Panasonic Thruster series

As much as we always make fun of them, they must have really sold well. I was only half joking when I said to go see the lineup at the thrift store...they really are ALWAYS there, at almost every one. Sometimes there are multiples of them. It's almost like they're Salvation Army's own house brand.

Anyway...I only heard them once and I'll just say they put the sh*t in Matsushita.
 
I want sum a dose passage radiata thingz on my speakas too for dat mad base. Any a youse guyz knows wheres I can get sum a dese thingz?
 
It was the Thruster sub in the video.

[Been lookin' for one ever since.... ;) ]
 
These don't really qualify as a "white van" speaker, do they? Maybe it's the other white van - for the people who were crazy enough to buy them.

"THRUSTERS!!!!!" - Ted Nugent could have done advertising for them. His music really could have used that extra "enhanced bass".

I love that magazing ad that some one put up. I like the diagram. "Let's see. So, the "enhanced bass" is down here, right? Well, what if I'm up here... right up in THIS area? Will I still be getting the same "enhanced bass"?"
 
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Compared to what I had as a kid, I thought they sounded great. I had a GE stereo that you could snap all together for portability and a all in one unit with one way speakers, a brand called ERC (with a BSR TT). My buddy had a Juliette but his brother had a Panasonic stereo with Thrusters that kicked the poop out of our stuff. I even think the TT had a magnetic cartridge! I wanted one of those pretty bad.
 
The reason there are so many today is that they generally came with low end All-In-One systems from Panasonic. There were different levels but the lower end had Thrusters. They did look cool, and they were not the worse I had ever owned (Had some Soundesign's with the painted on drivers :sigh: ) but they were pretty bad.
 
I saw them in a thrift for the first time a month ago. (I guess I am not going to the right thrifts :D)

I never owned a pair, but my friend did. His had 2 (5'' ?) drivers on the top with whizzer cones, and a (8" ?) Passive on the bottom. I remember them to sound very good (as a 12 year old)

Seriously folks, at the time they were better than what other manufacturers were putting in their "all in one systems"... by far. I was not aware that they were sold outside of these types of systems. In that case AR 4x, EPI, etc...were better speakers, but they also cost much more. Most "all in one systems" had a single full range driver in their (huge) cabinets. Panasonic at least filled the space in the thruster cabinets

I think they were just popular enough to be bashed here. I am NOT suggesting they were HI FI, but good for what they were supposed to be.

just saying
 
Spikedart said:
A friend of mine had the dual 10". One was a passive radiator and the tweeter was mounted offset, on top, in an effort to be time aligned. They honestly did not sound bad. If you can get them for cheap, I am sure she will be pleased. They are quite efficient.

25 years later he still has these...
Click to expand...

This is what I had for a couple years.....and I agree that they were crappy, but much better than a lot of what's out there in terms of rack system speakers, etc. Mine now live with a friend who is grateful to just have a pair of speakers to listen to. :yes:

I believe that the model was SB-1600.
 
You Guys SUCK!!!:D

I had dreams about having to have Thrusters because my JBLs got stolen.:no:

:lmao:

That is just not right.
 
My wife and I attend a party almost every year on Labor Day. They are friends of my wife's family and the guy uses a pair of Thrusters for his outdoor party system. The sound that comes from these turn my stomach. I know I'm spoiled because I have several systems in my house and they all sound much better than this one. The other thing is that the music he plays is like listening to classic rock radio where you hear the same songs over and over again. If he played the entire CD it wouldn't be so bad, but he runs an ipod thru the system with only the songs that we've all heard a million times. I think he uses the same playlist year after year.
Fortunately, we didn't attend this year because we had a better party to go to.
 
I have to say, the phillips stereo my family had when I Was a kid in the 70s had single driver full range speakers, weren't even properly closed cabinets or ported, just had holes in the back, probably just because it seemed like a good idea at the time by the designers. When you put them facing each other and lay down on your front on your elbows, they were GREAT headphones though. but no true high frequency content, and the bass was pretty limited, although they lasted for a long time and were a huge upgrade over what we had before (portable ancient mono record player with heavy tonearm, all tubes inside, but not in a good way).

So thrusters would have been a HUGE improvement on those philips speakers. (yes, I know, I don't recall if there's one or two Ls in phillips so I spell it differently every time ;-)
 
I have a friend on Long Island who spent three years swearing up and down that Thrusters were the best speakers ever.

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

sb1800.jpg
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Hell yea. I loved those Thruster speakers when I was in middle school. I had the Panasonic unit with the AM/FM, eight track and phono all in one- and the Thrusters! That thing rocked harder than anything the other 8th graders had. That turned me on to the Technics brand later in high school when I ended up with all Technics seperates - with the SA300 powering a set of EPI 100V's. And though that SA300 is not considered a "desirable" vintage unit, it also rocked harder than the crap most other kids had. Now, my only vintage equipment is a set of Pioneer HPM 900's and Cerwin Vega AT-12's. I still like it loud.
 
I think we scared off Wooferman.

We're just joking around. AK's love affair with making fun of Thrusters goes way back.
 
JaxJim said:
And though that SA300 is not considered a "desirable" vintage unit, it also rocked harder than the crap most other kids had. Now, my only vintage equipment is a set of Pioneer HPM 900's and Cerwin Vega AT-12's. I still like it loud.
Click to expand...

hmm, I absolutely adore my sa-300 (well it's an sa-337 or something which is the black version of the sa-300). It's an exceptional receiver for a relatively low wattage unit, the best performing built in tuners I've ever personally encountered, and the preamp and power amps are clean, punchy, very detailed and accurate and, dare I say, modern sounding (in a good way), far ahead of their time sonically, again in a good way. very similar to sony and yamaha sound overall, again which I consider to be a good thing.

Not desirable? I desire it plenty, and the rest of the sa-X00 analog-tuner series.

But back to thrusters. I have to say, those are really ugly and cheap looking, but vastly superior to what I listened to at the same stage in my life :)

cheers,
Don
 
I had some Panaphonic Phisters that sounded great!

They had 3 15" Passive radiators, 2 4 inch mids and a couple of crystal clear shiny tweets.

Keep an eye out for them, very rare.
 
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