Panasonic Thruster series

[hbucker]

I went to a lot of Jr. High parties that were powered by Panasonic Thruster and remember them well.

As was said earlier, they had a whole line of Thrusters speakers through the late 70's and early 80's. Some didn't sound bad at all, but weren't in the audiophile realm.

They have a significant spot in my history.

 

[sb1800]

 

[sb1800]

In it's day it was not bad. Top of the line for 1978. i

 

[sb1800]

 

[sb1800]

That led to this as my 2 channel setup

 

[toxcrusadr]

I thought for a second those were rare giant Thrusters.

Looks like the Thrusters were a gateway drug!

 

[Gibsonian]

Definitely were a helpful gateway for me!

 

[jfzea]

I remember those thrusters, specially the ones with 6.5 inch woofer and passive radiator. There were not bad but only for low to medium level volume. They came in the 80s with those 3 in 1 Panasonic equipment. Quite balanced sound for its range

 

[coonmanx]

Man, this was a great thread. The thing I remembered about them was they weighed almost nothing so you had to assume that they were just marketed to a certain group of people that wanted something that looked good but didn't realize that their performance was not up to the task at hand.. The Soundesign crowd. A cheap system for a college kid. Thank God I bought some good quality audio equipment when I arrived at college. Upgrading them would cost more than buying different speakers, not worth it.... I can't recall exactly how many times I encountered Thrusters but it was a few. They just looked cheap and flimsy.

 

[kevintomb]

Oddly enough, just found this thread, as I heard a few models from a "Friend" that has like 3 pairs in his basement. (all different models)

He has the one with like (2) -6" woofers and a passive. The one with a 8" woofer and tweeter and 8" passive and one I had never seen.

It looks to be about 10" woofer AND passive and tweeter, but the front of the speaker is semi-horn loaded and the drivers were recessed back about 4" or so. SB 1800/

The largest were quite decent sounding for what they were, but the smaller one, had very little bass and for its size seemed puny sounding, but could play fairly loud.

The one with 8" woofer and passive was okay, but big for the bass it did have.

 

[kevintomb]

Definitely were a helpful gateway for me!

When you graduated from GPX, Sound Design, and Yorx, and Radio shacks entry level compact stereos, you went to Panasonic, then next up, Zenith.