Pro Plus Showcase 2007
First set up 18 years ago, ProPlus are the People’s Champion and were so often the receiver of best VFM awards in magazine reviews, they got annoyed with them, citing their quality instead! ProPlus are the reason a whole lot of people got into car audio in the first place. It works, it’s affordable and you can make over 150dB with it&$$Instructions for use: For information on the stuff they make and an overview of the whole product range. Check out the main article. For showing off in public how much you know about the stuff and the brand; Read Instant Expert section first. Otherwise skip straight to The Lowdown
Instant Expert
ProPlus Sound is the baby of Isaac & Tova Ribak. Isaac’s an engineer with a musical bent, Tova the most terrifyingly effective and successful sales lady in all of UK car electronics. They make a powerful and of course, long-lasting team. In a world where others, even big powerful-looking ones have come and gone, they remain, offering unpretentious kit that works astonishingly well for the prices asked. A whole slew of the competition would bad mouth them and be rude in the past and most have simply gone bust trying to compete. So, despite the propaganda that was once spread against the brand, they will always 
get a grudging nod of approval for what they do from the truly knowledgeable. Responsible for an awful lot of ten inch holes in boxes and shelves, Isaac has never been pompous about being a benefactor of Enthused Punters to other sellers of more exotic kit. Especially now, as after all these years, the Rockford corporation in the USA have worked out that these long lasting pukka business people are just the right team to look after the most well known brand of car stuff in the USA – Rockford Fosgate. So they have exotic kit, too.
ProPlus have a goodly selection of dealers, some so carefully found that other companies haven’t located them and so they won’t all appear in the TA dealers list. But if you call 01707 650 140 and tell them where you are and ask for your nearest PP dealer, you’ll always find the spot nearby. About ten years ago, a lovely, sweet husband and wife team of quite bonkers bass heads – Suzy Hammond and her man Rob – assembled a Plastic Pig (Reliant Robin, the 3-wheel Trotter Enterprises car) and set about installing one of those multi-fifteen-inch subwoofer installs so beloved of the Eighties. (These days you can raise Cain with just a weapons-grade woofer or two.) Incredible but true, inexpensive ProPlus woofers and amps made 150dB plus and the brand earned respect even from the refuseniks after that. Nowadays, ProPlus’s whole entry-level only image is simply history. They even have a new brand for that entry level market, called Condor. It comprises only a couple of woofers and amps as yet but is about that First Bass Purchase. ProPlus Sound are known for making and selling some seriously hardcore yet affordable product. Those fifteen inch woofers and kilowatt-plus amplifiers, as well as having a variety of absolute Stonkingly Good Value no-brainer purchases. Yep, ProPlus is still terrifying VFM versus most of what else is out there.
The 2007 RangeThe Lowdown
The ProPlus line has evolved continuously, with new series of speakers every season, sometimes more than once in a season. This stuff is now proven technology. It isn’t about being the most stonking all the time. It’s about just what you get for the price of any of this equipment versus what you end up with at the same price points in other brands. There will always be cheaper kit but like Mr Ruskin said, basically, you do get what you pay for and the overall price point of ProPlus now includes products it’d never have dreamed of in the early days. How about Digital Amplifiers? The biggest of which has a suggested retail of £490 for a ZX-18001D? This is a huge 1,800 watt peak basserator that is just monster loony. The engineering was always there. Right up there with the surf boards from other brands. You Take It Out And Measure It (as those fellows from Audio Control are wont to say), and then cost it in pounds per watt. ProPlus are tough cookies to beat in this respect, which is how such an animal can arise from a low cost product line. It is in very good company with two other digital amps, the 12001D and the Iampor which is a four channel Class X amp. That’s full range yet still efficient – a bit clever actually. They are street priced at £350 for the 1800’s little brother and £300 for the Iampor.
RAW SUBWOOFERS include Powerhouse, Data, Worf and Vulcan models. The Powerhouses are sold under the Condor range and while having such stuff as parabolic long throw suspensions, they cost only £50 or £86. The Condor Magic 800 and Magic 1000 are made to partner them and cost £86 or £113 each, which is low cost thumpage. Data comes in 10/12 and 15 inch sizes, with the biggest ones able to use 300w rms. The Worf range is more rugged again, with 350w and 500w rms ratings. Not many manufacturers can sell more than two kinds of fifteen inch woofer. Pro Plus have three kinds.
FULL RANGE COAXES AND READY MADE BASS BOXES are covered, from under £20 for a small set of coaxes, up to only £190 for a big old band pass ready made enclosure with twelves inside. These products usually sell themselves on demo in dealers. Cheap enough for ‘fills hole, stops wind coming through’ and even ‘allows you to turn up stereo on car when selling it’. Yet good enough to enjoy for most users who are not high end-o-philes. The boxes are so bling-gorgeous you just want them for looking at ’em. Component sets include a four inch as well as a five and a quarter for £40 or £90, so they are made up to a certain standard and the amplified bas boxes range from eight inch band pass to a fifteen inch bandpasser. This means instant dropping bass for the masses, priced from £150 to £190 less five pence. Or thereabouts&$$.
ACCESSORIES mean wiring kits at keen prices that include all you need. Rated sensibly for up to the wattage on the pack, such as 6, 7 and 800w. Power cable is also sold by the reel. So you may never know, if your install used stock 8guage at the store, you could have some in your car already. A good selection of high power fuses and holders and so forth make ProPlus one of those places you can do a whole system purchase under the one brand, from speaker grille to wire.
- Performance up to serious for a sensible price
- Solid long-term based reputation
- Handsome, show-worthy looks
- Wide variety of full range speaker product
- Ready-made bass boxes and raw subwoofers
- Excellent choice of wiring kits and bits
- Condor line for first-purchase buyers