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Soundstream RN4.1400D Rubicon Nano Review (Car Amp)

Rate this amplifier:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 35 37.6%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 41 44.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 15 16.1%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 2 2.2%

  • Total voters
    93

tomtoo

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Consider that most car speakers are 4ohm or lower.

Did you ever tried whith a peq that change? That curve that looks so ugly? What it realy does? Yes or no?
And espeacaly when you push that in a dome tweeter? In a car?

We have to be aware not to come into a measuremant fetish, like a cable lifter fetish.
 
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sarumbear

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amirm

amirm

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That +2db at 20 khz is for me the same distourbing as one pubic hair from a good looking woman in 20 gallon of the best hot goulash soup i ever have eaten.
Keep in mind that I am testing with two fixed resistors. Your actual speaker impedance is unknown so would its impact.
 

pseudoid

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Thank you @amirm,
Its an interesting amp and it got me thinking again that I really should update my OEM 2-DIN system.
Unfortunately, that opens a whole can of worms. :(
It would require the replacement of the head-end unit, 9 speakers, a few amps/EQs... and revamp of all wiring.
This amp would not be one of the replacement hardware.
 

changster

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I disagree with anyone who says this is acceptable. Car audio should not have lower standards despite whatever you may think like "Oh there's road noise so there's no need for a quiet amp."

Car audio needs to live up to the same standard as home Hi-Fi amps. Period.

This amp is trash. I don't care how inexpensive it is.

We need car audio amps that are up to the standards of the Purifi's and Hypex's and the Benchmark's. I hate having to buy car audio electronics based on subjective reviews and marketing materials. I love car audio WAY more than home audio. Car audio is much more engaging to me, way better bass, and way more fun.
 

iMickey503

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I'm waiting till Tony finishes his Clean D Amp he's working on with the built in battery power reserve. I'm crossing my fingers and have high hopes he builds a world class attainable Car amp that matches the likes of Nakamichi back in the day. Sad they went kaput and became a build house.

Great, more gears for those few attention-seekers out there to spread their love of music (usually of bad taste) to the rest of us, sometimes during the night too. Someone should talk to those people about the dangers to their hearing of having the music too loud in their cars. This amp not having alot of power may be a good thing after all. I voted Fine for that.
Tonights music selection will be... :) (J.K.)

Seems weird that amps made in the 90's at least by the tests they did back then in the rags seemed to be built to a higher S.Q. metric. The old Phoenix gold stuff comes out of the box with a 100dB S/N ratio. Not sure how that would pan out if put on Amir's test bench since as far as I know? He is the only one out there doing these kinds of tests.
 

Doodski

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I'm waiting till Tony finishes his Clean D Amp he's working on with the built in battery power reserve. I'm crossing my fingers and have high hopes he builds a world class attainable Car amp that matches the likes of Nakamichi back in the day. Sad they went kaput and became a build house.


Tonights music selection will be... :) (J.K.)

Seems weird that amps made in the 90's at least by the tests they did back then in the rags seemed to be built to a higher S.Q. metric. The old Phoenix gold stuff comes out of the box with a 100dB S/N ratio. Not sure how that would pan out if put on Amir's test bench since as far as I know? He is the only one out there doing these kinds of tests.
I specialized in component level repair of high end car audio in the 90's. The better stuff was built reallly good. The price was reallly high though compared to todays gear and was not class D. :D
 

ROOSKIE

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I specialized in component level repair of high end car audio in the 90's. The better stuff was built reallly good. The price was reallly high though compared to todays gear and was not class D. :D
All I know is my current system using raw drivers from Madsound & Partsexpress, inexpensive Dayton DSP, a single 5 channel amp of roughly this quality and my DIY labor - sounds better than any of the systems I had "back in the day". And those were audiophile oriented well thought out set-ups. My current stuff cost 1/10th the price as well, even less when you factor in my "head unit" is my phone which I would have anyway, all the electronics are hidden under 1 single seat and I only need a single 8guage power wire to run it all.
The complaints in this thread are pretty ridiculous from my vantage point.


I disagree with anyone who says this is acceptable. Car audio should not have lower standards despite whatever you may think like "Oh there's road noise so there's no need for a quiet amp."

Car audio needs to live up to the same standard as home Hi-Fi amps. Period.

This amp is trash. I don't care how inexpensive it is.

We need car audio amps that are up to the standards of the Purifi's and Hypex's and the Benchmark's. I hate having to buy car audio electronics based on subjective reviews and marketing materials. I love car audio WAY more than home audio. Car audio is much more engaging to me, way better bass, and way more fun.
Really?
Sigh...
Well the good news is you can buy a converter and wire anything from Purifi, Hypex due to efficient class D. Benchmark may need some beefing up of the alternator. Likely doable. Problem solved.

I'm not sure this site is ready for car audio. Oh well. Obviously just 1 guys opinion.
 

tomtoo

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Keep in mind that I am testing with two fixed resistors. Your actual speaker impedance is unknown so would its impact.

Sure, but how would the influence be?
Did you ever measured that fr depency on a real dome tweeter?
 
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amirm

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Sure, but how would the influence be?
It will change the frequency response. How or how much depends on the impedance of the specific speaker.
 

tomtoo

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It will change the frequency response. How or how much depends on the impedance of the specific speaker.

Yes sure, but how much? And is it realy importend for listening? +5 db at 30khz is at least for me not importend. Btw, many domes would be much down there. So who cares from a practical point of view?
It would be interesting measure a speaker with this poor behavier amp vs. a good one. What we realy have on the speaker output.
 
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amirm

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Yes sure, but how much?
How long is a piece of string? It is not there is one tweeter people use. Or crossover in front of it. Even your speaker cable can impact that response.
 

tomtoo

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How long is a piece of string? It is not there is one tweeter people use. Or crossover in front of it. Even your speaker cable can impact that response.

I accept that its not nice behavior. But how big is the influence realy? Lets say on a jbl130? If iam 1db up from 10khz to 25khz who cares?
 

solderdude

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Why is it that car audio is usually 4 or 2 ohm, and home audio 8 (or higher)?

Traditionally because of available voltage.
Of course it is possible to use D9CDC converters, which all > 20W/4ohm car stereo systems have) with 12V (actually more like 14V) and bridged operation one can make 9Vrms.
This will give 2x9W in 4ohm or 4x9W in 4ohm (front + rear) and up to 4x18W in 2ohm.
When allowing say 10% distortion one can even quote 20W or 22W in 2 ohm/channel.
In 8 ohm it would only be 4x4.5W.

So the main reason is you can provide more power in 2ohm than 8ohm from the same power supply rail voltage.
In those + 100W amps internal rail voltages are increased and voltage rail limits aren't an issue.
Current does become an issue though. 400W in 12V requires about 40A which requires very thick wires at 12V.
 

iMickey503

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Current does become an issue though. 400W in 12V requires about 40A which requires very thick wires at 12V.
Only for a device like an 12DC - 120VAC Inverter. Not a car audio amplifier as the load is not continuous.
The 400w RMS amps usually just have a 20 amp Slow blow fuse. The yellow signifies 20 amp fuse type.
1654506437743.png
 

jjmanda

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Seems weird that amps made in the 90's at least by the tests they did back then in the rags seemed to be built to a higher S.Q. metric. The old Phoenix gold stuff comes out of the box with a 100dB S/N ratio. Not sure how that would pan out if put on Amir's test bench since as far as I know? He is the only one out there doing these kinds of tests.
I miss the car audio of the 90's. To me, it was the golden age of car audio and a lot of fun.

Phoenix Gold, PPI, Orion, Zapco, JL, Soundstream, A/D/S, Xtant, US Amps, Rockford Fosgate etc. Owned and loved them all.

Would have been nice to have had a ASR Amir review of those back then.
 

tomtoo

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Only for a device like an 12DC - 120VAC Inverter. Not a car audio amplifier as the load is not continuous.
The 400w RMS amps usually just have a 20 amp Slow blow fuse. The yellow signifies 20 amp fuse type.
View attachment 211189


RMS is continious power. If a amp has more RMS outputpower than inputpower on paper, something is wrong. Usually its wrong on the paper.
 
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