One morning a few weeks ago I got a call from our esteemed technical editor Casey Thorson, asking if I would like to check out a new limited edition amplifier from the people over at Phoenix Gold. Having poked around the inside of their RSd series amps before and liking what I found, I thought about it for oh, 7 milliseconds, and said, "Sure!" He told me the amp would arrive in a few days and to keep my eyes open for the big brown truck. As it turned out, they really did need a big brown truck. When I saw the gigantic box this thing ships in, I knew this wasn't a "normal" amp. Inside the outer shipping box were two more protective boxes and finally, inside that was a long and slim silver case.
Using the thoughtfully provided handle, I pulled out the handsome aluminum case and noticed the "Limited Edition" logo screened on it. Like an eager kid unwrapping a present at Christmas, I snapped the three catches and opened it up. Inside a layer of protective foam was the biggest Phoenix Gold amp I've seen since the Route 66 of years gone by. The limited edition Roadster 66 is a big, heavy, good-looking, 5-channel amplifier. The four fullrange channels are a throwback to some of the legendary Phoenix Gold amps of 10 years ago, using the same Triple Darlington output stages, but this time accompanied by a Class D mono channel under the sizable chassis. The amp is rated to deliver 75 watts x 4 and 400 watts x 1 into 4 ohms, or 135 x 4 and 650 x 1 into 2 ohms.
The Roadster 66 measures 31.75" long by 11.5" wide by 3.25" deep. The amp looks like an expensive piece of home gear. It's finished in a great-looking black-anodized brushed aluminum with massive solid cast aluminum end panels almost 10mm thick. Weighing over 25 pounds, it has four specially made heavy-duty cast-aluminum mounting feet to hold it down. These mounting feet each take two screws and are adjustable for location, as they are fastened with set screws and can be slid up and down the chassis of the amp to accommodate the constraints of an amprack. The fit and finish is typical of the RSd series and, that is to say, very good. A round PG badge lights up in blue when the amp is turned on, and all of the connections and controls are found on the front edge of the product. The power connectors easily accept 1/0-gauge cable, and the speaker connectors are large enough to accept 10-gauge speaker cables. Four 40A ATC-style fuses provide over-current protection.
Features
The controls found on the front panel of the Roadster 66 are about what you'd expect-no fancy frills, gadgets or doodads-just the crossover, gain and bass boost controls for the front rear and sub channels. Two pairs of aux outputs are also included for sending signal to additional amps. The front and rear channels can be set for fullrange, highpass or lowpass with 40Hz to 400Hz frequency limits. All of the crossovers use -18dB per octave slopes.