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Proton anyone?

I'm still wanting to come across a decently priced (and close) Proton D1200 and maybe the matching preamp (forget the model) but so far, no luck. A buddy of mine had a D1200 on a pair of Polk SDA 1.2TL's years ago and it sounded amazing....and it replaced an Adcom 555 that seemed to have no guts in comparison. Love those big meters.
 
A Proton power amp is an excellent buy if you can find one in good working condition HOWEVER, be very careful about buying any of their integrateds that used relay switching. The relays frequently malfunction and cannot, as far as I've been able to discover, be replaced.
 
InSaNeBoY said:
Loved the Proton 300 table radio my dad had. I have it now that its dead... the second speaker still works great though.
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I also have the 300/301 combo, and can not say enough (good) about them. If the preamp/tuner section of your 300 is dead, did you know that you can still use the 300 (and the 301) as powered speakers? If the power amp section is dead, you may be able to use the preamp/tuner section, as I think they come off.
 
I have the 1100 Pre Amp and the D1200. That Amplifier is the fantastic. Other Proton amps are great too. Onix amps were put out by the same Taiwanese manufactuer that made Proton and NAD gear.

I also have the very nice Proton 440 tuner, which has Larry Schotz noise reduction circuity.

I have the very rare Proton D275 car amplifier. 2x75 watts.


I would like to get a D940, and some more amplifiers. The clock radios are very nice as well.
 
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Slightly off-topic, but I had some Proton car stereo stuff in the early 90's. I had a cassette head unit that had the finest tape deck I ever had in a car. The tape deck had Dolby B and C. The tuner was good too, it was a "Schotz tuner" IIRC. I had the matching full-DIN Proton passive equalizer. It was all ugly, but man did it sound good.

As I recall, all the Proton stuff was expensive in the Crutchfield catalog, which was my primary source of electronics information in those days.
 
Splatter Pak said:
I also have the 300/301 combo, and can not say enough (good) about them. If the preamp/tuner section of your 300 is dead, did you know that you can still use the 300 (and the 301) as powered speakers? If the power amp section is dead, you may be able to use the preamp/tuner section, as I think they come off.
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power amp is dead, unfortunately the 300's tuner/preamp section is not a separate unit, though it does look like it could be detached, also gets its power from the amp. so I need to make my own amp/power supply for it... someday.

the 301 makes a very nice mono amplified speaker though.
 
I have a chance at an RS 325S clock radio and an AM 300 that powers up but nothing else. Think the amp is worth a shot? 15 bucks....
 
This is one of those things where, if you have the skills to repair it, its probably worth it. If you don't, it may be questionable to pay someone else to do it. Tough call. Its a nice, yet low powered, little amp.

Btw, I have a Proton 1100 pre-amp, and matching 440 tuner. The pre is the main component of my computer-room listening sytem because it has a high power headphone jack built in. Nice unit.

I also have an old Proton AM/FM "walkman-style" portable radio. Nice unit, but I never listen to radio "on-the-walk" so to speak.
 
Artie said:
This is one of those things where, if you have the skills to repair it, its probably worth it. If you don't, it may be questionable to pay someone else to do it. Tough call. Its a nice, yet low powered, little amp.
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Thanks Artie. I'm eager to get into my first repair (currently in progress), and all that's left for me to do is order the parts and go for it. I figured the Proton amp would be the next in line to go under the hot-knife. Guess I just need to decide if I can shove the rest of the projects over enough on the shelf to make room for it.
And as for the clock radio, I'm just ohhh so tired of fighting with Chinese-made trash and figured this one might actually work like it's supposed to and stick around for a few years.
 
Splatter Pak said:
I also have the 300/301 combo, and can not say enough (good) about them. If the preamp/tuner section of your 300 is dead, did you know that you can still use the 300 (and the 301) as powered speakers? If the power amp section is dead, you may be able to use the preamp/tuner section, as I think they come off.
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...And a Little Red Rotten Hut to you too... lol
 
Proton Amp

During the mid 80's ,me and my best friend would roadrun from Bowmanville, Ontario(Canada)to Baltimore to visit my Aunt,and then casually drift down to Dewey and Rehoboth beach in Deleware for a few days.What a blast for a couple of young Canuck bucks ready to unthaw and beach party!One of our objectives included buying stereo gear and, as CD's were fairly new, releases that we couldn't get in smalltown Ontario easily.I recall that on one trip I bought a Hafler DH 100/110 pre and power amp and was stoked to get home.Just before we left, we stopped in Baltimore,and Circuit City was fire saleing some gear as a 4th of July sale,and my friend bought a Proton 1200 amp and 1100 preamp,if I remember correctly.I was so jealous as the Proton was beautiful compared to the subdued Hafler gear,and those wonderful VU meters!It was far cheaper than the Hafler,so I convinced myself that I got the Quality gear,as Proton was unknown to us,and pricewise,I figured it must be less soundwise to the Hafler(and the Hafler sounded great).Wrong!The Proton was loud,detailed and bulletproof,as hooked up to some Cerwin Vega's it rocked like a wild dog.Tried to buy it on a couple occasions,lost touch with my pal for awhile,and found years later he had sold it during the interim,for $150.I was truly impressed with that amp and would love to hear it nowadays,overall it just smacked of well made low/mid-fi for that little extra sound on a budget.The 70's and early 80's had those sleeper brands,now long since gone,and I miss those days of varied choice, and quality at a reasonable reachable price for the average person.Nuff said'.
 
The office facility I had my law office in was wired for the Proton radio and the external speaker power amp in each room. The radio was to serve for background music. As a radio it was very good and with the speaker/amp plugged in the stereo output was very good. Sadly, of the 10 speaker/amps all but 3 were DOA. When I moved I took the 3 good ones with my, leaving the radio that had died and the remaining dead speaker/amps. Sadly the three also gave up the ghost.

When operating they were quite good for a bookshelf speaker and amp. I kept them thinking one day I'd get them repaired. They would make a decent setup for a HT. They could shake windows without clipping.

The radio I wish I had kept as it was sensitive and sounde quite good. But, at the time I was not into table radios.
 
Dan D. said:
I remember some years back falling in love with some Proton equipment. Don't ask why, I've never owned/used/heard any of them. Just something about the no-frills black box (and the price tags too) said there might be some magic audio mojo happening in there. Was I anywhere near correct about that? I haven't seen or heard anything about them for quite a while, and wondering what gives? I suppose I should have looked on the forum first, but since this is already typed, I'll hang it out anyways. What say ye, O Esteemed Elders?
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Talk about coincidence. Shortly, I will be offering a D940 for sale that I bought new in 1989. It was and is the single best audio value ever (IMHO)
I call it the "mighty mite". It was tested in Audio (8/86) and received rave reviews and won Grand Prix du Disque product of the the same year. Leonard Feldman called the amplifier section "remarkable" and found it to be MORE powerful than his own 90 watt amp! Dynamic Power on Demand (DPD) circuitry tested a "full 280 watts per channel @ 4 ohms"; 160 wpc @ 8 ohms on 200mS burst tests with 800mS no-signal in between. From a "40 watt" rated amp. Schotz Noise Reduction tuner circuitry. Plus MC capability, gold-plated phono jacks, phono capitance switching, pre/main amp connectors, seperate rec/listen selectors, basic no-nonsense industrial styling and built like a tank. There's much more but I can't understand why these aren't all over the place today. To get features like these in a receiver you'd usually have to spend 3-4x what the D940 cost. If anyone should have interest, message me.
 
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