INPUT please i have orion 250 hcca and 425 hcca ??

[Jason Eden 10+ year member]

I looked all over because i really wanted orion amps now that i have them the guy that was going to help me with my system said for the same 500.00 i spent on these I could get new more effecient new amps for the same price that would be better for my truck. He said he really likes the orions but they take alot of power and they are kinda big amps and i have limited space. What do you guys think, use them or try to sale and get new amps ? thanks alot for helping

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[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

we need more info about what your actually trying to do.

 

[Jason Eden 10+ year member]

i just want around 1000 watts rms so i run 2 sa 8" v2 then an ok 4 ch amp to run 4 5 1/2" nothing to crazy

 

[pickup1 5,000+ posts]

you need more power...different amps...

 

[Jason Eden 10+ year member]

at 1/2 ohm the 250 hcca puts out almost 1000 watts. thats not enough power ? thanks

 

[babsuhl81 10+ year member]

I wish I had those amps. Back in the 90s a guy had 2 xtr 8s on 1 channel of a 425 and u could hear it a long ways away and sounded great

 

[Jason Eden 10+ year member]

Any more input you could help me out with is 8000 a lot good enough for one 12 or 2/8 thanks

 

[mclerico83 5,000+ posts]

the orions are great amps old school cheater amps, at 1 ohm bridged you will get around 1000rms at 1 ohm

 

[Jason Eden 10+ year member]

So would you run 1 sa 12 or 2 v2. 8s and with that amp be good for either one of those set ups

 

[mclerico83 5,000+ posts]

id run one 12 on the orion and be very happy.

 

[frzninvt 10+ year member]

The Orion 250 HCCA is only stable to 1ohm per channel Stereo and only 2 ohms in mono. You can run it to 1 ohm mono but you better have fans to cool it and gobs of amperage and voltage to feed it. You won't see 1KW out of it that is certain.

 

[zinda 10+ year member]

Back when Orion was still making these amps right here in Phoenix I built a competition system that had three 225HCCA's mono R & mono L for my midbass - four Rockford power 6's in my doors and the third was stereo for 8 MB Quart tweets Audio control EQ's and x overs controlled the distribution, for the subs I had a 250HCCA. As frzninvt stated that amp is 1 ohm in stereo and will put out an advertised 400 watts bridged into 2 ohms, which means you will only be getting 200w per speaker or voice coil depending on your plans. I thought that it was not sufficient for my two RF Power 12.4's I was running, I eventually got some speakers that had a power rating very close to that amps power output and were also more efficient, and found the bass to be much better until the amp fried. It was used daily for 20 years sold on e Bay replaced it with two cheapo amps I paid $15 each VR 150's or something, mono blocks rated at 150w each @ 4 ohms, had the same exact sound and about half the current draw. after I dialed them in I was getting more sound than before. That's without any of the Audio Control or other Orion red amps. Now running an Alpine VR 50w x 4 channel for 2 sets of 5'25" coax and replaced those cheap VR's with a continuously changing array of amps that I've been testing in the last 2 months. Alpine 300watt mono block works significantly better than my Orion and only slightly better than the 2 cheapies, Sony xplod which did exactly that when it was bridged at 2 oms, a Kicker 250,1 which I'm trying to fix right now and an Optimus amp that I'm not sure who makes it but it proved to be futile when bridged @ 2 ohms, Shut off and didn't want to come back on after a few minutes. I also tried an amp called Precision Audio which is quite small but handled the 2 ohm bridged state quite well, no shut downs, but a little bit shy of the sound I need. Now finally I have an amp made by American Pro Power 4 channel amp bridged it in dual mono and have it @ 4 ohms each, I don't know what the power output is but it's doing a very good job so far not a hitch. I eventually found myself turning the gains up to the max and was very surprised when it just kept getting louder without any problems. So, as you can see just because some amps have high outputs they are meant for certain applications to get any value out of the money you paid for them. My entire system costs less than what I had paid for just my head unit back in the day. Less than the cost of the 250HCCA alone, so there are many choices if you are including used equipment, the thing is your exact application will differ and how things are set up is going to effect the outcome of the sound. My friends are amazed at how I can make $300 worth of what would be considered to be junk components sound like a high end home system would sound even at extreme volumes. It all comes down to the planning of your installation and after 30 years of dealing with 12volt setups I have figured it out. It has nothing to do with money or rated watts, correct placement and wiring will do wonders for any system. Remember 1 thing that I have learned, not all amps are labeled correctly on the speaker outputs, meaning plus and minus are just printing on the metal and trying any combination of them will dramatically change the sound. there is no right or wrong way when it comes to car audio. Good luck!