straight answer about Orion

I have two Orion 2100's hcca and I am planning a system. I am trying to find out just how much I can push these amps. If it helps these are the competition amplifiers(big red ones). I have heard so many stories about how you can bridge them down to 1ohm and get 1600watts rms and another guy which I thought was crazy said, "bridge them down to .25ohm." I am going crazy trying to figure out just how much to push the amplifiers without blowing them up. I want to keep them for a very long time seeing as how I spent boocoo greenbacks on them! In the Orion 2100hcca digital referance series manual which I believe is the same amplifier it says go no lower than 1ohm stereo. That should mean that I can go no lower than 2ohm mono. In that same manual in another section it says, "this amp delivers an incredible 800 watts into 1ohms in mono mode." Can someone please help I will appreciate any information you can give me. Thanks

Ah, the venerable Orion "Red". I have personally bridged the Red 50 (HCCA225) into a .5 ohm load, (8 count 'em *8*, Infinity Pro 12's) yeilding .25 ohms per channel. IT DEMANDS FORCED COOLING WHEN DOING THIS! Do not try to do it using plain old convection, you'll fry 'em. (BTW, I never heard 50 (uh huh...) watts make that much noise in my LIFE!) With the HCCA100, I think you can go to 1 ohm per channel without any forced cooling. I do not remember exactly the size of the power cable connected to it through the connector, (it was like a #14, maybe a #12... not likely) but it didn't matter for me. I went into the amp, removed the OEM power cables AT THE CIRCUIT BOARD, and soldered a #8 right to the board. I left about 3 feet of cable attached, so I could go right to my distro block with no additional connectors in the power cable. Of course, there was no way for this size of cable to connect through the molex connector, so I cut and grommetted holes in the end cover for the power and ground. I know this is WAY more than most people want to do, but the performance of the amp was being choked by the small power cable. But I digress... I think the answer to your question is "One ohm per channel or two ohms bridged, which should give you around 800 watts per channel or 1600 watts bridged." I firmly belive that those are actual numbers. They were not called "cheater amps" for nothing!It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I am presently running my Orion HCCA 425 to 1 ohm bridge on each set of channels (its a 4 channel) and have done so for  a year and a half. I have never had it shut down and there is not forced cooling involved. Those amps are tanks and can do just about what ever you want. And for the record I have seen mine do .25 ohms BRIDGED with forced cooling and run fine but I wouldnt suggest doing thatdouble-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer

This is the only forum I SWEAR that knows anything about these old Orion's!

This is the only forum I SWEAR that knows anything about these old Orion's!

Boy, you hear a lot of differnt things about these amps.  Having read Orion's documentation, they stated the HCCA 225 was stablbe to .5 ohm mono, (that the only one that goes that low), the HCCA 250, 275 and 2100 are stable to 1 ohm mono.  Make sure you have enough voltage and current avalible, if they don't get enough current they make expensive smoke.

I remember seeing the specs posted along time ago but they were pretty conservitive to protect the "cheater" concept behind the amps. As far as legit ratings go I dont know if they ever officially posted themdouble-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer

ISPKR is correct, The 2100 HCCA is one of the few Red Orions that is not stable below 1 ohm mono. or .5 ohms stereo according to the manual. If you dig deep on the Orion website you can find the generic HCCA Manual. This amp is a current hog so as long as you know this ahead of time your fine. This amp has plenty of power, the clip lights seam to turn on earlier than they should. It's my opinion Orion started to go down hill shortly after they discontinued the 2100HCCA and the 2250. Today I wouldn't buy any of their products AKA "Directed Electronics". Same with PPI after the Art Series, No way! Good Luck!