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Proton: High End Or Junk?

Johnny Salam

Johnny Salam

JohnnySalami
There doesn't seem to be much information about Proton here. I have an old Proton 950 reciever and was wondering if it's any good.

It's relatively low power, but I've found power ratings misleading; who cares if you've got 300 wpc when 20 is plenty of volume. Am I wrong?

In general, is Proton high-end or junk?
 
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Johnny Salam said:
In general, is Proton high-end or junk?
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Not high end and not junk. :-)

I remember one local shop started carrying Proton when they decided to start pushing home theater. (This was back in the Laserdisc era, well before DVDs.)
I think Proton did both audio and video at the time.
 
I agree with stuartk. Obviously not high end. If anything, Proton and sister make NAD cut some strategic corners to make the price/performance ratio as agreeable as possible. You can tell from the case design- very simple, clean, utilitarian, but attractive (at least I think- IMHO in the best design, form follows function). No knobs machined out of solid blocks or rosewood side panels. No platinum windings. et cetera.

I personally have been very impressed with the Proton equipment I've encountered, just the radios and my 440 tuner. It is well-thought out and is an excellent performer. Only my FM-3 sounds better than my 440 and I have a tuner "problem" if you know what I mean. Of all the tuners in my cache, the 440 is a daily listener. It has a bit of a following too.

The Proton shelf radios have a following as well. They have wonderful audio quality in my opinion.

Can't address any other proton stuff. They have some power amps that sure look nice. haven't heard them though.
 
I've had a Proton AM-200 int amp since about 1989. I've had countless amps and receivers come and go since then, and I've never once considered selling or trading the Proton. Only 20 wpc, but sound, size and design is wonderful. Also, I have a Proton clock radio that sounds better than any other table radio I've ever heard.:yes:
 
i have 4 proton aa-1150 and one aa-2080 power amps, and they are great. built very well, and stable into 2 ohms. never any problems. pure dual mono. i like them a lot.
 
The Proton stuff was like the NAD in another respect. They both rated very conservatively, with dual-rail voltage systems. The thing might be 20wpc RMS, but they had something like 6db of headroom capability. Huge amounts of reserve power. I'll take Proton all day long. I still have one of the clock radios.
 
It was an error to say "high-end". What the Ambassador meant to say was "good or junk". Sorry.

High-end in this crowd means REALLY high-end, not slob high-end.
 
I've had friends with Proton gear that was really powerful for the rating. They all broke pretty quick. We did beat on them hard at "get togethers" though. :smoke:
 
My proton d1200 put my macintosh mc250 into permanent retirement. I guess to put that into perspective that it would make macintosh "high end junk"? I think not but it is one of my prettier power amps, sounds great, and has no problem running a 4 ohm load at extreme volumes. None of my other amps have 7db of headroom either I might add. My experience is that proton and junk shouldn't be used in the same sentence.
 
I remember the ads in Stereo Review for the power amp that had the great big meters on it. I thought that it looked really cool, and it seems like I read in the ad that it was 50 wpc, but had a "power on demand" kind of thing that could produce 200 watts for short periods. Boy I sure wanted one!
 
If the 1200 is the 100wpc silver job with the big meters, I saw and could've bought one used in a small hi-fi shop in Portsmouth, NH right after the first Gulf War. That was one gorgeous and powerful amp, but the guy wanted far too much with no indication of wiggle room.
 
TA; I've never seen one in silver. Only one's I've seen are black with the big meters. Too bad you couldn't have gotten it as they are really nice sounding amps and the headroom they have is really something special. Mine had a very expensive "accident" once when it saw output from another amp. I'm so glad I was able to find a tech that was able to put it back to it's original state.
 
Proton owners seem to really love them - I get a lot of lamp orders for them.

I've also noticed that they (D-1200 and AA-1150) are used by a fair number of commercial DJ's so they must be pretty tough.

But- I have no personal experience.

DH

Here's a pic of one sent to me -
 
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whsh93a said:
Proton owners seem to really love them - I get a lot of lamp orders for them.

I've also noticed that they (D-1200 and AA-1150) are used by a fair number of commercial DJ's so they must be pretty tough.

But- I have no personal experience.

DH

Here's a pic of one sent to me -
Click to expand...

This is a AA-1150 with the green meter lamps replaced with blue ones.
The AA-2080 uses blue meter lamps.
I like the stock, green lamps. But, this is purely a matter of personal inclination.

BTW, whenever one of the AA series or D1200 comes on the market, they don't last long and command a fairly high resale value price.
 
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I have the proton d1150 and like it very much, just wondering what the difference is between this and the aa-1150, though on the back the serial number says aa-1150 and the front plate says d1150
 
except for reliability issues, everything i've read about Proton is positive. i love my proton D940 receiver, and if it was working perfectly i'd put it up against almost any vintage receiver.
 
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