Orion Car Amp

[pro-rabbit 5,000+ posts]

Tell him to send you a pic of it and post it. If it is in good condition then yes, that is a good buy.

 

[subdicted 10+ year member]

ok ill see what i can do.

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

thing only does like 25x2 so it will only run like a set of tweets. just send it to me,mkay.

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

thing only does like 25x2 so it will only run like a set of tweets. just send it to me,mkay.

Actually, that is a misnomer... Even though it is advertised as a "High Current Competition Amplifier" it actually will output more than 25x2 @ 4 ohms. I measured one to output 73 watts per channel with a 50 Hz test tone into a 4 ohm stereo dummy load just prior to clipping with 13.8 volts from the power supply.

Funny you mention powering tweeters though because the person who now has my old HCCA 225 G5 is using it as a tweeter amp.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

Actually, that is a misnomer... Even though it is advertised as a "High Current Competition Amplifier" it actually will output more than 25x2 @ 4 ohms. I measured one to output 73 watts per channel with a 50 Hz test tone into a 4 ohm stereo dummy load just prior to clipping with 13.8 volts from the power supply.
Funny you mention powering tweeters though because the person who now has my old HCCA 225 G5 is using it as a tweeter amp.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

i had one powering a pair of 12w5's back in the day. the one i had needed the bridging mod.

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

i had one powering a pair of 12w5's back in the day. the one i had needed the bridging mod.

I still have 2 HCCA 225 Digital Reference amplifiers and a HCCA 250 G4. I was using one of the 225s to power a 12" Memphis M Class sub in my wife's Mazda Tribute with a Servo module that connects through the DIN plug.

 

[05fronty 5,000+ posts]

that little bastage was a current hog though lol.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

I've got 3 of the 225 pop-tops and a 425 to go with it. Funny part is that if you crack one open, the board says XTR 275 on it...components on the board are different but the boards are exactly the same.

 

[revrider1 5,000+ posts]

Great amps, iv ran several of all generations...

 

[PPI_GUY 10+ year member]

I've got 3 of the 225 pop-tops and a 425 to go with it. Funny part is that if you crack one open, the board says XTR 275 on it...components on the board are different but the boards are exactly the same.

Not uncommon. PPI did the same thing with their Pro Mos amps. Both of my Pro Mos 25's boards are labeled as 2075's. Pro Mos 50's are labeled as 2150's. It is my understanding...and perhaps "Gunz4Me2" can elaborate alittle...that there are only minor parts swaps necessary on the power supply side to change a high voltage amp into a high current amp.

 

[PPI_GUY 10+ year member]

Actually, that is a misnomer... Even though it is advertised as a "High Current Competition Amplifier" it actually will output more than 25x2 @ 4 ohms. I measured one to output 73 watts per channel with a 50 Hz test tone into a 4 ohm stereo dummy load just prior to clipping with 13.8 volts from the power supply.
Funny you mention powering tweeters though because the person who now has my old HCCA 225 G5 is using it as a tweeter amp.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

That gives credence to alot of the stuff that used to go around about Orion HCCA's being enormously under-rated. We knew they were loud and powerful but, that's nearly 150 watts unclipped at 4 ohms. And how many of us ran those things at .5 ohm back in the day!

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

They didn't really double power when you halved the load though. The amp got less efficient at the lower impedances and to make sure that they would make rated power at the lowest impedance, they had to make more at the higher ones. It might make around 150 at 4, but it made right at 400 at 0.5.

 

[gunz4me2 10+ year member]

Not uncommon. PPI did the same thing with their Pro Mos amps. Both of my Pro Mos 25's boards are labeled as 2075's. Pro Mos 50's are labeled as 2150's. It is my understanding...and perhaps "Gunz4Me2" can elaborate alittle...that there are only minor parts swaps necessary on the power supply side to change a high voltage amp into a high current amp.

IIRC the HCCA 225 Digital Reference and the 275 SX Digital Reference shared the same circuit board with the differences between the two designs being resistors, power supply capacitors, and the toroidal transformer. I also think the rail voltage in the HCCA 225 is 22 volts whereas the rail voltage in the 275 SX is 29 volts, but don't quote me on that without pulling them out to measure.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

That sounds about right.

 

[PPI_GUY 10+ year member]

They didn't really double power when you halved the load though. The amp got less efficient at the lower impedances and to make sure that they would make rated power at the lowest impedance, they had to make more at the higher ones. It might make around 150 at 4, but it made right at 400 at 0.5.

Helo, seems like I remember some tests waaaay back in the early 90's, maybe in Car Audio & Elec. magazine where they found the HCCA 225 made just over 400 watts unclipped at .5 ohm. Around 420-425 I think. That would have been on the Gen 1 or 2 version. I wish I had kept all my car audio magazines instead of throwing them out several years ago. I had about 10 years worth of CA&E and Car Stereo Review going back to the late 80's. Lots of good test info in those mags and those little Orions were/are awesome little amps. I use the PPI high current versions but, don't think they are quite as strong as the Orion HCCA's were.