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Any information on Proton stuff?

J

jpdylon

non-active member...
I picked up a proton 1100 preamp in near mint condition. Just needed a good cleaning. Seems like a decent pre and sounds good with the system

I paid a staggering 10 bucks for it, but I can't find too much about it

Anybody know or a have a good website I can visit?

Thanks in advance.
 
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no one huh? surprising. It really looks more like a hi-fi thing then the average joe preamp.

Guess I'll go to bed and check back tomorrow :D
 
Not sure exactly what ya want to know about it, but since you posted in
$ and sense I assume a value. the used average is 80.00 they sold new for $230.00 you can still buy one for $225.00 new on ebay. they were made in the 80s and 90s. I have never owned one of there preamps. but I can tell you as far as there amps go there very good. They made most if not all of the parts for nad amps also. If you take apart a 50wpc nad amp and a 50wpc proton amp of the same year there virtually identical inside

. A 40wpc intregated proton amp will kick a lot of 100wpc amps and some 200wpc amps asses, Believe it or not. For instance I have a 100wpc adcom amp and a proton D540 amp which is 40wpc and the adcom goes into protect and the little proton keeps on getting louder and louder is all when i turn it up way past what the adcom can handle. I also have a 120wpc proton that will amaze you to hear it perform, you would swear that the amp that is playing is at least 300wpc. no kidding lol.

REGARDS JIM
 
Thanks for that tidbit Jim. I'm not planing to sell, just wanted to know age, company history, etc.
 
jpdylon said:
Thanks for that tidbit Jim. I'm not planing to sell, just wanted to know age, company history, etc.
Click to expand...
Here is a link that should help out then.
http://www.proton-usa.com/history.asp.htm Its odd but proton is kind of like one of the best kept secrets in audio. But some people know because if you look at there in my humble oppinion at the 2 biggest and best amps they made, the D1200 100wpc and the AA2120 120wpc they sell for usally $450.00- $500.00 each on ebay. the average for the D1200 in the last 60 days was $468.88. Which is kind of remarkable considering as far as hi fi amps go a pretty low power rating. Not to many 100wpc amps that were made 10years or longer ago sell for this today. Here are a couple of pics of the D1200.

REGARDS JIM
 
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But the d1200 also has 6db of headroom. Look at the power meters in the first photo. 600 watt peak and yes a 1200 will hit the 500 watt mark quite easily. Is there any other 100 watt amp out there that can do that?
 
I remember their car audio from 1980s.

High point for me was the Proton 222 car amp. 22 wpc, small enough to tuck anywhere, large enough to treat with respect, cost something like 90 or maybe $120 retail. Honest 22 in age of 6 wpc advertised as 100 wpc.

Worked miracles with MTX 5.3 coax or 6.9 and any alpine head unit or even NAK. I sold some NAK TD 1200s with 222s.

1980s MTX 5.3 (and 6.9) best MTX generation ever made. Like cheap Kefs sort of. Cloudy white plastic cone, 10mm polycarbonate tweet, cheap **** elecrolytic cap. flexible open cell foam surround, small magnet. Sounded best in class.

They made a Proton 250 amp, 50wpc, it looked and sounded the same but larger and better bass at large volume, much larger item, less reliable than 222 maybe because it was larger and had to fit under seats and in trunks and took abuse.

Their 250s had shaky connectors, the plastic bosses with screw terminals integral would pull out of chassis and short out in use. Fused. Shove back in and stick a while then trouble again. 222s were OK

They made analog head unit, we could not move them, could not compete with Alpine then.

They made tvs in 1980s, and NAD-like lineup as well. Proton TV was hot in its day for consumer TV but they kind of faded away.

Good luck, I would go with NAD for parts availability.
 
Proton at one time was the builder for NAD. There were quite a few items that are truly identical in design, except for Proton using a black anodized aluminum faceplate, with black knobs, when most of the identical NAD-labelled products had the traditional "NAD grey", but plastic, faceplate. Proton in general tended to put higher-grade parts inside the "Proton" versions, whereas NAD most likely specified cheaper parts. I'v seen this, especially when it comes to electrolytic caps. For instance, the NAD would have generic caps in the same place the Proton unit would have Nichicon Muse caps.
I once had a Proton AM-200 integrated, that I liked a lot, until I modified my older NAD 3020. I still have a Proton 440 Tuner, which is just outstanding!
The Proton 1100 preamp is a highly regarded preamp, as is the Proton 1000. I can't remember which, but one of the two usually goes for pretty big bucks on eBay when they pop up.
Either way, if you got it for $10, that's a pretty good score!

BT
 
jpdylon said:
I picked up a proton 1100 preamp in near mint condition. Just needed a good cleaning. Seems like a decent pre and sounds good with the system

I paid a staggering 10 bucks for it, but I can't find too much about it

Anybody know or a have a good website I can visit?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I have the Service Manual sitting here at my desk. Lots of oversized foldout schematics. I'll pop down to the office scanner and if available, I'll scan the spec page now and post in a minute.
 
Ah, hell, I just went ahead and scanned the whole thing.

Anyone who wants a copy PM me with where I can send you a 3.7 mb sized .pdf...

Here's the specs page:
 

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Anyone who wants a copy can download a .pdf copy of my Proton 1100 Service Manual from:

* bad old link removed by moderator *
 
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1100 in the Metal

Here is the 1100 in the metal. Nice looking unit, with a beefy faceplate. I can't believe it has anything in common with NAD.
 

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Proton and Braun were at a point common equipment.
One thing I must say about Proton: they made the BEST DAMN TVs EVER. I had the 29" model back in 1990 and it was absolutely gorgeous. Best black detail, color accuracy and skin tones I've ever seen. It almost looked like a 3 dimensional image coming from a 2 dimensional source. I stupidly sold it planning to get the 35" version but never got around to it.
 
Proton1100sm.Pdf.Zip by Bigupload.Com

Hi, CUlater,
I have a Proton1100 Preamp which needs repair. Since a couple of days I'm trying to find a source for the Service Manual of this Preamp, but still without success. Your reply to jpdylon's inquiry made me hope to be close to a solution, but Bigupload.com did not have (any more?) the file "Proton1100sm.Pdf.Zip". Does anyone (perhaps you,CUlater or jpdylon) still have this file available, I would be very glad, to receive a copy of it.

What I'm worried about is the fact that, three years have passed since jpdylon has received the file from you. Maybe you don't have it any more. But, I'm still hoping...

Regards, Harald
 
HBMU said:
Hi, CUlater,
I have a Proton1100 Preamp which needs repair. Since a couple of days I'm trying to find a source for the Service Manual of this Preamp, but still without success. Your reply to jpdylon's inquiry made me hope to be close to a solution, but Bigupload.com did not have (any more?) the file "Proton1100sm.Pdf.Zip". Does anyone (perhaps you,CUlater or jpdylon) still have this file available, I would be very glad, to receive a copy of it.

What I'm worried about is the fact that, three years have passed since jpdylon has received the file from you. Maybe you don't have it any more. But, I'm still hoping...

Regards, Harald
Click to expand...
Did anyone have this file. I have a issue with my 1100 on the phono input and cant find schematic. Looking for some help. Thanks
 
My 930's phono just bugged out. Replaced all the big caps on all boards since I was in there, all were leaking, now everything is back, including the fancy tuner which stopped working 20 years ago.

Have you looked on hifi engine to see what they have?
 
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