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proton d1200 amps

M

mike hatt

wallowing in sound
i've scored on craigslist today, dound these amps for $200 for each, a pair, guy claims 1600 watts in stereo. I've heard of proton, i have a friend running a pair of there old car speakers, killer sound, but what about these amps. Are they worth $200 each, if so i'm getting both. Any info wouldbe quite nice.
 
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Pretty nice, although the 1600 watts is a WSBL power rating (when struck by lightning). True rated ouput is 100 watts/channel continuous.

I'll let one of the Proton owners weigh in on the pricing...seems fair to me though. amps retailed for $700 each btwn 86-90

JC
 
there's still no set of circumstance that would allow these amplifiers to produce 1600 watts...even both channels peaking into 2 ohms.
 
just looked at the ad, guy has an integrated amp from proton, as well as a preamp and tuner. I think i'll get the int amp but leave the rest of it, i really need more power than 100 watts a side. Thanks for the info.
 
To Toasted's point, these amplifiers will be able to produce quite a bit more power than 100w for short peaks...realistically 200 watts/channel or so, which should be more than enough to drive any speaker to very high volume.

What sort of speakers are you planning on driving, anyway?

JC
 
well one would be driving a pair of 18 rockford fosgate punch pro subs, thats why i wanted a ton of power, plus i like headroom. The other, well who knows, it would just probably add its weight to the stack of amps i have to play with, whcih i should sell, but probably won't.
 
I remember Stereo Review/Julian Hirsch doing a review on this Proton power amp. No, not 1,600 watts into 2 channels. However, this amp was able to output over 1,000 watts into one channel @ 1 ohm!! This was, of course, not continuous, but only for short burst of milli-seconds. I think the amp can still do over 400 watts/channel into 4 ohms. This amp had the Proton's Dynamic Power on Demand (DPD) curcuit and it had like 6dB of headroom, much like NAD's Power Envelope (PE) circuitry.
 
I once had the D-1200's little brother...

...the AA-1150. It was rated at 50 WPC, but I once saw it peak at 400. A beautiful amp, too.

Laz
 
Proton featured DPD circuitry, dynamic power on demand, the peak power was meant to last longer than NAD and others, problem is that this kind of design put tremendous load on the main caps as well as transformer, so I would check both thoroughly before buying a used one.
 
MIke-
Ah Ha! Most likely not the amp for you :)

You might take a look around for one of the big Adcoms GFA555/GFA555II etc. They are fantastic, powerful amplifiers, that would drive your presumably 4-ohm subs with ease...

btw, here's the test data from the 1150's Stero Review article (June 1988):

1 kHz tone, one channel driven, continuous output at clipping
68/105/136 watts (8/4/2 ohm)
Dynamic Output 1 channel driven (1 kHz, 20 ms burst)
324/544/811 watts (8/4/2 ohm)

So I suppose I stand corrected...the 1200 could most likely deliver upwards of 800 watts/channel (one channel at a time) for a fraction of a second into a 2 ohm load.
 
well my amp of choice for the pair of subs would be right now the adcom gfa 565 run at two ohms, which i am told is not a problem for it, or failing that, a large qsc amp, though i'd rather have something large and lovely to behold, without rackmounts.
 
I have a distant cousin, a proton am-200 integrated, about 15 years old. I am a devoted fan and am always amazed at how good its 20wpc sounds in a samll room.
 
I don't know much about their amps, but I do know Proton make good quality equipment. My Proton NT-3460 TV kicks ass, excellent picture.

Audio72
:thmbsp:
 
That Proton might be able to do 1600 watts peak, with both channels bridged, into something like 0.1 ohm. Having said that, I wouldn't think they'd run a set of Apogee Scintillas more than, say, 10 seconds at 90dB.

If you're interested in some Adcoms like Redcoates mentioned, I have a GFA-535, GFA-545, and GFA-555 here for sale. A friend of mine dropped them off here for me to play with after he got his Theta Dreadnought. I haven't, really, since I'm swimming in amps. Nice and clean, well cared for, and I'll give you a good price. The -555 does a rated 200WPC at 8 ohms, and 325WPC at 4 ohms.
 
I have some kind of Proton alarm clock radio in my bedroom. It's a waste, as I have awakened 1/2 hour before the damn thing goes off for the the last two or three years now.
 
Proton TV's are truly high end!

Audio72 said:
I don't know much about their amps, but I do know Proton make good quality equipment. My Proton NT-3460 TV kicks ass, excellent picture.

Audio72
:thmbsp:
Click to expand...

They sell for big bucks too...

Laz
 
This is getting WAY off topic, but I used to have a Proton cassette car head unit and passive equalizer, circa 1990. The cassette deck was quite high end for a car unit - had Dolby B & C. The FM tuner was really nice too, used the Schotz noise reduction circuitry or some such thing. Dang thing didn't have a clock, though. The passive EQ was 7 band, I think, with a continuously variable subwoofer crossover (which I intended to use but never did). I had a Rockford Fosgate Punch 45 amp and some Infinity Kappa series 3-way 6x9's. That Proton car stuff was mighty fine gear - very high S/N ratio.

No extra fee for this little trip down memory lane.
 
There's not much out there that's going to run a pair of Apogee Scintillas for very long without going into thermal protection (if available). That's not a good analogy or qualifier for an amplifier.
 
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