*SHOP* Search eBay for Rockford Fosgate Amplifiers: ebay.to/3EzvAi7 Shop for New Rockford Fosgate Amplifiers: amzn.to/41p63C0 Terminal Blocks for Wiring Car Audio: amzn.to/41oNzS6 Shop for new amps from D4S: Shop4Bass.com *RELATED VIDEOS* Rockford Fosgate Punch HD Series Amps Playlist: is.gd/rfpunchamps Old School Rockford Fosgate Playlist (45 plus videos): is.gd/oldschoolrfamps *VIDEO INDEX* 0:00 Intro 0:48 1991 RF Amps 1:26 Power 100HD 1:59 Hybrid Design 2:43 Amp Overview 3:26 Molex Hell 4:21 Specs 4:45 Hooking Up the Amp 5:29 Amp Dyno Tests 9:10 Demo with Speakers 10:12 What's Inside? 11:20 Pros and Cons 12:13 Final Thoughts 13:22 EXTRAS *VIDEO AND AUDIO GEAR* Camera - iPhone 13pro 1TB - amzn.to/3nCjGvc RODE Wireless Go II Microphones: amzn.to/3Q6NVHl Shure MV7 Microphone: amzn.to/3A4OICK Zoom H4n Audio Recorder: amzn.to/3BXjVsS 960 LED Panel: amzn.to/2Sxoq3S *TEST BENCH EQUIPMENT* SMD / D'Amore Engineering Amp Dyno: goo.gl/sJTcf7 XS Power D1400 Batteries - amzn.to/2BPFCKW XS Power PSC60 Charger - amzn.to/2CHGcfs Fluke 1000A AC/DC Clamp Meter: amzn.to/2Rw5WDA Handheld Dyno: amzn.to/2u2EgKV My Favorite Screwdriver Kit: amzn.to/2x0VzcE _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_
1991, I would take this over head unit power all day long. Headunit power was much less back then so driving your vocals with the "Power" 100 would be much better than a 1991 head unit. That price point though. Watts were expensive back then, but dang.
I actually owned one of these. Yeah, I was a sucker for their ads - the Punch series performed so well that you do not question whatever RF put out. I found out later too that it was a pair of Punch 30's with a single power supply - should've paid attention to the specs! RF pulled a fast one on it's fan base with this unit.
BigD, thanks for this walk through the past. Even though this RF "Power" amp didn't provide very good value - and really only made "headunit power", I remember that there were a LOT of lower-end head units that only made a mere 8 to 10 watts RMS per channel. Getting to 20-ish watts per channel with that headroom (you don't check the slew rate, but based on the dynamic power I bet it was pretty good) this RF Power amp would make some old Jensens or Pyle Drivers sound pretty good in 1991. And don't discount the "brag" value - I only dreamed of showing off a Rockford Fosgate amp in my trunk when I could only afford a Realistic or Crutchfield amp!
I would like for him to explain to people why fosgate BD power is better than plain D power and how BDCP power is better than just BD power. There is circuitry and mathematics that give them the advantage over other amplifiers. You can't even rate these amplifiers with other people. It's not even correct because it's not the same operation. We really need to separate the amplifiers and to categories of how they operate. We really need some kind of audio test that tests the power and the heat in the audio itself. We need some kind of new testing measures.
I can totally identify with your intro to this video. My first new amp was an old Punch 40. That was back when the watt to dollar ratio was WAY different. I still have it. Of course one of the end covers has wandered off by now. Haha. Thank you for all the hard work you put into this channel. I'm outta heeeeeere.
Definitely a reminder how much amps have changed since the 90s, I recall for first alpine deck for $500, and getting acoustic 360, and 460 amps and my mtx blue thunder subs back then. the amp and speaker market is vast these days.
Your review was spot on! Real life experience with this amp. In the 90's I was on tour with friends and involved with IASCA in the So. Cal area. I competed in the under 50 Watt class with the Punch 45 and had friend in the 1000+ with Orion Reds HCCA's, Linears, Rockford Fosgates, etc. I had a friend who decided to buy a Power 100HD, I said it's not a Punch. He could not believe how much he could never get it to sound louder than my Punch 45. 🤷♂️ My Punch 45 Setup: 4- 10" inch Punch Pro 4- Factory Speakers with Passive X-overs Stock Delco GM 5-Band EQ Tape Deck My Friend's Power 100HD Setup: 4-Cervin Vega Red 4-Sony Explod Mid(Factory replaced locations) Alpine CD (series?) I would rate 127-130db and he would be so low at 124-125db. He was pissed so much.🤬 My friends who competed would be 1st place veterans at 139-143db. 😳
I had one of those in a single cab dodge ram and for a metal head prior to Korn and Nu-Metal it was a decent set up with some pioneer three ways in the back and a powered tube subbie that wasn't too muddy for the music selection. It wouldn't bounce the truck but was good enough for windows down freeway driving
I remember competing back in the day and so many guys down here had Power 650s and Power 1000s. One local guy had 4 Punch 15s on a Power 650 in a small Blazer...called it Thunderdome. That thing hit hard for back then. I never had to go head's up against those guys as they were either in the 501 to 1000 watt Pro class or the 1000+ watt(also known as Unlimited) Pro class. I was in the 251 to 500 watt Pro class(any person that worked in an audio shop had to compete in the Pro class under USAC and IASCA rules back then). I miss seeing those big Punch amps. I never ran one of the big ones, but have run the venerable Punch 45 and Punch 75. I started out with Punch 12s in my comp truck(12 12s with a Snugtop and walk-thru), but wasn't getting the SPL I wanted with the Punch subs on 4 Orion HCCA 250s. So I switched to the Kicker Comp 12s and did so much better. These kids don't know the money we paid for our amps back in the day compared to the high wattage amps of today. Nor do they know of things like only being able to run cassette decks as that's all we had. I paid BIG money for my HK(Harmon Kardon, but when that name meant elite audio gear) with a tape head that could read 20hz to 20k hz. I had MB Quart mids and highs, but that was original MB Quart stuff...not the junk with the Quart name on it today. I had a Linear Power pre-amp parametric EQ which wasn't seen much back then. I miss the old brands...Linear Power, MB Quart, West Coast Audio, Hifonics when it meant something, Lanzar when it was great, Carver, Nakamichi, Clarion when it was great, Crunch before it was junk, and so many more brands that have either gone extinct or fallen so low as to be shadows of their past selves. Kids won't know the joys of 2 M&M 15s on a Punch 75. Or 4 Kicker 15s on a Linear Power 952. Or 4 Crunch 12s on a Hifonics Ulysses. I miss those days. 🫤
Yeah but perhaps it was to be in place of a head unit which makes it a direct replacement and it would be big power for the dashboard. For the time period it's pretty accurate. It blows away the forty five and seventy five. So clearly it has power. They didn't label it wrong. The intention is accurate. It's just people are thinking of subwoofers. They're not thinking of just audio and nice clean perfect audio. They didn't think of bass then like we do now. They didn't really have the lows back then.
Born in '75, I remember growing up dreaming of having Rockford Fosgate Power in my muscle car.... I am 47 now and have had (and still have) the Rockford Fosgate amps I saved uo for many years ago. Even though the cars are long gone. I used all of these amps every day to this day. They have been nothing but good to me, my and my kids to this day. I swore by Rockford Fosgate then, and swear by them ten fold today. Proven performance that lasts through the decades of life.
Started with car audio just few years after this. I had friends that swore by Fosgate amps, but they weren't in my budget. My first amp was a Jensen A2000 running some Pioneer 6x9's. A year later I added a Jensen XA6040 to run a pair of 10" Cerwin DVC4. It bumped. Caught a lot of crap for running those Jensen's, but they hung at the time.
I see this amp for back then a "proto type" amp but that efficiency wow really low. You are right we all have never seen that before on any amp you have tested here. But its Rocford Fosgate the legend of car audio.
They had TUNER head units back then that required amplifier. also CENTER CHANNELING was big also . I had the 150 HD what a let down as soon as it got warm in Tejas the fuse would pop . The 150 before HD was the BOMB 💣
Hello Big D. Always following here from Brazil!! At that time, here in our country, we only had booster amplifiers with internal transformers, low-cost, high-distortion crap. This worst RF amplifier was already much better than what was here. Big hug and good work to all there!!!
Even if the amp is underwhelming, im glad it at least made rated even with abysmal efficiency it was a great video. You have an absolutely awesome rockford collection anyone can envy
I've literally never tested an RF amp that didn't do the rated power. I really don't have that many RF amps, but I've kept some of the nicer ones around.
I had this amp in my 1985 Nissan Sentra. It ran a set of front Pioneer separates and a 10" RF sub in a bandpass box. I had this stereo for almost 7 years. I used a Kenwood KGC-4042 1/4 din eq with sub crossover. I had a Pioneer head unit. The volume could go all the way up. It sounded clean. I had the gains turned way down. The amp never shut down and I had zero issues with it.
Disregarding the price, it probably had better dynamic sound than any head unit of its day. I think it would have sounded nice in a standard cab mini truck (very popular then) with nice 6.5's and a low power 8" sub (like a JL 8W1).
Wait a minute?? I'd like to think I've been into car audio for a long time. Started in the mid-90s. But I have never once in my life seen fuses installed in an amplifier output side
@@wal is there any benefit to using this design today? Does anybody, including competitors, use something like this? For our today's a pretty much immune to Output side malfunctions
RF used old school glass fuses that were wired out from the amp board directly and later models had the molex with the fuses. If not on the speaker out wire then internally on the PC board. A lot of head scratching nights. You had good power and ground. Signal cables were ok and remote turn on had 12v. The last thing to check were those damn speaker outs. Early punch models had the spring loaded fuse holder on the speaker wires and the later hd series had small glass fuses that popped onto the PC board. It was either R positive and L negative or visa versa. The fused speaker leads were your bridged mono hooks. Which in turn allowed the now infamous RF tri-mode/simultaneous bridged stereo output.
Working in an RF authorized shop we blew some stuff. When asking for RA number I don't remember if they ever questioned if we put bigger fuses in. We would replace the fuses with higher rated ones run it through a sinewave and see if they popped. If they survived we'd run it if not back to the hotel. I was amazed at how much more output you could get with bigger fuses. Shows how under rated all their amps were. At their old school RTTI in the 90s they had a entire lecture on the pros and cons of rated output fusing. The pros they were capable. The cons not recommended. It left me happy and sad.
If you witnessed the amp burn in room they had going on that was global warming. Dozens of amps of varying sizes cooking in their juices before they head to the certification room. The smells of pwm and hum of electrons nothing like it.
I have a 20-watt Sony amplifier that's from the mid-80s, early 90s. It was actually pretty loud on a pair of 6.5 speakers. I still have it! And the last time I used it in 2008, it worked.
Nice one big D. FWIW i had a buddy build a small SQ system using a punch 30 "peanut" and a punch 45. It wasn't loud but it sounded great. He had MB quart Separates and I forget what sub. Oh one more thing... this blows away any head unit from 90-91. Head unit amps were ATTROCIOUS (to put it nicely) back then.
I used to repair some old Rockford Fosgate amps back in the day in the early nineties and all of these hdfs for Junk they were known to burn up those modules were very known to go bad not to mention they were discontinued two to three years after they were brought to the market and parts were very scarce after they discontinued them
I'm really not sure why this amp got all the hate. If you think of it as simply a 4-channel Punch amp, designed for mids/highs, I think it fits into the Punch lineup fairly well as designed. If the much-loved Punch 45HD was $275 and made around 140w into 4 ohms mono, as per your shootout vs the Orion 222SX, and the Power 100 was $329 and made around 140w with both sets of channels bridged, then I'm not sure I see what makes this amp such an embarassment. 4-channel amps are always more expensive, even if they make the same power as the 2-channel version. Concerning head unit power, I'm not sure many modern head units even claim to make anywhere near 140w, much less head units from the early 90's. (I'd love to see more modern head units dyno'd!) The power numbers are certainly underwhelming by today's standards, but so were all the Rockford amps from that time, and we still love them. The terrible molex plugs were, of course, standard fare on all the Punch amps of the day. Yeah, the efficiency was so appalling, I can't even understand it. HOWEVER, very few people back in the day even knew, or cared, about efficiency, so I can't see that as a huge deal, either. So I believe that just leaves the main issue being our perception of what the Power series was supposed to be. It's true, that Rockford really seemed to raise the bar to insane levels with those amps, BUT, if in their lexicon, "Power" simply means 4-channel and "Punch" means 2-channel, then maybe the problem lies in our perception of what this amp was supposed to be. Regardless, I don't see any glaring deficiencies here beyond that unexplainably bad efficiency. Though I disagree with the conclusion on this one, you continue to be my favorite car audio channel and I always look forward to your fantastic content. Keep it up!
BigD, i love Rockford Fosgate, my favorit sound car !!! I have Fosgate 1000.2 Power, Punch 100ix DSM, Fosgate Punch 4.6x and two Punch 4600x. Thanks for all, God Bless you - from Brazil
If you want to know how much things have changed over the years, that power 1000 was $2650, or $5900 in today's money. In 1991 that would have paid my rent for 10 months. This is why 1000 watt subwoofers took so long to become popular. No one could afford to buy the amplifier to push it.
Rockford fosgate has always been overpriced. Good amps but when I got into car audio a 1000 rms amp was nearly $1000, other brands would selling amps for $300-400 less for same power. Now you can get 4500 rms on a Korean board for $700-900 depending on sale
@@brianwaller7383 now you can get a 3k on a Brazilian board for $189. In 94 I spent $749 on a ppi a 600.2 and the only reason I spent that was because I was replacing a system that got stolen and the ppi had pull out power, speaker connectors
@@thomasbradian6367 in 1992 I bought a PPI 2150. I don't remember the exact price but I want to think it was close to $600. High School making $9 an hour so I was the man LOL. By the time I got home I put the box on the table and just stared at it. I was sick to my stomach it how much money I had spent. It took me three days before I opened it just because I didn't want to not be able to return it. I hooked it up to four Terminator 10's and quickly forgot about the price tag..
I was a big Rockford fan .I had 2 RF Punch 150 and a Punch 75 . I bought them new from a guy who won them by selling the most RF So I got a good deal on them I also had 2 Punch 15’s I got for $100 I wanted 12” but for $100 . The 15” were a steal I had them in my 1984 Cutlass It did rock ! I never knew 1 person who used or even bought a Power 100 I think because The Punch was probably just as powerful Believe it or not .I knew of a guy who Had like 50 speakers .All running on 1 or 2 Punch 45’s . I heard a guy who had a Punch 45 driving a RF pro 15” .It actually was hitting.He had a 1987 Suzuki Samurai The Punch 45 pretty much owned the 0-99 watt range in SPL Before Orion came out with the cheater amps With 2 Punch 45 you could run 2-10” or 12” .Then run your mids and highs with another Punch 45 The Punch 45 or any of the Punch amplifiers .Where not warm sounding Like Phoenix Gold or SoundStream But they made a lot of power . The Power 300,650 and 1000 .Sounded better then the Punch series.But for the $ .You could buy Phoenix Gold .Which in my opinion was a lot better amplifier For sound quality. I sold My Punch amplifiers .I bought 2 Phoenix Gold MS-250 .Plus a MS 2125 .Which I still have The difference in sound quality was night and day . Plus the Phoenix Gold had more clean power But if you only want 90 watts .2 Punch 45 will rattle your teeth Or take a Punch 150 and a Punch 75 Have 225 watts and rock the block Back when the Punch amplifiers were big in the 1980’s early 1990’s Fostgate was $$$ .But it was one of the few amplifiers that were actually underrated . We didn’t have people like You Derek with a amplifier Dyno posting results . We didn’t have CEA compliance on amplifiers Some Car Audio magazines would test amplifiers .But they didn’t do it that often Or they would advertisement revenue You had companies like Pyramid,Majestic,Coustic,Kenwood,Pioneer ,Targa ,Radion and Nippon These amplifiers would not make there power ratings. Pioneer ,Kenwood ,and Coustic were known brands .But all used maximum power ratings.That were exaggerated Thank god for CEA compliance Plus you Derek .Testing these amplifiers. I really enjoy the old school amplifier you test Now they have Class D amplifiers Which make it easier for amplifiers to make their ratings You can buy a 1000 watt Class D amplifier for $100-$200 . Back in the day classes AB .It would cost over $1000 I know this is a rant .But the Power 100 was pointless.Even at the time Just get 2 punch 45 .It had more power .Plus you would be under the 100 watt category in IASca
A friend in high school had 2 Fosgate 15s on a punch power 50(in a very small 2 door hatch) that was crazy loud. Sounds funny now, but we could sit in class and hear him park 50yds away.
I bought one back in high school - was my first and only Rockford amp. I just remember not feeling like I got my bang for the buck. As a teenager, this was big money for me. This definitely brought back memories!
The Dyno results say one thing but I clearly remember back in the early 90's seeing a tiny "Punch 45" push two 12's with ease. Those things were pumping some nice clean lows without a hitch.
Even though it's "head unit power" I'm sure if you found a head unit that was doing the same on the dyno as this unit, this unit on speakers would sound better.
I agree that Rockford was always known to be "sleeping" on the real power and performance of their amps.That is what made them great. This amp is weird and more on par with the performance of what their competitors would hope to do..
The Power 100HD is basically just 2 Punch 30s put together. I had one back in the day. It’s for mids and highs only. Sold it, it wasn’t about anything.
If I remember correctly, those were mainly sold or at least the audio shop salesmen marketed them as tweeter amplifiers. The guy in Quality Auto sound tried to sell me one when I bought my tweeters for my dash, saying it would run the tweeters and a set of "Punch Plates" I planned to buy later. I ran the tweets from the deck and sadly never bought the Punch Plates.
Hell I had a 90s Clarion head unit that put out 50x4. So why did they make an amp that produced less power than a competitor’s head unit? Someone wasn’t thinking even at that. I had an MTX 4ch that was Silver with the blue and gold medallion in the upper right corner. The build sheet said it was tested @75x4. That amp cost 200 in the day. They had radio shack amps that made the power that does.
Bid D. Thanks for another great video! I am a new subscriber and really enjoy your humor and skillful knowledge. I especially like your Sanford and Son references. Grew up watching that show. Keep up the great content and keep those sine waves moving just as you do!😎
Even the best brands can make a lemon once in a while. That being said, I've never had a problem with any of the RF stuff I've owned over the years. Definitely a solid brand.
LoL, I had a 100HD for about 6 months just running my mids and highs @ 4ohm and it eventually melted! Yea, it overheated one day while driving on the highway, smelled somthing bad then click! Died! Opened it and saw melted components, etc! I was a car stereo installer for almost 10 years...was not installed wrong, was just crap!! I think I still have it sitting on a shelf somewhere....
You know what I want you to test? The first gen Series 1 460. My ppi gave out and I swapped in one of those, and I could literally hear the difference.
This amp reminds me of the Orion Cobalt 15x2 amp that I still have in my garage. I wouldn't want to power a set of bookshelf speakers with it, but the power and ground cables are a hell of alot thicker than 12 g.
While I agree it did not deserve the "Power" name, it did fit a need. I used one in 1990 to run mids and highs with a punch 45 for two 12" subs. The head unit did not have enough power for the yamaha component speakers but the 100hd had no problem, sounded clean and got as loud as needed. This was in a Geo storm and the goal was clean and loud with as little power as possible. It did not win any DB awards, but impressed everyone who heard it and got a lot louder than you would expect a 105 watt system could. Also, I paid the same price for the 100hd as the punch 45 in 1990, $249.
The industry back then was driven by the watt classes unlike today. This was indeed just 2 peanuts (Punch 30) in one chassis. In the end it wasn't as popular as the other models and hence not much out there today. Most ran these for Fronts and Rears. But over all there was a lot of systems built for the low wattage classes that really did amazing well for the power rated.
There's another series of apps that came out that were their budget I think about the same time. And they were all those goofy colors like you would find for like the pyle and Sony amps. Personally I don't think the power was bad with them You did do a test a long time ago with them I just didn't like the look. ☺️👍
I still own the 1st gen Rockford Fosgate Punch 30hd ( peanut ) 75hd 2nd gen Punch 40hd, Punch 60hd..& all work flawlessly after 3 solid decades of use, abuse & so many reinstalls from vehicle to vehicle along with my Box that R O C K S truck boxes
Speaking of Rockford. I saw a video from 5star-carstereo where they had gone to Rockford and did a tour. One of the things they mentioned was OVERDRIVING their speakers to ensure they can handle power. The claim was 3x power without breaking in their lab testing.... So if that were true, I would love to see you test their R1675X2 which is a coaxial set that's relatively cheap ($70 on crutchfield). Its claimed 45w RMS. If their 3x power rule is true.... you should be able to pump in 135w of power. 52hz to 20,000hz would mean you would need to use a filter to prevent about 60hz or lower from playing (so they don't blow from improper signal). Don't know if that's a test you would be into? But figured I would mention it.... I mean if Rockford themselves test their speakers and subs at 3x power to ensure they wont break and meet THEIR specifications of "quality" then why couldn't a consumer? They even laughed/joked about consumers always overdriving their speakers/subs so they took "pride" in making sure they could handle it. If you end up doing it, I think it would make for interesting content!
It was a hard sell for me as a kid. You could buy a sherwood amp that made pretty much the same as the dynamic power of this amp for half the price. If I remember the pricing, you could buy 2 Punch 40's, bridge them to run left and right, and get way more clean power; still cheaper than this amp. That's what most pros were doing. Makes me think this was an old design that they had a bunch of resources invested in and couldn't back out. Pretty lame they put it out as part of a much better series, but I bet this happens more often in manufacturing than we know.
Seeing the burst power and the individual level controls, this would've make sense driving mid/high front speakers while another, for example, more powerful 4 channel amp would've handled the woofers and a sub or two.
So awesome to find your channel and this review! I had a Power 650 running two bandpass Rockford 12s in 2ohm mode and a Power 300 running Kicker 4's and tweeters throughout the vehicle. Not a lot of midrange in my Benz 190 back in the 1990's! Could you do a review of some of the Bluetooth and side-by-side or watercraft bluetooth class-D amps? At least ONE of them needs to be good; maybe the JL mx280 vs the Rockville ATOM P20! 😀
I remember way back when the "Punch" line was the only line available. The "Power" & "HD" line came shortly afterward but was never revered or more desirable at the time. Everyone basically knew the classic "Punch" line of amps was the way to go even though they were older.
Wow! If that was your first Example of Fosgate you would never know. Fosgate's 45 watt with mosfets, mid 80's would make you wonder what happened to RF! I PUT 4 OF THESE in Their pickups, Sony head units 4 Pyle 6x9's a fader To control the load. After the first one I got the other 3, these boys were not ready For this. Sultons of swing at max 90 watts, when they got out with ears ringing and smiles ear to ear you knew You just made 4 cowboys day. They were tough on What they wanted, radio stations every where, I told them trust me I pick the equipment, install 100 each, I made about 4 or 5 an hour, but my pay was the smiles. Lovelock Nevada is 90 miles from Reno. (
When this amp was new I was running 4 8” subs with an Alpine amp rated 50w x 2 , bridged. Subs were way less power hungry back then. Rockford was accepted as being among the best but the $ per watt was too high for guys like me. My money went to the best head unit and sound processing I could buy.
I'm sure an amp like this one would have been right at home in a SQ driven setup with a separate amp for a sub back in the day. Plus even an objectively bad Rockford Fosgate amp is still better than quite a few other manufacturers amps back then or even today!
Back in those days the typical output power of a head unit was about 4-6W with 10% THD, and half of them were mono ! With an amp like this you ccould have an decent sound , powerful and quality. It is not fair to compare it with an modern head unit. Even today are head units that output abour 25W per ch at 10% THD. Also back then speakers were made with greater spl level.
My friend has a punch 360a with a birth sheet that says 521 Watts, so when the punch 400s came out i decided to get one thinking I would get at least 500 Watts. I must have gotten a preemie, because my birth sheet said 426watts, and anyone who has used a Rockford amp knows how power hungry they are, and 400 Watts just wasn't conducive for the amperage it would've used, and I know people are going to say, you got what you paid for, but coming off a 150hd( first gen with just a bass and treble knob) no comparison. Needless to say I put it on the wall and took my 400 watt jack hammer 4 channel off the wall in its place
Yes, this amp was weak. I was a HiFonics dealer back then. you know "power from the gods" But of course I loved myself some good Rockford stuff because the company started here locally in Utah and got bigger in AZ. Back then we called what your saying the power series, "sleeper amps" or low current amps like the Ulyses or Isis. They were built for competition and rated the wattage at 4 ohms but were 1 or even 1/2 ohm stable and that's how you got power out of them for competitions. So we could get into a lower wattage class competition obviously. That's why your getting the rated power they say, but not what we were use to. This amp was not good for competition, and most Rockford amps were. HiFonics also had lower end amps like this one back then but it was unusual and even more unusual for Rockford to produce an amp this weak. Rockford has now stayed with more quality and Hifonics has sold out to the enemy now....sad.
What I really despise about these HD amps is those output driver boards. The tiny capacitators always leak or burn out. Be careful buying any untested HD amps today. Only Freeman stereo repair has replacement driver boards that I am aware of.
back then after the 1st kicker comps and right after kicker free air "gold series " they starter making 2way systems 6x9s 4inch mids maybe the amp was intended for them 🤷🏽 I thought I had the 1st of the Rockford turds idk the series but it's metallic red and grey but possibly they was also intended for use on highs and mids .
Hey Mate, could you do a video where you probe an amplifiers speakeroutput with an oscilloscope while hanging on the dyno ? This way it would be way easier to realize on what kind of signals the dyno tests the amps on.
Have you ever tried a head unit from Rockford Fosgate? I've owned one of those not for a very long time, I sold it and got a Pioneer head unit instead which was way better to customize the equalizer, it looked much better, to me the Pioneer head units were better in every way than the Rockford Fosgate and that's coming from a Rockford Fosgate fan, I still have the old Rockford Fosgate Punch HX2 subwoofer that I now have in my living room as an active speaker for my surround set which is awesome.
The efficiency of that amp, yikes! Well, some amps may not be perfect all said and done but doing rated power is for most great companies not much to ask. I love the info in this video!
Hey big D you should have your buddy Sean K look at that amplifier and see if it’s sick, the efficiency is terrible which tells me there’s something wrong with it.
I had one 30yrs ago and it was definitely my worst RF amp I ever owned. Always seemed lax in power and the physical size made it always in the way. Sound was always muddied by the low-power electronics.
*SHOP*
Search eBay for Rockford Fosgate Amplifiers: ebay.to/3EzvAi7
Shop for New Rockford Fosgate Amplifiers: amzn.to/41p63C0
Terminal Blocks for Wiring Car Audio: amzn.to/41oNzS6
Shop for new amps from D4S: Shop4Bass.com
*RELATED VIDEOS*
Rockford Fosgate Punch HD Series Amps Playlist: is.gd/rfpunchamps
Old School Rockford Fosgate Playlist (45 plus videos): is.gd/oldschoolrfamps
*VIDEO INDEX*
0:00 Intro
0:48 1991 RF Amps
1:26 Power 100HD
1:59 Hybrid Design
2:43 Amp Overview
3:26 Molex Hell
4:21 Specs
4:45 Hooking Up the Amp
5:29 Amp Dyno Tests
9:10 Demo with Speakers
10:12 What's Inside?
11:20 Pros and Cons
12:13 Final Thoughts
13:22 EXTRAS
*VIDEO AND AUDIO GEAR*
Camera - iPhone 13pro 1TB - amzn.to/3nCjGvc
RODE Wireless Go II Microphones: amzn.to/3Q6NVHl
Shure MV7 Microphone: amzn.to/3A4OICK
Zoom H4n Audio Recorder: amzn.to/3BXjVsS
960 LED Panel: amzn.to/2Sxoq3S
*TEST BENCH EQUIPMENT*
SMD / D'Amore Engineering Amp Dyno: goo.gl/sJTcf7
XS Power D1400 Batteries - amzn.to/2BPFCKW
XS Power PSC60 Charger - amzn.to/2CHGcfs
Fluke 1000A AC/DC Clamp Meter: amzn.to/2Rw5WDA
Handheld Dyno: amzn.to/2u2EgKV
My Favorite Screwdriver Kit: amzn.to/2x0VzcE
_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_
1991, I would take this over head unit power all day long. Headunit power was much less back then so driving your vocals with the "Power" 100 would be much better than a 1991 head unit. That price point though. Watts were expensive back then, but dang.
I actually owned one of these. Yeah, I was a sucker for their ads - the Punch series performed so well that you do not question whatever RF put out. I found out later too that it was a pair of Punch 30's with a single power supply - should've paid attention to the specs! RF pulled a fast one on it's fan base with this unit.
BigD, thanks for this walk through the past. Even though this RF "Power" amp didn't provide very good value - and really only made "headunit power", I remember that there were a LOT of lower-end head units that only made a mere 8 to 10 watts RMS per channel. Getting to 20-ish watts per channel with that headroom (you don't check the slew rate, but based on the dynamic power I bet it was pretty good) this RF Power amp would make some old Jensens or Pyle Drivers sound pretty good in 1991. And don't discount the "brag" value - I only dreamed of showing off a Rockford Fosgate amp in my trunk when I could only afford a Realistic or Crutchfield amp!
I would like for him to explain to people why fosgate BD power is better than plain D power and how BDCP power is better than just BD power. There is circuitry and mathematics that give them the advantage over other amplifiers. You can't even rate these amplifiers with other people. It's not even correct because it's not the same operation. We really need to separate the amplifiers and to categories of how they operate. We really need some kind of audio test that tests the power and the heat in the audio itself. We need some kind of new testing measures.
I can totally identify with your intro to this video. My first new amp was an old Punch 40. That was back when the watt to dollar ratio was WAY different. I still have it. Of course one of the end covers has wandered off by now. Haha. Thank you for all the hard work you put into this channel. I'm outta heeeeeere.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Definitely a reminder how much amps have changed since the 90s, I recall for first alpine deck for $500, and getting acoustic 360, and 460 amps and my mtx blue thunder subs back then. the amp and speaker market is vast these days.
👌😬👍
The blue thunders were cool unless you were poor and could only afford the terminators 🤣
Anybody that was around back when these things were new would’ve LOVED to have this things on four coaxials.
Perfect Sunday morning treat! Love listening to Big D! Appreciate your videos man!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Your review was spot on!
Real life experience with this amp.
In the 90's I was on tour with friends and involved with IASCA in the So. Cal area. I competed in the under 50 Watt class with the Punch 45 and had friend in the 1000+ with Orion Reds HCCA's, Linears, Rockford Fosgates, etc. I had a friend who decided to buy a Power 100HD, I said it's not a Punch. He could not believe how much he could never get it to sound louder than my Punch 45. 🤷♂️
My Punch 45 Setup:
4- 10" inch Punch Pro
4- Factory Speakers with Passive X-overs
Stock Delco GM 5-Band EQ Tape Deck
My Friend's Power 100HD Setup:
4-Cervin Vega Red
4-Sony Explod Mid(Factory replaced locations)
Alpine CD (series?)
I would rate 127-130db and he would be so low at 124-125db. He was pissed so much.🤬
My friends who competed would be 1st place veterans at 139-143db. 😳
Awesome 👏
This was also at a time when head units had an average output of like 5 watts! You had to spend big money to get 25 watts in a head unit!
Valid point!
They still have about the same power, maybe 7,5 watts/channel.
Nice work! Have you considered putting a modern head unit on the amp dyno? It would be interesting to see if head unit manufactures are lying to us.
Good idea, not sure why most head units still only give max power specs even tho amp manufacturers have figured out we only care about the RMS rating
This is the kind of amp where you can just send all knobs to the right 🤣
Can honestly say as an old school guy, I didn't know this model existed!
I’ve heard even old RF dealers say this!
I had one of those in a single cab dodge ram and for a metal head prior to Korn and Nu-Metal it was a decent set up with some pioneer three ways in the back and a powered tube subbie that wasn't too muddy for the music selection. It wouldn't bounce the truck but was good enough for windows down freeway driving
I remember competing back in the day and so many guys down here had Power 650s and Power 1000s. One local guy had 4 Punch 15s on a Power 650 in a small Blazer...called it Thunderdome. That thing hit hard for back then.
I never had to go head's up against those guys as they were either in the 501 to 1000 watt Pro class or the 1000+ watt(also known as Unlimited) Pro class. I was in the 251 to 500 watt Pro class(any person that worked in an audio shop had to compete in the Pro class under USAC and IASCA rules back then). I miss seeing those big Punch amps. I never ran one of the big ones, but have run the venerable Punch 45 and Punch 75. I started out with Punch 12s in my comp truck(12 12s with a Snugtop and walk-thru), but wasn't getting the SPL I wanted with the Punch subs on 4 Orion HCCA 250s. So I switched to the Kicker Comp 12s and did so much better.
These kids don't know the money we paid for our amps back in the day compared to the high wattage amps of today. Nor do they know of things like only being able to run cassette decks as that's all we had. I paid BIG money for my HK(Harmon Kardon, but when that name meant elite audio gear) with a tape head that could read 20hz to 20k hz. I had MB Quart mids and highs, but that was original MB Quart stuff...not the junk with the Quart name on it today. I had a Linear Power pre-amp parametric EQ which wasn't seen much back then.
I miss the old brands...Linear Power, MB Quart, West Coast Audio, Hifonics when it meant something, Lanzar when it was great, Carver, Nakamichi, Clarion when it was great, Crunch before it was junk, and so many more brands that have either gone extinct or fallen so low as to be shadows of their past selves.
Kids won't know the joys of 2 M&M 15s on a Punch 75. Or 4 Kicker 15s on a Linear Power 952. Or 4 Crunch 12s on a Hifonics Ulysses.
I miss those days. 🫤
Proof that even the best quality brands can occasionally have a flop! Love it Dereck! Keep em coming bro!
Yeah but perhaps it was to be in place of a head unit which makes it a direct replacement and it would be big power for the dashboard. For the time period it's pretty accurate. It blows away the forty five and seventy five. So clearly it has power. They didn't label it wrong. The intention is accurate. It's just people are thinking of subwoofers. They're not thinking of just audio and nice clean perfect audio. They didn't think of bass then like we do now. They didn't really have the lows back then.
@@MacNifty see now that makes sense
I had a power 1000 from 2004 and a 4-inch fans 650 in the box. Never should have sold those. Never should have all sold my linear power amps either. 😓
Born in '75, I remember growing up dreaming of having Rockford Fosgate Power in my muscle car.... I am 47 now and have had (and still have) the Rockford Fosgate amps I saved uo for many years ago. Even though the cars are long gone. I used all of these amps every day to this day. They have been nothing but good to me, my and my kids to this day. I swore by Rockford Fosgate then, and swear by them ten fold today. Proven performance that lasts through the decades of life.
Same here. Born in 75. I still run the same punches I got in 94
Still got my Power100HD sittin on a shelf, bought it off a guy back in 1995. Sounded great on my Stillwater Designs
Kicker Classic prefab box
Started with car audio just few years after this. I had friends that swore by Fosgate amps, but they weren't in my budget. My first amp was a Jensen A2000 running some Pioneer 6x9's. A year later I added a Jensen XA6040 to run a pair of 10" Cerwin DVC4. It bumped. Caught a lot of crap for running those Jensen's, but they hung at the time.
I see this amp for back then a "proto type" amp but that efficiency wow really low. You are right we all have never seen that before on any amp you have tested here. But its Rocford Fosgate the legend of car audio.
Even legends make and learn from their mistakes
They had TUNER head units back then that required amplifier. also CENTER CHANNELING was big also .
I had the 150 HD what a let down as soon as it got warm in Tejas the fuse would pop .
The 150 before HD was the BOMB 💣
Hello Big D. Always following here from Brazil!! At that time, here in our country, we only had booster amplifiers with internal transformers, low-cost, high-distortion crap. This worst RF amplifier was already much better than what was here. Big hug and good work to all there!!!
Even if the amp is underwhelming, im glad it at least made rated even with abysmal efficiency it was a great video. You have an absolutely awesome rockford collection anyone can envy
I've literally never tested an RF amp that didn't do the rated power. I really don't have that many RF amps, but I've kept some of the nicer ones around.
@@wal How about the 2003 RF lines? 801s 2400w and bd1000p Pro Series 3000w
@@JYAN2852 they all do rated if that's your question. Same designs as the prior gen(s)
I had this amp in my 1985 Nissan Sentra. It ran a set of front Pioneer separates and a 10" RF sub in a bandpass box. I had this stereo for almost 7 years. I used a Kenwood KGC-4042 1/4 din eq with sub crossover. I had a Pioneer head unit. The volume could go all the way up. It sounded clean. I had the gains turned way down. The amp never shut down and I had zero issues with it.
LOVE THE OLD SCHOOL STUFF..... Never Stop!!!
I miss the old school amps that had decent headroom to them. Thanks for the test and the memories. I was retailing these at that time.
Disregarding the price, it probably had better dynamic sound than any head unit of its day.
I think it would have sounded nice in a standard cab mini truck (very popular then) with nice 6.5's and a low power 8" sub (like a JL 8W1).
Wait a minute?? I'd like to think I've been into car audio for a long time. Started in the mid-90s. But I have never once in my life seen fuses installed in an amplifier output side
Mid 80’s until early 90’d most RF amps had fuses on speaker harnesses
@@wal is there any benefit to using this design today?
Does anybody, including competitors, use something like this? For our today's a pretty much immune to Output side malfunctions
I asked, because I, and several people I know, fiddle with their systems on the Fly while fully powered.
RF used old school glass fuses that were wired out from the amp board directly and later models had the molex with the fuses. If not on the speaker out wire then internally on the PC board. A lot of head scratching nights. You had good power and ground. Signal cables were ok and remote turn on had 12v. The last thing to check were those damn speaker outs. Early punch models had the spring loaded fuse holder on the speaker wires and the later hd series had small glass fuses that popped onto the PC board. It was either R positive and L negative or visa versa. The fused speaker leads were your bridged mono hooks. Which in turn allowed the now infamous RF tri-mode/simultaneous bridged stereo output.
Working in an RF authorized shop we blew some stuff. When asking for RA number I don't remember if they ever questioned if we put bigger fuses in. We would replace the fuses with higher rated ones run it through a sinewave and see if they popped. If they survived we'd run it if not back to the hotel. I was amazed at how much more output you could get with bigger fuses. Shows how under rated all their amps were. At their old school RTTI in the 90s they had a entire lecture on the pros and cons of rated output fusing. The pros they were capable. The cons not recommended. It left me happy and sad.
That efficiency had me doing the Doc Brown "Great Scott!!"
🤣👍
Rockford started global warming with those efficiency numbers 😂
I had no idea it was so inefficient 🤷♂️
If you witnessed the amp burn in room they had going on that was global warming. Dozens of amps of varying sizes cooking in their juices before they head to the certification room. The smells of pwm and hum of electrons nothing like it.
That's a bad term laced in scandal anyway.
This is the most underwhelming Rockford amp ever! Great video tho
Exactly!
I agree! They certainly misnamed it.
I have a 20-watt Sony amplifier that's from the mid-80s, early 90s. It was actually pretty loud on a pair of 6.5 speakers. I still have it! And the last time I used it in 2008, it worked.
Nice one big D. FWIW i had a buddy build a small SQ system using a punch 30 "peanut" and a punch 45. It wasn't loud but it sounded great. He had MB quart Separates and I forget what sub. Oh one more thing... this blows away any head unit from 90-91. Head unit amps were ATTROCIOUS (to put it nicely) back then.
I must’ve forgot most aftermarket head units back then didn’t even have amps built in
I used to repair some old Rockford Fosgate amps back in the day in the early nineties and all of these hdfs for Junk they were known to burn up those modules were very known to go bad not to mention they were discontinued two to three years after they were brought to the market and parts were very scarce after they discontinued them
I'm really not sure why this amp got all the hate. If you think of it as simply a 4-channel Punch amp, designed for mids/highs, I think it fits into the Punch lineup fairly well as designed. If the much-loved Punch 45HD was $275 and made around 140w into 4 ohms mono, as per your shootout vs the Orion 222SX, and the Power 100 was $329 and made around 140w with both sets of channels bridged, then I'm not sure I see what makes this amp such an embarassment. 4-channel amps are always more expensive, even if they make the same power as the 2-channel version. Concerning head unit power, I'm not sure many modern head units even claim to make anywhere near 140w, much less head units from the early 90's. (I'd love to see more modern head units dyno'd!) The power numbers are certainly underwhelming by today's standards, but so were all the Rockford amps from that time, and we still love them. The terrible molex plugs were, of course, standard fare on all the Punch amps of the day. Yeah, the efficiency was so appalling, I can't even understand it. HOWEVER, very few people back in the day even knew, or cared, about efficiency, so I can't see that as a huge deal, either. So I believe that just leaves the main issue being our perception of what the Power series was supposed to be. It's true, that Rockford really seemed to raise the bar to insane levels with those amps, BUT, if in their lexicon, "Power" simply means 4-channel and "Punch" means 2-channel, then maybe the problem lies in our perception of what this amp was supposed to be. Regardless, I don't see any glaring deficiencies here beyond that unexplainably bad efficiency. Though I disagree with the conclusion on this one, you continue to be my favorite car audio channel and I always look forward to your fantastic content. Keep it up!
BigD, i love Rockford Fosgate, my favorit sound car !!! I have Fosgate 1000.2 Power, Punch 100ix DSM, Fosgate Punch 4.6x and two Punch 4600x. Thanks for all, God Bless you - from Brazil
"THIS IS NOT A MICKEY MOUSE PROGRAM",
i can't stop laughing when i hear this 😭😭😭😂
If you want to know how much things have changed over the years, that power 1000 was $2650, or $5900 in today's money. In 1991 that would have paid my rent for 10 months. This is why 1000 watt subwoofers took so long to become popular. No one could afford to buy the amplifier to push it.
Yeah that Power 1000 was almost as expensive as my first used car
I still have my power 1001bd I’ve had since 2004 it’s a great amp!
Rockford fosgate has always been overpriced. Good amps but when I got into car audio a 1000 rms amp was nearly $1000, other brands would selling amps for $300-400 less for same power. Now you can get 4500 rms on a Korean board for $700-900 depending on sale
@@brianwaller7383 now you can get a 3k on a Brazilian board for $189. In 94 I spent $749 on a ppi a 600.2 and the only reason I spent that was because I was replacing a system that got stolen and the ppi had pull out power, speaker connectors
@@thomasbradian6367 in 1992 I bought a PPI 2150. I don't remember the exact price but I want to think it was close to $600. High School making $9 an hour so I was the man LOL. By the time I got home I put the box on the table and just stared at it. I was sick to my stomach it how much money I had spent. It took me three days before I opened it just because I didn't want to not be able to return it. I hooked it up to four Terminator 10's and quickly forgot about the price tag..
I was a big Rockford fan .I had 2 RF Punch 150 and a Punch 75 .
I bought them new from a guy who won them by selling the most RF
So I got a good deal on them
I also had 2 Punch 15’s I got for $100
I wanted 12” but for $100 .
The 15” were a steal
I had them in my 1984 Cutlass
It did rock !
I never knew 1 person who used or even bought a Power 100
I think because The Punch was probably just as powerful
Believe it or not .I knew of a guy who
Had like 50 speakers .All running on 1 or 2 Punch 45’s .
I heard a guy who had a Punch 45 driving a RF pro 15” .It actually was hitting.He had a 1987 Suzuki Samurai
The Punch 45 pretty much owned the 0-99 watt range in SPL
Before Orion came out with the cheater amps
With 2 Punch 45 you could run 2-10” or 12” .Then run your mids and highs with another Punch 45
The Punch 45 or any of the Punch amplifiers .Where not warm sounding
Like Phoenix Gold or SoundStream
But they made a lot of power .
The Power 300,650 and 1000 .Sounded better then the Punch series.But for the $ .You could buy Phoenix Gold .Which in my opinion was a lot better amplifier
For sound quality.
I sold My Punch amplifiers .I bought 2 Phoenix Gold MS-250 .Plus a MS 2125 .Which I still have
The difference in sound quality was night and day .
Plus the Phoenix Gold had more clean power
But if you only want 90 watts .2 Punch 45 will rattle your teeth
Or take a Punch 150 and a Punch 75
Have 225 watts and rock the block
Back when the Punch amplifiers were big in the 1980’s early 1990’s
Fostgate was $$$ .But it was one of the few amplifiers that were actually underrated .
We didn’t have people like You Derek with a amplifier Dyno posting results .
We didn’t have CEA compliance on amplifiers
Some Car Audio magazines would test amplifiers .But they didn’t do it that often
Or they would advertisement revenue
You had companies like Pyramid,Majestic,Coustic,Kenwood,Pioneer ,Targa ,Radion and Nippon
These amplifiers would not make there power ratings.
Pioneer ,Kenwood ,and Coustic were known brands .But all used maximum power ratings.That were exaggerated
Thank god for CEA compliance
Plus you Derek .Testing these amplifiers. I really enjoy the old school amplifier you test
Now they have Class D amplifiers
Which make it easier for amplifiers to make their ratings
You can buy a 1000 watt Class D amplifier for $100-$200 .
Back in the day classes AB .It would cost over $1000
I know this is a rant .But the Power 100 was pointless.Even at the time
Just get 2 punch 45 .It had more power .Plus you would be under the 100 watt category in IASca
I have a Rockford Fosgate Power 1000BD, still slamming to this day.
A friend in high school had 2 Fosgate 15s on a punch power 50(in a very small 2 door hatch) that was crazy loud. Sounds funny now, but we could sit in class and hear him park 50yds away.
I bought one back in high school - was my first and only Rockford amp. I just remember not feeling like I got my bang for the buck. As a teenager, this was big money for me. This definitely brought back memories!
Bad deal. Any other Rockford amp but this one. sucks. They tricked us on this one.
I used to love getting my auto sound and security magazine.
I'm still a fan of Rockford fosgate since the 90's! have a complete Rockford system except the Pioneer head unit.
The Dyno results say one thing but I clearly remember back in the early 90's seeing a tiny "Punch 45" push two 12's with ease. Those things were pumping some nice clean lows without a hitch.
Even though it's "head unit power" I'm sure if you found a head unit that was doing the same on the dyno as this unit, this unit on speakers would sound better.
I agree that Rockford was always known to be "sleeping" on the real power and performance of their amps.That is what made them great. This amp is weird and more on par with the performance of what their competitors would hope to do..
It was a total dud from an RF perspective
The Power 100HD is basically just 2 Punch 30s put together. I had one back in the day. It’s for mids and highs only. Sold it, it wasn’t about anything.
If I remember correctly, those were mainly sold or at least the audio shop salesmen marketed them as tweeter amplifiers. The guy in Quality Auto sound tried to sell me one when I bought my tweeters for my dash, saying it would run the tweeters and a set of "Punch Plates" I planned to buy later. I ran the tweets from the deck and sadly never bought the Punch Plates.
What a Cool-ass Amp - made tough, not cheap like some today! and it carries the prestige's RF logo :-) Rockford Fosgate For Life!!!! ;-)
Hell I had a 90s Clarion head unit that put out 50x4. So why did they make an amp that produced less power than a competitor’s head unit? Someone wasn’t thinking even at that. I had an MTX 4ch that was Silver with the blue and gold medallion in the upper right corner. The build sheet said it was tested @75x4. That amp cost 200 in the day. They had radio shack amps that made the power that does.
Loving that 37 Ford in the background! Interested to know what wheels you got on it!??
Bid D. Thanks for another great video! I am a new subscriber and really enjoy your humor and skillful knowledge. I especially like your Sanford and Son references. Grew up watching that show. Keep up the great content and keep those sine waves moving just as you do!😎
Much appreciated brother!
Even the best brands can make a lemon once in a while. That being said, I've never had a problem with any of the RF stuff I've owned over the years. Definitely a solid brand.
LoL, I had a 100HD for about 6 months just running my mids and highs @ 4ohm and it eventually melted!
Yea, it overheated one day while driving on the highway, smelled somthing bad then click! Died!
Opened it and saw melted components, etc!
I was a car stereo installer for almost 10 years...was not installed wrong, was just crap!! I think I still have it sitting on a shelf somewhere....
If you can find a headunit from 1991 that will deliver these numbers you can find a golden goose.
Many were just RCA line level at that time. But Deltasonik had the D-40 that was $70 and it did 18x2 RMS
remember, I meet someone who had this Amp and an punch 150
100 on 4 sets of 5.25.
150 on one 8" in a bandpass box
all in 91 civic si..
loved my 45 and 75 Fosgate amps, the more you threw at them the harder they hit
👌😬👍
You know what I want you to test?
The first gen Series 1 460.
My ppi gave out and I swapped in one of those, and I could literally hear the difference.
This amp reminds me of the Orion Cobalt 15x2 amp that I still have in my garage. I wouldn't want to power a set of bookshelf speakers with it, but the power and ground cables are a hell of alot thicker than 12 g.
While I agree it did not deserve the "Power" name, it did fit a need. I used one in 1990 to run mids and highs with a punch 45 for two 12" subs. The head unit did not have enough power for the yamaha component speakers but the 100hd had no problem, sounded clean and got as loud as needed. This was in a Geo storm and the goal was clean and loud with as little power as possible. It did not win any DB awards, but impressed everyone who heard it and got a lot louder than you would expect a 105 watt system could. Also, I paid the same price for the 100hd as the punch 45 in 1990, $249.
The industry back then was driven by the watt classes unlike today. This was indeed just 2 peanuts (Punch 30) in one chassis. In the end it wasn't as popular as the other models and hence not much out there today. Most ran these for Fronts and Rears. But over all there was a lot of systems built for the low wattage classes that really did amazing well for the power rated.
There's another series of apps that came out that were their budget I think about the same time. And they were all those goofy colors like you would find for like the pyle and Sony amps. Personally I don't think the power was bad with them You did do a test a long time ago with them I just didn't like the look. ☺️👍
Series 1?
I still own the 1st gen Rockford Fosgate Punch 30hd ( peanut ) 75hd 2nd gen Punch 40hd, Punch 60hd..& all work flawlessly after 3 solid decades of use, abuse & so many reinstalls from vehicle to vehicle along with my Box that R O C K S truck boxes
I actually used one of these back in the day with the punch 100 it was a decent system back thenn
Speaking of Rockford. I saw a video from 5star-carstereo where they had gone to Rockford and did a tour. One of the things they mentioned was OVERDRIVING their speakers to ensure they can handle power. The claim was 3x power without breaking in their lab testing.... So if that were true, I would love to see you test their R1675X2 which is a coaxial set that's relatively cheap ($70 on crutchfield). Its claimed 45w RMS. If their 3x power rule is true.... you should be able to pump in 135w of power. 52hz to 20,000hz would mean you would need to use a filter to prevent about 60hz or lower from playing (so they don't blow from improper signal). Don't know if that's a test you would be into?
But figured I would mention it.... I mean if Rockford themselves test their speakers and subs at 3x power to ensure they wont break and meet THEIR specifications of "quality" then why couldn't a consumer? They even laughed/joked about consumers always overdriving their speakers/subs so they took "pride" in making sure they could handle it. If you end up doing it, I think it would make for interesting content!
It was a hard sell for me as a kid. You could buy a sherwood amp that made pretty much the same as the dynamic power of this amp for half the price. If I remember the pricing, you could buy 2 Punch 40's, bridge them to run left and right, and get way more clean power; still cheaper than this amp. That's what most pros were doing. Makes me think this was an old design that they had a bunch of resources invested in and couldn't back out. Pretty lame they put it out as part of a much better series, but I bet this happens more often in manufacturing than we know.
Seeing the burst power and the individual level controls, this would've make sense driving mid/high front speakers while another, for example, more powerful 4 channel amp would've handled the woofers and a sub or two.
So awesome to find your channel and this review! I had a Power 650 running two bandpass Rockford 12s in 2ohm mode and a Power 300 running Kicker 4's and tweeters throughout the vehicle. Not a lot of midrange in my Benz 190 back in the 1990's! Could you do a review of some of the Bluetooth and side-by-side or watercraft bluetooth class-D amps? At least ONE of them needs to be good; maybe the JL mx280 vs the Rockville ATOM P20! 😀
I remember way back when the "Punch" line was the only line available. The "Power" & "HD" line came shortly afterward but was never revered or more desirable at the time. Everyone basically knew the classic "Punch" line of amps was the way to go even though they were older.
Wow! If that was your first
Example of Fosgate you would never know. Fosgate's 45 watt with mosfets, mid 80's would make you wonder what happened to
RF! I PUT 4 OF THESE in
Their pickups,
Sony head units 4 Pyle
6x9's a fader
To control the load. After the first one I got the other 3, these boys were not ready
For this. Sultons of swing at max
90 watts, when they got out with ears ringing and smiles ear to ear you knew
You just made
4 cowboys day. They were tough on
What they wanted, radio stations every
where, I told them trust me
I pick the equipment, install 100 each, I made about 4 or 5 an hour, but my pay was the smiles. Lovelock Nevada is 90 miles from Reno.
(
We need some crewing vega dynos. I bought that amp a few years back and they seem legit. It's a 5 channel 2500d something like that
It's almost like the Best Buy exclusive models some manufacturers produce these days that are a joke compared to their normal equipment
When this amp was new I was running 4 8” subs with an Alpine amp rated 50w x 2 , bridged. Subs were way less power hungry back then. Rockford was accepted as being among the best but the $ per watt was too high for guys like me. My money went to the best head unit and sound processing I could buy.
I hated it when they started to count head unit power in the classes. I was always in 0 to 100 with 4 15"s
Soney xsplode came and saved the day n the 90s. With the first 4v outs and tru 40w outs
late 1980s my friends brother worked at R.F. in Tempe and wonder if your friends you mentioned would know or remember him?... Doug Hartman.
This amp made me switch shops and brands back in day I was so mad. Lucky the new shop was one of the biggest us amps distributor in Fl.
Nice collection Big D. Odd little amp. Maybe for tweeters?
I'm sure an amp like this one would have been right at home in a SQ driven setup with a separate amp for a sub back in the day. Plus even an objectively bad Rockford Fosgate amp is still better than quite a few other manufacturers amps back then or even today!
Back in those days the typical output power of a head unit was about 4-6W with 10% THD, and half of them were mono ! With an amp like this you ccould have an decent sound , powerful and quality. It is not fair to compare it with an modern head unit. Even today are head units that output abour 25W per ch at 10% THD. Also back then speakers were made with greater spl level.
My friend has a punch 360a with a birth sheet that says 521 Watts, so when the punch 400s came out i decided to get one thinking I would get at least 500 Watts. I must have gotten a preemie, because my birth sheet said 426watts, and anyone who has used a Rockford amp knows how power hungry they are, and 400 Watts just wasn't conducive for the amperage it would've used, and I know people are going to say, you got what you paid for, but coming off a 150hd( first gen with just a bass and treble knob) no comparison. Needless to say I put it on the wall and took my 400 watt jack hammer 4 channel off the wall in its place
Yes, this amp was weak. I was a HiFonics dealer back then. you know "power from the gods" But of course I loved myself some good Rockford stuff because the company started here locally in Utah and got bigger in AZ. Back then we called what your saying the power series, "sleeper amps" or low current amps like the Ulyses or Isis. They were built for competition and rated the wattage at 4 ohms but were 1 or even 1/2 ohm stable and that's how you got power out of them for competitions. So we could get into a lower wattage class competition obviously. That's why your getting the rated power they say, but not what we were use to. This amp was not good for competition, and most Rockford amps were. HiFonics also had lower end amps like this one back then but it was unusual and even more unusual for Rockford to produce an amp this weak. Rockford has now stayed with more quality and Hifonics has sold out to the enemy now....sad.
What I really despise about these HD amps is those output driver boards. The tiny capacitators always leak or burn out. Be careful buying any untested HD amps today. Only Freeman stereo repair has replacement driver boards that I am aware of.
Yes these are a known failure point on the HD series
Honestly I think that was a preamp amp. In the 90s that would have done pretty good on factory speakers. Especially with crossovers
back then after the 1st kicker comps and right after kicker free air "gold series " they starter making 2way systems 6x9s 4inch mids maybe the amp was intended for them 🤷🏽 I thought I had the 1st of the Rockford turds idk the series but it's metallic red and grey but possibly they was also intended for use on highs and mids .
How about some old school Phoenix Gold amps. Like the mps-2240. I'd really like to see what those sub 1 ohm amps could do.
Hey Mate, could you do a video where you probe an amplifiers speakeroutput with an oscilloscope while hanging on the dyno ? This way it would be way easier to realize on what kind of signals the dyno tests the amps on.
The double peanut. I have one bet it does not work. I still love it anyways.
Have you ever tried a head unit from Rockford Fosgate?
I've owned one of those not for a very long time, I sold it and got a Pioneer head unit instead which was way better to customize the equalizer, it looked much better, to me the Pioneer head units were better in every way than the Rockford Fosgate and that's coming from a Rockford Fosgate fan, I still have the old Rockford Fosgate Punch HX2 subwoofer that I now have in my living room as an active speaker for my surround set which is awesome.
Not all wattage is crated equal. This thing would be way better than just about any chip amp. Especially if the chip amp is of similar vintage.
The efficiency of that amp, yikes! Well, some amps may not be perfect all said and done but doing rated power is for most great companies not much to ask. I love the info in this video!
Why is the serial No. of such importance?
Hey big D you should have your buddy Sean K look at that amplifier and see if it’s sick, the efficiency is terrible which tells me there’s something wrong with it.
Worst RF amp? Maybe,but still better than alot of the stuff out today.
I had one 30yrs ago and it was definitely my worst RF amp I ever owned. Always seemed lax in power and the physical size made it always in the way. Sound was always muddied by the low-power electronics.
Do you have a video on the Rockford M5-1500? I’d love to hear your input on this. Thanks
Great video big D i love today's Rockford Fosgate amps.
Would like to see you put the Mtx jackhammer amps to the test sir