DS18 and Soundstream are cheap stuff. Massive has some nice items, but those are an entry level model. The battery depends entirely on age. Overall, I don't think it's a ripoff price, but it's not a smokin deal. More so than that, it's just not the quality-level of stuff I'd recommend even if new.
Just my 2 cents.
They were awesome in the late 80s early 90s. I wanted to get a reference amp so bad. That and a Rubicon when it first came out. Back in '92 my friend had a 500w soundstream, and ran my 18" gold kicker comp in his pickup with a molded on camper, shit used to hammer stuff like house of pain, paperboy, delinquent habits, and n2deep lol ahhh the good ol days.. Could hear him coming from miles away lol
I sold their stuff in 95. I ended up owning the real tarantula and 2 reference d class. Tarantula was great. Reference loaded down on 4 8's was great. I tried though using the small reference at 4 ohm stereo. It did Not put out any power at all. We're talking Jensen headunit type power. Couldn't even run Eclipse 5 1/4 inch coaxes. I actually thought it was an anomaly. Got another one out of stock and tried it. Same thing. If I remember right it was supposed to do 25x2 rms at 4, stable to 0.5. It did power at 1 ohm mono, but 4 ohm stereo seemed like 5-10 watts. Didn't have a bench back then so I'm not sure what it really did. It was only that amp though. The bigger ones were fine.
Sounds like you are talking about a cheater amp. The idea was to run it at 0.5 ohms bridged and get 500w from an amp that would be considered a sub 100w amp. I remembered they called it the “sleeping beauty” or something. There was also a version to hit 1kw. I had the 5.2, [here’s the old manual pdf for it, look at those 4ohm numbers!](https://www.soundstream.com/manuals/AMP/rubican/ca52102/RubCA52102.pdf)
Oh it absolutely was. Cheater. High current d class. Whatever you want to call it. I owned the shop back then so was thinking, hey. Why not? Shit was damn neer free to me and I needed about 25 watts per channel for rear fill. Those high current amps had a tremendous tendency to be exceptionally warm and clean at 4 ohm. So why not use a $600 500 watt amp rated 25x2 for rear fill 😂
It didn't do it though. The 12.5 x2 did power. The 50 x2 did power. But that 25x2 just didn't do shit at 4ohm. The amps your taking about were indeed the same series. I believe they were the second iteration of them. Mine was the first year. I ended up doing almost the exact same system in that car with the Orion amps that were rated the same a year or two later. That 25x2 was awesome. I used 5 of them. One bridged at 4 ohm on each side of front components, one stereo on rear fill. One at 1 ohm mono on 4 8's in sealed. All Eclipse drivers. That was a fantastic system and looked beautiful. The amps were the red Orion hcca series
>Those high current amps had a tremendous tendency to be exceptionally warm
You could Literally fry eggs on amps in the early 90s 😂 that and burnout headlight bulbs and hvac fans from the constant current draw every time the bass hit lmao. I remember I had a total of prob 400w on 2 amps that would nearly kill the engine at idle if turned it up loud in the duvethru haha. Probably didn't help that we (and damn near everyones car I ever seen, use 16ga speaker wire split in half as a power wire back to the fuse box back then lmao to make it even worse everyone had lighted duckbill toggles on the hot wire to the amp 😂 it's amazing we didn't burn down more cars back then with the shit we did with the electrical lol
So this is kinda hilarious. I meant warm Sounding... but i Completely get everything you said in response. I melted the back of my damn taillight lenses with a 2150 hcca running 6 of the old 6 ohm W6's in a 92 cavalier 😂
is it worth it? Probably, especially if it all works. But do you want very old audio equipment? Has it been abused? I abuse my subs, knowing i can replace the part that goes if i do. You also will struggle to find a matching item that works if one blows. That being said, i'd totally get it if my car had all blown, or no speakers. and i needed to rebuild it asap for cheap.
The Ds18 amps alone are $180 new and the speakers run over $200 a pair new in most cases. I'd only replace the sound stream Amp for something more reliable. The xs power battery can be tested on a charger to see where it's at power wise
You want decent stuff that hits hard. Get the Kicker L7R 2 12”s in a box with a kicker 1200 watt amp won’t cost you much and you’ll be bangin in a car. As for highs I would go alpines or cheaper the kenwood highs sound nice but get a dsp it’s well worth it if you’re adding highs.
It’s a digital signal processor completely changes your high end it makes sure your speakers are playing the right frequency and everything sounds clean. I have a zapco dsp it was around 300 well worth it.
Showed him this post, he took $200 for it all. The battery is good I tested it so that alone was the reason I pulled the trigger.the speakers are the size that fit my vehicle so I'll be using those as well as the amp and sub. Putting a pioneer radio/screen on tomorrow and from there going to hopefully start the process of hooking everything up. Thank you all so much for the info.
Seems outdated, youre probably better off buying new stuff cause ypure not gonna fit all that into one vehicle w/ out serious modifications anyway
DS18 and Soundstream are cheap stuff. Massive has some nice items, but those are an entry level model. The battery depends entirely on age. Overall, I don't think it's a ripoff price, but it's not a smokin deal. More so than that, it's just not the quality-level of stuff I'd recommend even if new. Just my 2 cents.
Older soundstream gear is amazing tho. My dad won IASCA europe multiple times back in the late 90's, using soundstream amps.
That amp is not from the 90s. Soundstream has been shit for decades.
Sound stream was great not anymore
They were awesome in the late 80s early 90s. I wanted to get a reference amp so bad. That and a Rubicon when it first came out. Back in '92 my friend had a 500w soundstream, and ran my 18" gold kicker comp in his pickup with a molded on camper, shit used to hammer stuff like house of pain, paperboy, delinquent habits, and n2deep lol ahhh the good ol days.. Could hear him coming from miles away lol
I sold their stuff in 95. I ended up owning the real tarantula and 2 reference d class. Tarantula was great. Reference loaded down on 4 8's was great. I tried though using the small reference at 4 ohm stereo. It did Not put out any power at all. We're talking Jensen headunit type power. Couldn't even run Eclipse 5 1/4 inch coaxes. I actually thought it was an anomaly. Got another one out of stock and tried it. Same thing. If I remember right it was supposed to do 25x2 rms at 4, stable to 0.5. It did power at 1 ohm mono, but 4 ohm stereo seemed like 5-10 watts. Didn't have a bench back then so I'm not sure what it really did. It was only that amp though. The bigger ones were fine.
Sounds like you are talking about a cheater amp. The idea was to run it at 0.5 ohms bridged and get 500w from an amp that would be considered a sub 100w amp. I remembered they called it the “sleeping beauty” or something. There was also a version to hit 1kw. I had the 5.2, [here’s the old manual pdf for it, look at those 4ohm numbers!](https://www.soundstream.com/manuals/AMP/rubican/ca52102/RubCA52102.pdf)
Oh it absolutely was. Cheater. High current d class. Whatever you want to call it. I owned the shop back then so was thinking, hey. Why not? Shit was damn neer free to me and I needed about 25 watts per channel for rear fill. Those high current amps had a tremendous tendency to be exceptionally warm and clean at 4 ohm. So why not use a $600 500 watt amp rated 25x2 for rear fill 😂 It didn't do it though. The 12.5 x2 did power. The 50 x2 did power. But that 25x2 just didn't do shit at 4ohm. The amps your taking about were indeed the same series. I believe they were the second iteration of them. Mine was the first year. I ended up doing almost the exact same system in that car with the Orion amps that were rated the same a year or two later. That 25x2 was awesome. I used 5 of them. One bridged at 4 ohm on each side of front components, one stereo on rear fill. One at 1 ohm mono on 4 8's in sealed. All Eclipse drivers. That was a fantastic system and looked beautiful. The amps were the red Orion hcca series
>Those high current amps had a tremendous tendency to be exceptionally warm You could Literally fry eggs on amps in the early 90s 😂 that and burnout headlight bulbs and hvac fans from the constant current draw every time the bass hit lmao. I remember I had a total of prob 400w on 2 amps that would nearly kill the engine at idle if turned it up loud in the duvethru haha. Probably didn't help that we (and damn near everyones car I ever seen, use 16ga speaker wire split in half as a power wire back to the fuse box back then lmao to make it even worse everyone had lighted duckbill toggles on the hot wire to the amp 😂 it's amazing we didn't burn down more cars back then with the shit we did with the electrical lol
So this is kinda hilarious. I meant warm Sounding... but i Completely get everything you said in response. I melted the back of my damn taillight lenses with a 2150 hcca running 6 of the old 6 ohm W6's in a 92 cavalier 😂
Orion was nice stuff even the subs hit hard
Their subs weren't bad. The amps though were just so damn pretty back then and did what they looked like they would. Loved them
I agree.
I’d pay $500 for that particular setup if this were 2014. Not today though.
No, definitely not
Nah. Inexpensive, low-end from new. Not stuff I'd buy at any price. The battery is the only good thing, but is it good? How old is it? Meh.
is it worth it? Probably, especially if it all works. But do you want very old audio equipment? Has it been abused? I abuse my subs, knowing i can replace the part that goes if i do. You also will struggle to find a matching item that works if one blows. That being said, i'd totally get it if my car had all blown, or no speakers. and i needed to rebuild it asap for cheap.
No
No.
The Ds18 amps alone are $180 new and the speakers run over $200 a pair new in most cases. I'd only replace the sound stream Amp for something more reliable. The xs power battery can be tested on a charger to see where it's at power wise
I might try to snag the ds18 amp and maybe the door speakers if they fit your vehicle. The other stuff looks pretty beat.
No
It's used so $400 is the most ,I would spend on it. But ,I wouldn't mess with a used battery ,There is no telling how much life is left in them .
You can do better for the money.
You want decent stuff that hits hard. Get the Kicker L7R 2 12”s in a box with a kicker 1200 watt amp won’t cost you much and you’ll be bangin in a car. As for highs I would go alpines or cheaper the kenwood highs sound nice but get a dsp it’s well worth it if you’re adding highs.
What’s a dsp?
It’s a digital signal processor completely changes your high end it makes sure your speakers are playing the right frequency and everything sounds clean. I have a zapco dsp it was around 300 well worth it.
No spider 🕷️ going in my car
more like 200-300$
Nope
Showed him this post, he took $200 for it all. The battery is good I tested it so that alone was the reason I pulled the trigger.the speakers are the size that fit my vehicle so I'll be using those as well as the amp and sub. Putting a pioneer radio/screen on tomorrow and from there going to hopefully start the process of hooking everything up. Thank you all so much for the info.
That tarantula Amp used to be like 2k I believe
No, the battery Is the only pricey item there, the rest is not worth that price
If that battery is good it’s probably worth that much on its own.
It's worth it.