Panasonic Thruster series

mmmm..... bangin' SB1800's :rockon:

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Damn , those are the high end Thrusters . When I was 13 or 14 I asked my parents foe a stereo for christmas and I got the all in one Panasonic system with some Thrusters but they were not that nice . It did have a TT and they gave me some Led Zep and Elton John and I was happy , best christmas ever .
 
Didn't mean to offend any SA300 owners! I loved mine. I should have said that it's not "high end". (That'll get me in trouble too.) But, it did sound good, and took plenty of abuse at the hands of a teenager. I think it was about 30-35 watts. Sounded good with the EPI's. Long live the SA300.
 
My Mom got a panasonic "All in one" system back years ago, complete with 8track, cassette, and an all-plastic BSR turntable that would leave wear rings on your albums to match where it would slip on the plastic platter. I remember being quite expensive as compared to other systems in the shop, but also a nicer unit. It used the thrusters with dual 16-ohm 6 1/2" speakers with wizzer cones, and a 10" passive radiator. It didn't sound bad at all, for what it was. For classic rock, it was pretty good. Later, after the main unit went bad, I tried the speakers on my kenwood receiver, and yeah, it was disappointing.....but paired with the original stereo it wasn't bad at all.
 
mmmm..... bangin' SB1800's :rockon:

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WOW! that particle board may even be an inch thick!...just checked the pair in the basement...from the sticker (stapled on, of course):
Panasonic Thrusters
Sb-350
2 5 1/4" Woofers
1 2 1/2" tweeter
1 8" Passive radiator

I think they sound okay, but not great. The worst part is looking at them, minutes ago, they are really ,really thin, about 1/4" at most. They weight less than some cardboard boxes, and they are so very hollow. I tapped on the side, and I swear there was an echo.

Has anyone thought about taking the basic idea of thrusters, and improving them? Put in some acoustic foam, thicker walls, and a crossover, and you could really have something...I think:D

Also nice to know that people know there are worse speakers, and relize that for what they were they are not too bad. That doesn't mean there exempt though, and as much as I appreciate my mothers panasonic system, I love the comments about the thrusters. It seems that they are the only very cheap old speaker everyone has a connection to, which is saying something, maybe just the name :dunno:, either way stand-up hour on the board is great:yes:.

von.ah said:
I love how the speaker in the promotional photo looks like all its dust caps are pushed in.

Have you ever seen a thruster without a dented dust-cap?...that was just truth in advertising.
 
If you think Thrusters are bad, you should have heard the 2-way 8" Panasonics I got with an ultra-cheap all-in-one TT/Tuner/Tape abomination before I burned them. I have never before heard 8" woofers that roll off at 100Hz. Didn't help that the port was tuned to about 200, nor that the cabinets were made out of really thin, really cheap particle board.

Now, I'm not gonna go into the head unit, let's just leave it at a 20WPC STK with 2x1800µF as main caps :scratch2:
 
been there, done that

Has anyone thought about taking the basic idea of thrusters, and improving them? Put in some acoustic foam, thicker walls, and a crossover, and you could really have something...I think:D

Lots of companies have used PR's in their products, I built a pair similar to MHardy's ad which featured 2 x 5 1/4" RS mid bass speakers and a 10" woofer from the ESS tower series that I killed the VC and knocked the magnet off and sealed the hole with a plastic cap. Tuned by ear with some washers and hot glue. Tweeters were the Phillips mylar domes used in countless systems, with the screen over the dome and the dot. Sounded pretty good. Threw them in the back seat of my '64 Chevy II Nova and had the most kickass sound coming and going.

Note in the ad how the vibra cone bass is out of focus and fuzzy.
 
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Yet more Thrusters

When I was in my mid teens, a friend of mine had a set of Panasonic Thrusters that I would borrow from him every now and then. The particular Thrusters I borrowed are the ones pictured with all the waves radiating around inside and out of them in different colors that are the subject of various and sundry joy and mirth. <chuckle> <chuckle> They had a small dynamic cone tweeter (didn't they all?) and two 5 or so inch midranges and a flat white plastic 8 inch passive radiator.

Even though at the time, I was already exposed to the likes of a Hafler DH-500 mated with Vandersteen 2C speakers and a Janis sub, which became my personal reference for some years, I still liked how efficient the Thrusters were. On the negative side of the coin, these Thrusters bass performance was terrible at anything above average listening levels. You couldn't "rock" real hard on them. After all, what can you expect from a tiny pair of 5 inch drivers anyway?

As many of the other posters in this thread have been clear to point out, Thrusters are by no means a high fidelity speaker, but what they do, they do rather well. I have a fond memory of them.

And with that... Can anyone identify the particular model and specs for this unknown pair of Panasonic Thruster Speakers? Judging from the size of the drivers in relation to each other, namely the tweeter to the woofer / passive radiator, I would say these are either 10 inch or 12 inch. I don't own these particular speakers, I was looking on the Internet for various Thruster models and found this pic of a particular model I hadn't seen before.

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How many people have a story about Thrusters that involves Mark Levinson? I was at a CES show in Chicago many years ago where Mark Levinson was showing off his electronics paired with Double Quads/Decca Ribbons/24 inch Hartleys at a hotel near the show. The sound was delightful, but I happened to notice there was another speaker system in the room, Thrusters! A small pair were permanently mounted to a wall in the suite, part of a sound system that came with the room,just inches away from the double Quads. Talk about yin and yang.
 
I was probalby 19 years old and had a girl over to the house. She was a pretty cool chick, had a cool car, liked sports, stereos...blonde hair, blue eyes....

Had her over and turned on some music. If memory serves me, she wanted to hear some Van Halen as she loved that group.

Que'd up some Van Halen on my linear tracking turntable. Signal then went through my Yamaha CR-2040, being further processed by a dbx 3bx, Audio Control C-101 and a dbx "boom box" (the original sub harmonic synth). I did not use my Akai GX-747 RTR for anything so it sat quiet. The signal then went to my two LaScalas AND my two Electrovoice Interface "D" speakers. Frankly, at age 19, I probalby turned it up louder than needed for the intro to "Erruption".

When it was over, she started to talk about HER stereo and how great it was. (I later concluded she was sort of Tom-boyish and wanted to keep up with the guys in the world of cars, sports....anything)

All I remember from her conversation was that she had a pair of Panasonic Thrusters and she thought they sounded similar to what she just experienced.

I wasn't too familar with them but I figured with Panasonic name in front of them that they were more along the lines of intro speakers.

I later found a pair to see. I don't even remember if I listened to them. I just remember scratching my head at how she could put the sound of those Thrusters next to a pair LaScalas and EV's in the same sentence.

I do not recall seeing her too much after that.
 
In post #56 Harvey/ Ga says:

"Hmmmm..they look like copies of Polk Monitor 10's."

Yes, they do. I'm sure the Polks cost 5 to 10 or more times as much or even more and the Polks deliver a correspondingly higher level of performance as well. Incidentally, what is / was the MSRP on Polk Monitor 10s?

In post #58 Coytee says:

"I was probalby 19 years old and had a girl over to the house. She was a pretty cool chick, had a cool car, liked sports, stereos...blonde hair, blue eyes.... ... she had a pair of Panasonic Thrusters and she thought they sounded similar to what she just experienced...."

And thus giving some validity to so called "blond jokes."

Also, truth be known, the Thrusters in picture I posted in post #55 are a current craigslist sale about 120 miles west of me for 30 bux. I contacted the seller and the seller has verified the driver size as 12 inches but the speaker enclosures have no other indentification information as to model, frequency response or wattage capacity on them. The seller has also, without my suggestion, reduced the price to 15 bux and offered them to me with a money back guarantee as well. Such a deal!

The total cost to me would be 35 to 45 bux including gas and tolls. "Go west young man." I hate to say it, but I'm very tempted to take a road trip...
 
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