Fender SRA-400 (c. 1980–1981)
Fender's SRA-400 is a two-channel power amplifier built for live sound: stage monitors, house PAs and side-fill speakers. It dates from the period when Fender still fielded its own PA line. Documentation is thin. Essentially all that survives is a run of trade-press items from August 1980 through spring 1981, but they agree with each other. In stereo the amp was rated at 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms, doubling to 200 watts per channel into 4 ohms. A rear-panel mode switch could put it in bridged mono for 400 watts into 8 ohms, which is where the "400" in the name comes from.
The front panel carried dual 22-step calibrated attenuators, so a soundman could repeat volume settings show after show. It also had logarithmic LED power-level ladders. The rear offered unbalanced quarter-inch input jacks, both quarter-inch and banana output jacks, and per-channel protective fuses. Fender's own material claimed a 40-volt-per-microsecond slew rate, TIM typically under 0.05%, and IM distortion typically under 0.03%. The amp weighed 43 pounds. One reviewer set it against the then-new Carver amplifier, rated at 201 watts per channel and under 10 pounds. He noted the difference in bulk, but found both amps sounded fine.
High Fidelity (August 1980, p.16) noted the SRA-400's arrival in its news pages as a multimode amplifier from Fender. Little else is recorded about it.
- Type: stereo power amplifier
- Output: 100W/ch @ 8Ω · 200W/ch @ 4Ω · 400W bridged mono @ 8Ω
- Inputs: unbalanced ¼" phone jacks; outputs: ¼" and banana jacks
- Slew rate: 40 V/µs
- Weight: 43 lbs
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