Rockford Fosgate Prime R500-1 Monoblock

One of the very newest Rockford Fosgate products and not yet on the UK website at time of writing, the Prime amplifiers are designed to exhibit as much of the classic Rockford Fosgate DNA as possible yet are kept down to a lowish price point. The Prime R500-1 amplifier has simple controls yet sports a few extra features, like the full RCA set of pass-throughs for use with more than the number of amplifiers than you have RCA feeds for from your head unit. The heatsink is a simple extruded design rather than a more expensive casting as Rockford use on their higher end products and the terminals are simple but robust screw edge connectors. Big enough for eight gauge speaker cables and four gauge power cables. The amplifier comes with a separate knob-in-a-box that connects with a tip-ring-sleeve micro jack cable rather than the more commonly used and somewhat bulkier phone wire system. This acts as a replacement for the gain control and can totally silence the amplifier, unlike other so called boost controls that do not work in such an entire way. The amplifier, like the Punch P2 P2D212 twelve inch subwoofer that was tested with it, are both CEA-2006 standards compliant, which means their specifications may be regarded as scientific fact rather than ‘claims’.
– Class AB
– 1 x 320w RMS @ 4 Ohms
– 1 x 500w RMS @ 2 Ohms
– 1 x 523w RMS on serial numbered verification certificate
– Extruded Aluminium heatsink with brushed black finish
– 8Ga. Power Terminals with cross headed grub screw bare wire socket connection
– 0 to +12dB Punch Equalisation @ 45Hz on separate control
– Adjustable input sensitivity marked 1 to ELEVEN ‘and that’s ONE more’
– RCA Input and throughput
– Phase reverse switch
– Mono operation
– Frequency response 20Hz to 250Hz +/-1dB
– Signal to Noise Ratio 80dBA
– Low Pass Filter 40Hz to 130Hz 12dB per Octave Butterworth
– Fuse Rating 30A x2
– HxWxD(mm) 61 x 423 x 195mm
– Complete with microjack connected remote gain control plus box-with-knob
– CEA 2006 Compliant
Review by Adam Rayner
Rockford Fosgate is a car audio company with more glory and heritage than just about anyone. The first, most recognisable name in American high end in years past, the brand has been away from the UK awareness for a while but now having been with the new distributors for some time, is going from strength to strength and this amplifier is one of the reasons why.
Lovely looking, the smooth extrusion is not too finned like a fish but looks svelte and neat. You get a few extra bits versus a regular plain vanilla amplifier in the humorous shape of the gain knob being labelled from one to eleven. (Which joke in fact came from an English spoof rockumentary called This Is Spinal Tap.) Oddly enough, this is not emulated on the ovoid remote gain knob-in-a-box, which is marked from Min to Max. Unlike some of these I have tried, the device is a genuine gain control overrider, rather than it being able to say, dial in more bass EQ. The One That Started It All, the ‘PUNCH EQ’ is a variable up to +12dB boost at 45Hz. This has been emulated by nearly every maker, using the same frequency but Rockford did it first.
The product comes with a ‘verification’ certificate which is not the same as a handwritten ‘birth’ or ‘test’ certificate which gets the actual power measured written upon it. However, Rockford have always sold more watts in their amps than is marked on the outside (just about the ONLY thing I have ever known Americans to be happy to gently understate) and so the true power is what I reckon is printed on this item. It says 523w and that’s a good few more!
Even running at a four ohm load, so as not to pull too hard on the test bench battery based power delivery system, the amplifier ruddy stonked! The output was clean and drove the P2D212 12inch Rockford Fosgate woofer it was tested with a treat. I used a merciless Bass CD recording and the amp played the lot without ever sounding like it was running out of steam. The melody tracked and the woofer was held in a vice-like grip throughout, never flapping or farting, even when asked to do daft stuff. This amp can be used by extremists.
The footprint is pretty small for a true half kilowatt as well and along with a sensible price tag and that delicious branding you can show off to your knowledgeable mates about owning a piece of, the Rockford Fosgate Prime R500-1 scores well enough to win it a Talk Audio Best Buy award and they are hard to get.
Overall 9.2
Sound Quality 9
Power Output 10
Features 8
Build Quality 10
Value For Money 9