didn't have a switched 12 volt output for a power antenna or to turn on an amp and so I opened up the radio and added a wire from the on-off switch. Ah, those were the days! No standard design practices for mobile audio gear,, and the installer had to be creative. If the equipment used DIN plugs for audio interconnection, typically with a 12 volt turn-on lead inside the same cable, no two manufacturers used the same pinouts, and I became skilled at making DIN to DIN adapters. I remember an installation I did for a customer with an Alpine deck, a Kenwood EQ, an Alpine crossover and two or three Kenwood amplifiers. I had to make a bunch of DIN adapters for that one!
@@bigdogbrodavepresents6178 , one stereo store I worked for sold German-designed Visonic (Visonik?) speakers and amplifiers; the amps weren't reliable but the speakers were similar to a/d/s 300i plates and 200c mini-boxes, they were inefficient and power-hungry but sounded good. Fujitsu Tenvox made radio-cassette players that were funky-looking, almost industrial, and built like tanks, and had the most hysterically funny installation manuals with gloved hands that had faces on them pointing out the wiring connections and mechanical mountings. I also remember a few Hifonics amplifiers, such as the "Zeus" model. Even Philips (the Holland-based corporation who gave us the original cassette tape design and later collaborated with Sony to develop the compact disc) got into car audio for a little while with 20 watt and 50 watt per channel amps that were purportedly designed by Audiomobile and sounded like it (smooth and warm, probably MosFet). I sold and installed the first generation Boston Acoustics car speakers, abd owned a pair myself ---- and got paid to replace them all, under warranty a year or so later when the cones all crumbled from sunlight exposure (they ALL failed,, but to their credit, BA replaced them all at no charge to the customer, even several years later, out of warranty). Even the famous B&W, Bowers and Wilkins of England, got into car audio with the LM-1 metal-enclosure, Nextel finished, mini speakers that could handle several hundrred watts and included the same APOC overload protection circuit as their most expensive home stereo speakers and recording studio monitors. ( Nextel, a rubbery synthetic felt flocking or velore-like coating, was like "the next big thing" in metal coatings and finishes for a very short while. The biggest problem with it was, it was difficult to dust or clean).
Man, this is making me dig deep into whatever is left of my memory banks!
Every time I bump my system my dad tells me about his 76 pinto with a $700 stereo system in it lol it had pioneer a 24 band graphic equalizer and he swears it was just ear splitting lol. I imagine it was being the late 70s and he didn't have any subs just miss and highs 😆. I still think it's awesome to see where our world of stereo systems has evolved from. Gives he and I something in common to talk about. I cant wait to show him this video when I see him next 👍
Absolutely sick content bro! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Man I been waiting on this one! Glad you were able to get to the bottom of the firsts. Thanks for another killer video Dereck
Thanks big D that thing is super cool. Cutting edge stuff for '73. Imagine all the folks who felt bass for the first time thanks to this amp (and of course some properly installed 6x9s.) I am surprised at the boost frequencies, industry standard was and still is 100hz/10k hz for bass and treble. Another thing to consider is that even the best tapes and tape decks back then were really only good for 50-15k if you're lucky so the +18 at 45hz/+12 at 20k was basically subsonic/supersonic relative to the available input signals. We've come a long way in 48 years!!
I know you said that video was a long time coming D but you did a stellar job in that one bro! Props to Fosgate. Shows the quality even back then. Probably my favorite video to date!
Those mugs were hella expensive.
Back innaday my brother, and I put a system in pops Nova
6X9 Quams in the back
Seas, and Polydax on the doors
We built 3 amps copying a Phase Linear design
Using parts from Zackit, and our uncle's TV repair shop.
We were 12, and 16 years old
Times were so different then.
Big D, thanks for posting this.
Ive always wondered how these old fosgates would do on a dyno. Looks like even back then, they kicked butt
Great job on this relic from the beginnings of the car audio hobby Big D. It’s a testament to their quality that both the amps and the company both survive to this day.
I installed car audio at “Spinet Music” in east texas from 1976(?) to 1980(?) and owned Alpine head/deck with nothing but Punch PR50s, PR100s, and PR250s for about 2000 watts per side in 1977 (it was installed in a 1975 GMC Jimmy and had 10 speakers in as many holes). We all loved the amps.
After 6 months only the 50 watt amps still worked.
I started using Harmon/Kardon amps.
It might be interesting to note that the biaxial/co-axial speakers were not really available to the average buyer until about 1975. Also i never saw the amp you show here as a single. It was often run as a set of two,three, four or six pushing separate woofer, separate tweeter systems, often with subs. I did a lot of passive crossover setups along with passive EQs to smooth and control the speaker output. We always set Fosgate at 4 or 2 ohms ( 2 amp was when the later amps had a mono setting most often used to push one sub).
Wow did you bring back some memories!!!
Yeah... I too was an installer from the 70's till 2008.... Someone mentioned that the "Original FOSGATE products never lasted more than 20 hours in a car environment"..... I own a couple and the construction is the downfall. Great circuitry BUT.... not for a car as goes the way they built the thing. Build Quality. There the Fosgate products lacked..... THEN came ROCKFORD. BDBD/2022
I remember my dad talking about fosgate amps he had back in the 70's. Didn't really believe him because I asked Rockford fosgate? He said no it was just fosgate. Now I know what he was talking about. Super cool! Thanks for sharing Bid D 👍
Yessir, dad knows what’s up!
Thanks so much for bringing us the story of Fosgate and their influence on the car audio industry. I’d heard of RockfordFosgate but had no idea how revolutionary they were in the early years. It’s seems like they not only offered an affordable high-end amp, but in so doing raised the standard for factory car audio systems by raising consumer expectations.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Oh my God! Sparkomatic & Kraco was it back in the day until those JBL 6x9's hit the market! If you had a pair of JBL 6x9's & 100 watt amp you were big shhhh😁
No doubt!
Don't forget Jensen.
@@erikkroll2154 , Jensen car speakers were ubiquitous in the early 80's ---- meaning they sounded awful *everywhere*! 🤣
@@goodun2974 yeah, all that junk sounded like trash, even back then.
A friend of mine had a Jim Fosgate "Gavote" which was an entire system control that did center channel and time alignment to all speakers.
It was ahead of it's time for the mid 80's but was the only one I have ever seen.
AAAAAH, the good old days.
That’s pretty impressive and it’s always cool to see see something that’s beyond old school still going strong
That was really cool to see. My dad had one of those in an old truck. Took me way back to when I was a kid.
Maybe the capacitors from the distorting one are gone, really common to have old dried out electrolytics and would be a good reason why it's distorting
I couldn't imagine anyone in 1973 needing 50wpc on those old 6x9s. That was probably out of this world for back then!
these days its 10,000 watts..... hmmmmmm....BDBD/2022
Holy cow! What a cool find!!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Like I said, I was born in 83, so my first car was in 1999 and my first "system" was in my 1990 Ford Festiva that my grandmother bought for me, had a Sony Xplod tape deck, a Sony 10 disc CD changer, a bass booster (because I couldn't afford an amp yet), and a Blaupunkt 12" sub in a triangular box. I had a MB Quart split set in the doors and dash, and a set of MB Quart 5 1/2" speakers in the rear deck. It didn't slam, but it bumped a bit and sounded really crisp. Then, once I got a job, I was able to buy my cousin's Sony 4 channel amp (with a sub channel) and I replaced the Blaupunkt 12 with a set of Orion Cobalt 10s and it sounded great. Shortly after that I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and I moved back home to Brandon, Florida. I bought a 1994 Eddie Bauer Ford Exploder and I put the same Sony tape deck, MB Quart mids and highs, a US Amps 125x4 1/4 ohm stable amp (red anodized plexiglass bottom), and two JL Audio 15s in a sealed box. Those two vehicles started my love affair with car stereo systems. Now I have four Sundown Audio SA12-D2s on an Orion HCCA 3k SPLX amp in my 500 whp Accord.
Yeah man keep on improving 👌
If this video hasn't tickled your fancy a little bit, are you even a basshead lol? Mad respect to my first brand of amplifiers, Rockford Fosgate, and to Jim Fosgate for being the pioneer of car audio. I loved this video Big D
This was a great video! This is the piece that started it all!
look up HARRISON LABS.... then ADS.... yes....
the first commercially available true automotive audiophile amplifier and speaker system is considered to be the ADS 2001.1973 construction... sold in 21200 stores worldwide in 1974... so that story goes. There were others... Harrison Labs... is the first? i think... patent wise... BEFORE THAT... it was Satellite Technology.... sorta Top Secret even.... LOL.... History... BDBD/2021
1200 stores.... yeah, worldwide... so the story goes...
Well done video Derek. One of your best to date in my opinion. Thanks for all the hard work I know went into putting together this time of entertainment. Always cool to see the old school.
American beauty!....Mr.Fosgate is a national monument!...
100%
That baby needs a full recap job, new thermal paste on the output devices, some solder reflow and a possible bias adjustment, and a better power supply, all that distortion will go bye bye, love the video.
Thank you so much.... your a passionate true car audio NUT CASE as am I and this was a GREAT BLAST FROM THE PAST review.
You really made my day !!!!!
God bless you and maybe I will send you one of my ULTRA amplifiers for testing.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Now this is what I'm talmbout! This amp was released before my time...I was born in 83, so to see this amp being tested now that I am 38 give me a special tingle as a basshead...
Awe yeah
Another bad ass history story awesome sir thank you. MADE IN THE USA PERFECT
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Dereck u come across some of the rarest and coolest products ever u and barevids have the best channels on youtube flat out . Ur hard work does not go unnoticed we bass heads apreciate u more than u could even imagine.
Thanks man, really appreciated 👍
Imagine....
An updated version of this sitting in front of you on your desk or your studio with the Rockford Fosgate logo on it and those beautiful knobs.
Then imagine... Bluetooth, aux, optical, Pre-amps, and XLR hookups. You could even have a reference version all the way up to a pro series.
Rockford would make a KILLING and it would be them going full circle to their roots of home audio.
50wpc is more than the 45 was rated, serious power for a 70s vehicle. Mr Fosgate was a serious innovator 👏
Very cool! Nice piece of audio history...
Car audio (stock systems) have come a LONGGGG way, especially in the recent decades.
Must have been super cool to have one of these in the day.
The original " Kickers " were a subwoofer type ported bandpass style box you put in your cars back seat,the biggest units contained two 12' woofers and two horn mids with two horn tweeters for both L & R stereo .
I have an old spark a matic and thanks for sharing big d and hats off to the man Jim fosgate if it wasn’t for him life just wouldn’t be the same !
This is one of those video's that may not get a ton of views, but this video is epic in so many ways! D you did a amazing job best video all year!
Those always were one of my favorite fosgate products. Sooo cool
😬👍
"They dont build them like they use to"
😁 great video, fascinating content
Thank you Mr. Fosgate🤟🏿
Amen 🙏
lol YOU SIR ARE THE THE ONE AND ONLY PERSON STILL ALIVE WORRIED ABOUT RCA SPACING ON THIS AMP. I love the content
🤣👍
I HAD
A BAD
EXPERIENCE!!
/Mos Def
Everything was build to last not like today nothing is the way it used to be its amazing to see this amp still works 👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌
Believe it or not, the Fosgate amps were not known to be reliable back then
@@wal , Fosgates were unforgiving,, and people blew them up all the time ---- one accidental shorted speaker wire for a fraction of a second was all it took. Lots of people would scrape up the cash to buy expensive amps but not pay for a proper installation by a qualified tech, only to discover that that the all-important magic smoke is easily released by rubbing the wires the wrong way!
Fosgate was the best back in the day hands down they paved the way
Thanks Big D and thanks Jim Fosgate.
i want one just for the nestalgia, and to have on the desk with some small speakers to have as background music
Nice move at 2:08; brings back memories of having hatchback bass
Man this is proof audio technology has improved
Kraco, Sparkomatic at the low end. Alpine, Concord, RF etc at the high end. What memories of the late 80s..... Memories from the Canadian side of North America, when I was there for my studies. Nobody in Sabah, East Malaysia (my home state) knows what I was talking about back then....
Just toured rockford while in arizona. Unfortunately they were preparing for Sturgis so no demos. Was suprised to see some fosgate home speakers, looked great would like to find some. Great history, although do wish they still manufactured in us with highschool students.
Very cool 😎
Thanks for the trip down memory lane and all the time you put into these video's. These were truly a b**ch to work on ;-)
In 1972 I used to haul my 2-15" bass amp cabinet around in the trunk of my '67 Dodge Polara convertible and hooked it up to the stock radio's speaker terminals. Loud as hell (it was just cloth behind the back seat because it was a convertible so it wasn't very muffled). That's the first car stereo for bassheads that I ever heard. :)
That's awesome, I drove a 1965 Dodge Polara when I was living in Hawaii just a few years ago- it was in amazing condition and an all origninal car. The previous owner had a system in it as well, and I thought it was a good idea they had installed a more modern, after market stereo neatly in the glove box. Likewise, this also saved the car's interior rather than butcher up the dash just to have the original AM radio pulled out... But nice story and reminder for mine, it sure was a fun car when I had it over there for the great times and years I lived on Oahu. Could easily fit a miniature concert gig in the back seats and trunk area alone! 🤣
What a very rare piece of history!
Talk about flash back I haven't seen that cartoon sense I was 7 the amp reminds me when I started car audio in the early 90s in my mom 63 olds installing my first stereo. It surprise me how different the first one sounds compared to the second one the screw remind me of the first car audio stuff I use to play with. Great flash back.👍👌✌️🎵🎶💯
Great video about a great piece of car audio history.
Omg! My buddy had one just like this one back in early 80s! Blast from past!
i have an old stax-da80 obviously not car audio. you reminded me i should look into getting that amp serviced. its 100% original lol.. 1976 and still works. so im not shocked about the Fosgate. use good components get good results! :) Awesome video!
Awesome work and made video old age bass system, appreciate work!
Jim Fosgate had a bad ass car. Cutlass or Monte Carlo, I had a Pontiac Phoenix 81 and everyone wanted my car
👌😬👍
If only it was re capped I wonder how it would do ? This test is amazing an amp that is over 40 years old is impressive 👏 well done big D
Not more power, but maybe dynamics
Awesome vintage amp! I could see this in the mid 1970's hooked up to a pair of Jensen Triax 6x9 speakers in the rear deck. The Jensen car speakers were the best available back then and would be perfect with this amp and were also Made in U.S.A.
Jensen.... yep... I had a pair of 12 inch Jensen home speakers bouncing around in the trunk of my 64 Barracuda.... LOL... 4 Pioneer brown cone chrome domes all around... Bowman amplifier eq... I was as cool as a cucumber in 1976.... LOL..... I appreciate the work everyone has put into the autosound industry.... Thank You all.... Lifelong installer here... BDBD/2021
I had those exact components in high school. PR700 & Jensen 6×9 triaxles. Incredible sound, clean, hammered real hard. Also Pioneer Supertuner. About every 5 months returned Jensens to retailer. The Fosgate had taken its toll on them
@@Hilux244 super tuner baby...my buddy had one in his trans am 😁👍
Man this is awesome. Rockford is my favorite brand. Got some old school amps and subs. I install audio. Love all ur vids.
Thanks man 👍
Goodness I 've watched that interveiw many times hes a truly legendary👍
What a really awesome piece of old skool kool. Great video.
Amazing this practically 50 year old amp is still doing work! I have an old amp of my dad's that still works prob from the late 80s not as impressive as this but pretty cool. I also have 2 still water design 12s in truck boxes with horn tweeters that still bump. 😳 one of the reasons I still give kicker my $. I had the zx series amps as a teen with the comps and KS speakers that still kick lol. Even though I've had to re Glue the surrounds on the KS's the comps still do work and are about 20 years old!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Love this research Big D, yeahhhh! boi!!
Thanks man, put a lot of time into this one 👌
Cool little video of a cool little amp.
I'm not making the wattage I used to...160lbs don't move like it used to. Lol amazing for a 45 year old piece of electronics...great work D. You gonna send her to Sam for a recap?
Lol. Prob not sending it to the UK. I’m sure Ray at Linear Power could fix it
Thank you for sharing this. awesome stuff.