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Is This Legit Pro Audio? Pyramid PA800X Amplifier with VU Meters
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- čas přidán 23. 08. 2023
- #pyramid #proaudio #ampdyno
Pyramid PA800X Pro Audio / Home Audio Amplifier
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I worked at a Radio Shack back in the day when this amp was around. The manager of my store thought it would be fun to build a box with two of the 18 inch woofers Radio Shack sold and hooked it up along with 2 of the larger bookshelf speakers Radio Shack built back in the day.. The store next to ours was a tile store - and we accidentally caused some damage to their displays.. Needless to say we never turned that cheap setup up ever again.. For the woofers being so cheap - they shook the whole store pretty good!
Not everything pyramid made was junk, There were some gems like this amp. I miss radio shack 😔
For real i have a pyramid car amp for 20years n still working
Some don’t know but in the 90’s the Super Pro/Super Blue we’re Made in the USA by Eminence from about 91-98 and they were pretty good subs. The later ones were made in China so no where near as good. Also the white Super Pro amps of that time period also made in the USA manufactured by PPI for them. Both pretty good lineups.
Me too, I loved Radio Shack.
I have radioshack piwer amp and sound incredible better than my monster receiver yamaha rx z11
@@especialistqap I still have my Archer power protection strip that I purchased from RS in 1988, still works great.
A lot more of this! It´s a lot more fun to see you test home-audio and pro-audio than all these car-amplifiers!❤
/L
My father left me his Phase Linear 4000 pre-amp and Phase Linear 700 amp as well as a pair of 2nd generation Wilson Audio X1 Grand Slamm speakers. They pre-amp and amp are both from the ‘70s and are in phenomenal condition.
We ran the Wilson Audio X1 Grand Slamm speakers with them for years.
Truly clean power.
Wilson X1 Grand Slamm. That's what im looking for. Yeah Boyyieee!!!
I seriously thought this amp would be under powered. What a shocker!
Back in the day, Radio Shack actually had some minimum quality standards. After the 80s, their QC became increasingly less.
it has always just been the car audio that was crap
These Radio Shack amps are no Joke I ran a Radio Shack MPA-250 for Wedding Gigs for both monitors powering a pair of Yamaha S115Vs back in 2008 and that amp never skipped a beat or shut down on me hundreds of hours on it. This confirms i could tell these amps definitely have extra on reserve and built and designed well. Great Video 👍
I’m one of the few people that saw this coming. I sold Pyle Pro for a few years and Pyle car may be bottom of the barrel but the Pyle Home and DJ is what keeps that company afloat now. Actually decent equipment and it’s used behind the scenes for many DJ’s people just don’t show it off.
In the 90s I was in charge of running an electronic shop in Washington DC. They had an account with Pyramid, Pyle and all the name brands.
This series of amplifier always had the same issue. A problem with grounding causing a buzzing sound to come through the speakers. Then difficulty reproducing anything other than mid-range. Yes I've used equalizers, crossovers and different brands of speakers. Had to refund a customer because I was not able to eliminate that buzzing noise. Even called the manufacturer spoke to their technicians told me there's really nothing that could be done. It was the nature of the unit.
I have the one they made for Optimus. The MPA250. It is known to be a sound quality sleeper for home audio regardless if it's a PA amp or not. Hidden Gems.
I have the same model ! Absolutely correct definitely a great gem of an amp, very good sound quality. I tried it On a pair of JBL HP520s at 4ohms each and that MPA-250 handled them with no problem with great bass from the dual 8 inch internal bandpass woofers. It was a Dj monitor amp for years.
Whenever you buy something from the internet you always wonder if you are going to get what you paid for . Nice to see that you scored .
I’m shocked at the performance. I used to buy these amps wholesale and install at bars through the impedance match volume controls. They always worked perfectly and never had a callback. The meters were a nice touch and seeing how it performed at 2 ohms tells me why it always worked great with those types of systems. Wow.
I still think those are the best looking style Fosgate woofers ever.
I have the RadioShack branded amp, driving my mids and highs in my system. I'm surprised at the tested power output of these amps. BTW: the VU meter lamps do burn out on these, but that can be an easy LED MOD project, with a couple of extra components to add. 😁
@9:00... wow ok... I wasn't expecting those results either. Pretty cool stuff. Not only does it still work but it outperforms it's ratings.
The radio shack version looked so much better Nice to see it does good power. 😎👍👍
Love to see Big D surprised by an amp!
Me too. I was waiting for it, then yesssssss!
Here in Denmark (euro) you use to be able to finde som absolut sweet deal on pro audio amps back 10-15 year ago when everyone switched to class d or active setups. My best find was a "Studiomaster mosfet 1000" for like 100usd. Looks cool and sounds really really nice 😀
I started my dj career back in 2003 with two of these, each one bridged to a cerwin Vega pro 15, no sub needed!
Love an amp when it is built like a tank.
You obviously haven't seen a power amp built like a tank. This unit is a lightweight weighing in at 27 lbs.
I've actually used their newer stuff, absurdly loud and definitely exceeded the speakers ratings. I used them with one dual 18" sub box and 2 dual 15" studio boxes at car shows that were huge and I could only have them about half way and it was ridiculously loud.
i never used pyramid equipment because it was always cheap stuff. in fact a few years ago i read articles and reviews of people having actual fire problems with their equipment
so i'm curious what particular models have you used. thanks
@@mgtow-balance3409 I've used a variety of Pyramid equipment from car audio to their big industry equipment. These rack mount power amplifiers are actually widely used for auditoriums and other large venues. And I can say, they are insanely powerful and usually more powerful than the speakers connected. I would have 2 dual 15" with the big horn towers with a dual 18" sub and I could very easily over power the speakers. I even hooked up 4 of the towers reducing the ohm load and doubling the speakers and still have more power than the speakers could handle. We had other brands, one that was supposed to be double the power of the Pyramid, but by far wasn't. It claimed it was 5kw, not even unless the 2k Pyramid was producing 10k. And I can also say, the Pyramid amps had no difference at all to JBL amps. And with decades of use on the Pyramids, none burned up and were more reliable than most others.
Now, with all that praise, I think Pyramid needed to stay out of the car audio market. Not sure why they made phenomenal rack equipment, but their car audio products probably shouldn't even be sold at Walmart. Their amps were basically car stereo built in amps in a big enclosure and their speakers didn't even come close to the bottom end Audiovox speakers. Although, the clear subs they used to make in the early 90's were pretty cool both for sound and looks. But pretty much stopped there. And their best amps pretty much stopped at their powered EQ's. Pyramid was decent back in early 90's late 80's, and I guess their car audio division was probably bought over with Jensen. While their studio and auditorium equipment is still the original untouched devices. Who knows, maybe they just never changed their rack stuff and just outsourced production and that is what keeps the company alive.
Pushing some power to even now!! But that dynamic!!! Great seeing an old piece still fire away.
I have actually used this exact model amp for some outdoor DJ work at a monthly car show in my hometown. Used it for 10 years before replacing it due to a faulty potentiometer.
Replaced it with the RadioShack version and that one has worked flawlessly for about 5 years. 😁...and at 4 ohms in the heat and cold.
They aren't exactly "pro audio" but, they get the job done. 👍
The output is respectable but the problem with these is little to no protection and will dump DC into the speakers when something pops.
It has a DC protection relay to disconnect the speakers in the event of an offset condition. One I repaired it was holding back the output from destroying the speakers, so it must actually work.
It has speaker protection, you hear it click when bigD powers it on. Amplifiers with that amount of power really need it. Imagine having a party and the dj drops the bass or something pops inside and you see the speakers are up in smokes and flames.
I love PA style amps and with that being said this thing rocks!
Great amp for back in the day when "House party" and "School Party" after exams with friends and classmates was a thing. The -Pyramid pro amp will do it's rated power because Pro Audio equipment claims when it comes to the advertised numbers were actually tested and regulated whereas there was no such body to test Car audio consistently back in the day and it was only until the mid 2000's did ratings from "CEA" etc start to make it more prominently in the car audio space with Pioneer and Alpine. Around the same time that this Pyramid amp was out the most basic Pro DJ would have had a "Gemini" Brand amp, If you can get your hands on some that would be a great Video to compare.
I had the Optimus branded one and it was a great amp. Drove some pretty nice home speakers with this and for the money, good amp.
I remember pyramid subs and amps back in the late 80s & early 90s. Their amps were just okay. But they were affordable. Their subs were mostly just okay. However, at one point they made some cast basket pyramid pro subs and they were actually pretty decent. They were not designed for high power. But they had a good mid range power handling and produced good deep base. But they had such a reputation for sub par quality, that no one wanted to buy $100 pyramid subs. I purchased a couple of 10" pyramid cast pro subs back then and had fun, cruising up and down Preston Hwy.
I had a 400 watt pyramid studio pro guitar amp in the mid 90s that was amazing.. I wish I still had it.. It was louder and sounded better than Peavey and Fender guitar amps.. It just didn't have all the fancy built in effects that the big brand name amps had..
These were surprisingly good. I think I still have one in storage somewhere. Workhorse, sounded pretty good, really does deliver 100W/ch RMS into 8 ohms. Pretty cool design, too.
That purple and blue. Things you didn't remember but can't forget.
I had the radio shack 250..It did ok..I stepped up to a Peavey CS800..this thing rocks the earth
I ran a Pioneer 200 watt home amp on 2 15" and 2 10: Pyles on an inverter in my Samarai back then.
Impressive! I was a car audio installer (High End stuff, mostly, like Pioneer’s Ferrari F355) in the 90’s so I never had much appreciation for Pyramids stuff and a lot of the other “low end” brands. Though there was this new brand that was selling really cheap that really impressed me… maybe you’ve heard of them: they were called “Lanzar” 😂. I still have some of their amps from 1989!
Usually this amplifier would be used full range so 20hz to 20khz power output testing would be interesting to see. Always fun to see an amplifier make its specs.
Never thought I’d see anything with a pyramid label put out rated power!
You and me both
Nice find! That amp should last for years to come! Def enjoying you doing pro-audio dyno runs...even these older amps. Class AB has the more desirable sound quality vs Class D and many digital chip amps. I switched my main gear to two Crown XLi 2500 amplifiers (Class AB) and the sound is so much more "there" vs Class D. Class D does not sound "right" in the mid/high frequencies. Low freqs are fine.
I would love to see more vintage DBX products ... Nice video
Those dj speakers are sick!!! 👍
Pyramid wasn't bad for the price you just had to ignore the lies about output wattage on most of their stuff. I used a couple of their DJ mixers back in the day and they were pretty good because there was no wattage to lie about.
I have been into car and home audio for about 36 years. This is the first time I have ever said pyramid for the win.
What a throwback! Wanted one of these really bad back in the day. Wound up with a Peavey DECA/528.
Yeah buddy! Love those og amps. Back in the day before we had cars me and the boys built room systems . I had this insane Optimus receiver that was 150-4 on two Becker 15 towers and two Optimus 12 cabinets. I’d shake my house big time lolz had the 15s facing backward into my radiator cover like it was a car . That method man tical album slapped!!!!!
Thanks for doing pro audio, I'm looking forward to more. I'm definitely going to look out for one of these amps.
I have the 1000 watt version of this amp. Sounds great as long as you don't push it too hard. One VU meter backlight has died.
Hey buddy, thanks for this, bought 1 yesterday, happy with it, blessing from Trinidad 🇹🇹 ❤
What do you do to produce Bass I had no luck in that area dealing with these.
Vocals horns piano everything in the mid-range area sounded fine even using an equalizer I was not able to reproduce any Lows. What's your experience with sound?
When I saw the pic, I was reminded of the Radio Shack Realistic amp - I always wondered who actually made it (nope, I wasn't aware of the original Pyramid branded version and likely would have shied away from using it had I been aware). Never really felt it was a pro amp though, and that primarily was because it was missing XLR inputs. My memory of working with one was it wasn't the cleanest amp, but it was a competent performer that could hand 2 ohms loads in a pinch. And now I see why I was reminded of it, and that it really was underrated. And I do recall it was priced quite well. Maybe I should have gotten my self one back in the day. Oh well. 🙂
Nice to see a pyramid PA audio amplifier doing rated power.
-
On a sidenote are you actually using subwoofers instead of midwoofers on those PA speakers?
You need a set of Peavey Black Widows or JBL’s bro! 😄👍🏼
The first car speakers I had were 6 1/2 inch coax round speakers from pyramid, I got them at the local swap meet for a deal. Then one day somebody broke in my car and stole all the speakers, they were pretty damn good, sounding speakers, considering what was available at the time.
The mythical max power rating has been achieved and exceeded!!!! I think the amp could actually handle a 2 ohm speaker load. Judging by the size of the output stage and supplies being under the 63 volt rating of the rail caps it’ll be okay with a 2 ohm speaker load 😁
Im a simple man....D makes a video...I watch it
Big D I really think you need to make a little video of you dressed like Linus from the Peanuts playing his piano and every time you play Smoke Jacket Blues.... you have to dub yourself into the video
Love those analogue power meters ❤❤
I was glad to see one of these tested I have a 80s old school paramid 4 channel car amp that is one of the 600x600 and tbh I always felt like it honestly did the rated power and was curious if there PA style amp would, I think the rat shack amp would likely be as good. Thank you!
Noticed the grounded outlet on the back & the ungrounded power cord.
Back in the early 90s, my small New Mexico town was bumping with the Phase III!lol I wish I still had any of those old subs. To my ears, they were better then nothing. Brand names were hours away in the cities. We had a local record shop that sold Pyramid and later Blaupunkt, it was bad ass,lol
I love these amps, I would like to see if you can test the 1000 watts.
I bet a change of the power supply caps would make that amp sound and perform a little better.
Thats a Class H Amp. They will work hard for years no matter the brand .
@6:45 - I'm not gonna lie - those horns come across REALLY well on camera. I'll bet they are dank in a decent room.
I don't remember if I have had dealings with these in the past but something told me that the PA stuff wasn't crappy like the CA stuff. Probably not comparable to good brands of PA equipment like Crown and such but good for the price.
Awww lawd... I bought one of those rack amps from wholesale warehouse in Hicksville, OH back in the day.
One of the best movie quotes ever. WHATS IN THE BOX??
Nicely done. Should have done the quality check with the Elac's for consistencies sake though. Can't compare these rockford's to the elac's.
I have two pyramid gold 13.8 volt 20 amp Regulated power supplies. they were made in the late 80s or early 90s. They run all day everyday at my store I never get shut off For at least the 14 years I've owned them. I would say they're beasts.
That's climbing higher than the Egyptian Pyramid's. Plenty of power as well.. What was to sound quality like?
Sounded ok, didn't blow me away by any means. But those RF DJ speakers aren't the Elac's either. I'm totally spoiled by those!
I still have 2 of those kicking around. I'll need to clean them up and give them another go.....
OK, I'll admit, performed MUCH BETTER than I expected!
great job on this can u please test the PA 1800 in this brand soon
I’ve got a couple 1987 soundcraftsmen Pro Power One amplifiers. I’ve had them since new and have used them continuously since. If you’re interested in testing one let me know.
Nice to see pyramid do rated power. Wish the car audio was the same 😢
Pyramid giving us the beef! No potted meat, we got us a McDouble today!
It's unfortunate that they didn't put the same quality into their car audio amps.
Shouldn't have doubted it, they may have never been great but they were the workhorse amps of bars everywhere.
With Home/DJ audio... its easier to make power using AC house current.. than it is to make power using 12V car current. Pyramid can use cheap parts and still make rated power in house /DJ amps
Did you notice the three-wire AC outlet, even though the amp has a two-wire power cord?
Still better than a Temu Amp, still works
Yeah, I would definitely want to clip some aluminum to that resistor. And move the wires away from it. There's something about oversized VU meters that increases the value of an amp no matter how old it is. People get hypnotized by it.
they have serious amount of dynamic power
They made a guitar amp too. Heard they were loud 🎉
Great content D 👌
I think that thing is neat... It'd be something I'd use just because lol Great video as always! 🍻🍿🌎❤️🎶🕺
@00:01... yeay another PA amp... oh wait it's a Pyramid 🤦♂️... Would love to see some QSC, Stewart, Crown and others.
The other day I went to a dentist office and saw a Pyle amplifier.
we want a revue on the Pyramid PB900G car amp please thank you.
That’s a nice oldschool amp for the money 👍 I would not call this a pro audio amp, pro audio amps were much more expensive back in the days and way more heavier but from the internals it’s still a very nice amplifier for smaller parties or home-DJing 👍👍 in mid 90s pro audio amps weren’t affordable for me so I decided to build my own amp. The result was an amp that did 2x250 watts continuous 8 ohms and 340 watts per channel into a 4 Ohm load. Only the parts were more than 1000 German marks ( dual mono ) and today you can buy very good Chinese pro audio amps for 600 euros doing more than 800 into 8 ohms per channel of continuous power 😳 i think I should dyno my own amp for dynamic power , good idea for a video ? 😂
Wow...what a surprise Pyramid
All I see is Optimus MPA-200. I had one when I was a kid. Great sounding amp. A little noisy though.
NOW COME ON THATS NOT A BEAST . NOW MY LAB GRUPPEN IS A BEAST AT 6K RMS . NICE TO SEE YOU SHOWING SOME MAINS AMPS INSTEAD OF MOBILES THANKS
Crown or Turbosound are the only p.a amplifiers i would ever use. Rca outputs on a power amp is a sure sign its not actually pro audio equipment.
I was wondering if one of these would ever show up. I have two of the Radio Shack "100W" ones, and the PA1000X model...though oddly enough, my PA1000X is actually branded "Pyle Pro". One of the Radio Shack ones runs my surround sound in my home theater room, and I had the PA1000X driving 4 x 15" subs (4 ohms per channel). It ran well like this for years, until a few months ago, where one channel finally stopped running. I haven't done the work yet to figure out if the input or output side is dead, but I just put the speakers in series and am just running the single channel at 8 ohms for now. It's about the same volume output running just the single channel. This would probably have run 8 x 15s on its own.
Hopefully you can open the case and see if it has a fuse for each channel in addition to the main fuse on the back. My adcom amp in the past had that type of setup, the prior owner didn't know it and sold it to me dirt cheap at the time because it only had "one of two" channels working. Replaced the right channel fuse and used it for about five years till I gave it to a friend, who ended giving it to someone else.
@@MrWirelesscaller That's interesting. Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.
Pro audio is a misconception for 19" rack equipment or PA speakers. PA means portable audio, rack mount for easy and safe transportation.
However there is good quality PA equipment that does fall into the category of pro.
This is rad I have a old yamaha that still shakes some walls and windows
love to see u test a omp bk mxf 900 or 600 0r 400 0r 200 old 90s mosfet pa amps n led vu
I had a Radio Shack MPA-200 amp that looked almost identical to this back in the day. I'd be willing to bet they were the same amp.
I guess I should watch more than 15 seconds before I open my mouth :D It was a good amp and ran my CV DX-3s pretty well.
What in tarnation. A Pyramid amp that does better than rated! If they only did the same with car audio...
Oh by the way they have a 3000w version its hard ro find but i think i came access one on eBay but not sure it still around. I almost bought it.
I knew a couple of beginning DJ's that ran these Pyramid amps, and a couple of "pro" DJ's that ran them when going to gigs that could get out of hand if you know what I mean...
I have tried using this same amp in pro audio. While the power is there. It is not clean sounding at high output levels. The fan drone makes it way into the sound. And it starts to distort at a modest volume. I'll stick with QSC or Crown amp for my DJ rig.
Bro I would like to have it..used to have one
You should have ran the power and music testing without the -20db switch engaged. The VU meters should be at 0 db at max power, not buried beyond the red +4 db mark.
It has the same power with my pioneer a40 integrated amplifier